AG's 10 color inspiration secrets only designers know about

Color is an integral element of good design. With so much psychology and emotions attached to the hues you choose, it can be tricky to curate your color palette when designing. Below are 10 color inspiration secrets so that you can get the perfect color combination every time.

Specific hues can provoke different emotions, associations, and responses that affect how your brand is perceived. Put simply, color choices can make or break a design. In fact, research has shown that color can increase brand recognition by up to 80%, memory, engagement with a design piece and text comprehension, so when choosing a color combination for your design, you want to make sure that you are saying something with the colors you choose.

Fortunately, we are far from the times when our color choices were limited to a small batch of natural pigments. Our options are no longer whatever colors minerals, animals, and plants had to offer. With such an overwhelming amount of color options, selecting a palette for a design project has become excruciating, to say the least.

While there are endless color choices, it's recommended that when designing, it's best to stick to five or six colors. This will create the color palette you work with.

#1 Capture inspiration on-the-go.

When looking for inspiration for a color combination, taking photos of beautiful colors is a great idea (like flowers, or sunsets). Later, colors can be sampled directly in Photoshop or Illustrator. It’s also a great way to match text or graphics with any photo you’re working with to make sure your work is cohesive.

So, if you have a photograph with a color scheme that you love, sample colors directly from it to make a quick, easy and effective palette. Tools like Photocopa make this technique even easier. Simply upload your image, explore the different hues that make it up, and build a stunning color palette in no time at all.

If you follow me on Instagram @ag.aadyagarg, you'd know I absolutely love taking color inspiration from my morning coffee snaps.

#2 Use a color wheel

Artist Marc Chagall came up with a pretty amazing quote to remember what works in terms of color combinations: “All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites”. In this case, “Friends” stands for analogous colors: Those that are side by side on a 12-part color wheel. On the other hand, Chagall refers to complementary colors as “Lovers”; tones that are directly opposite each other on the wheel.

This tip works for almost everything else you can think of. Play with analogous color schemes to add shadows to your titles or borders to your backgrounds. These colors usually blend well because they are closely related. Find unique combinations by simply matching colors to their neighbors on the wheel!

But if you’re not keen to sort out these schemes manually, fear not, because there is an abundance of online tools at your disposal to help you figure out your favorite colors’ friends and lovers.

#3 Borrow inspiration from interior design

Different design fields share common challenges when dealing with color. Interior designers, for example, have to harmonize spaces using textures, objects and color schemes that blend well together.

There is an interior design thumb rule that is, in most cases, applicable to graphic design too: 60% – dominant color, 30% – secondary color, 10% – accent color. If you’d like to introduce a fourth (and so on) color, split the secondary color (or perhaps the dominant but never the accent).”

@my.kind.of.home on Instagram

Try to delve into other creative fields and discover their rules of thumb when it comes to color use – every artistic discipline is bound to have a few! If you keep your eyes peeled for rooms and buildings that use color well, you’ll tap into a whole new world of awesome color techniques.

#4 Create color mood boards

Whenever I see a picture or photo with colors that I love, or that really seem to go well, I screenshot it or pin it for later. Then, when its time to find a good color palette, I go to all my saved images or my Pinterest color palette board for inspiration and I always find something appropriate.

My Pinterest color palette section under my inspiration board. https://in.pinterest.com/ag_aadyagarg/inspiration/colour-palettes/

Allow yourself to search for palette inspiration anywhere—in contemporary designs, or historical art; in online sources, or print sources.

I am also a big advocate for a ‘swipe file’— which is a notebook or folder where you can stick inspiring examples of design and color that you love. So, if you’re ever reading a magazine, pick up a cool pamphlet, or just like the way a piece of mail has used color in its design, stick it in the file. Then, when you’re trying to develop a beautiful palette, dig out your swipe folder and have a flip through. Instant color inspiration!

#5 Use color swatches

Sometimes when choosing a color combination, a digital color wheel just doesn't work the way you want it too. It can be incredibly inspiring to step away from the screen and instead look at a physical color swatch, and that’s exactly what Pantone sets provide.

Sometimes it’s nice to have a physical guide that doesn’t just rely on-screen colors. It’s also helpful if a client has a very specific color need, and they want to see physical samples.

The great thing about Pantone swatches? Every Pantone color comes with its HEX equivalent. You can even use hexadecimal colors in any software's color picker for quick and easy palette development.

Pantone swatches and other physical color index sets are also fantastic for any designer who is crafting something for print purposes. Knowing exactly how your color will look when it’s on paper can save you so much time, money and stress when it comes time to head to the printers.

#6 Bring in colors from nature

Our eyes are used to admiring natural color schemes. If you take your inspiration from the environment, the color combinations are endless. Landscapes, foliage, fruit, all things natural can be amazing, accessible and free sources of color inspiration.

This perfect picture is also a perfect color palette of blues, greens and the beige as an accent.

It can be easy to get stuck searching for inspiration online and in others’ work, but there’s a whole world of inspiration just outside your window.

#7 Stick to five or six colors

Unless you’re going for a deliberate, multi-color look, avoid combining an excessive amount of colors. Using 5-6 colors keep your graphics looking clean, and not too overwhelming. Three are your main colors, one provides accents and one provides highlights.

So, if you’re ever creatively stuck with your design, or think there’s just somethingthat isn’t working, look at your palette and ask yourself if you can cut down the number of colors in your palette–ideally down to the magic number: five.

#8 Match color to your topic’s mood

Consider the topic that you are trying to portray in your design piece. Is it sports, fashion, beauty, or business? From there, think about a specific mood that you would like to associate with the activity. Is it a cute fashion flyer, or an aggressive sports brochure? Is it feminine, cheerful, serious or elegant?

Come up with a rough definition of the color theme before you go ahead and work on the details. For example: ‘I need a romantic purple’ or ‘I want a cute pink’.

Have a look around at photographs, designs and any other creative sources that capture similar tones, ideas and emotions as you would like for your design. What similarities are there? What differences?

Another good technique to build your color choice’s strength and effect is to familiarise yourself with color theory. Do a little research, read a few studies, and find out what some common colors can do to people psychologically and subconsciously when used correctly. Remember: colors that are chosen with purpose and reason can often the most effective!

#9 Search Pinterest for themed palettes

Pinterest holds an impressive amount of color palettes curated by creatives all around the world. For example: If I was doing a design for a beach themed poster, I would do a simple search under ‘Summer Color Palettes’ on Pinterest and choose one.

The best part? You’ll get color inspiration from different design fields: interiors, fashion, graphic and even event design.

#10 Follow sites for color lovers

Colourlovers is a creative community where people from around the world create and share colors, palettes, and patterns. Join the site and explore millions of user-created color palettes to inspire your ideas.