There are three basic components that make up the design aspect of most print projects; color, font, and graphics. In these next few posts I am going to hit on the first two in an attempt to help you as a customer communicate better with the designer that is working on your project.

Much research has been done in color theory and color psychology and the results show that whether we realize it or not, there are feelings associated with certain colors. Now, while I am not going into the great depth that I could, you do need to understand that whether you realize it or not, the feeling you want to portray in your project is heavily determined by the colors used. For example, you obviously would not normally want a romantic Valentines Day project to be done in all blacks and grays, it’s just not the feeling you are wishing to portray.

That being said, here is a good resource for defining what certain colors typically represent.

Okay, so you have the color meaning down and you know that you’re choosing appropriate colors for your project. Now perhaps it’s on to the accent colors. Even if your main color is right, the wrong accent color can virtually destroy your piece and the meaning that you are trying to convey (which should be the entire point of your project) will, in all likelihood, be lost.

Sort of makes your eyes hurt right?

For the sake of those that you want to look at your project I suggest you play around with this for just a little bit and get an idea of what works well together. The best advice I can give when it comes to color is once you pick the colors you want to use, take a minute to stop and really look at the colors together. If it just doesn’t feel right, typically, there’s a good reason. So consider revising it.

Next time we’ll take a look at fonts and how they play a much bigger role than just words on a page.

-Austin