1. Color Basics
Design Curriculum

2. Understanding Color
Color undoubtedly draws attention. It makes people stop and take notice. Whether it’s a sparkling new car, a stop sign, the yellow arches (McDonald’s) or a hot pink t-shirt, people are attracted to color.

3. Understanding Color
Warm colors: attract attention and stand out – red, yellow, orange, etc.
Cool colors: projects a calming feeling, fades into the background – blue, purple, green, etc.
Hue: Different hues of the same color can evoke different feelings or meaning – e.g. blood red, fire red, brick red, etc.
Shade/Tint: the variation of a hue by adding black (shade) or white (tint)

4. Understanding Color
Primary Colors: Red, blue & yellow – these colors cannot be created by mixing other colors
Secondary Colors: Orange, green & purple – these colors are made from mixing two primary colors
Tertiary Colors: Colors achieved by mixing primary and secondary hues

5. Understanding Color
This is a basic color wheel featuring primary, secondary and tertiary colors.
Complementary Colors: Colors located opposite each other on the color wheel
Split-Complementary: the base color plus two colors adjacent to its compliment
Credit: Blend magazine, Ball State Journalism Workshops

6. Understanding Color
Analogous Colors: Colors created close together on a color wheel
Monochromatic: a single base hue plus all of its hues, shades, tones and tints

7. Understanding Color Good matches Bad matches
Colors across from each other on the color wheel (complimentary colors) are perfect color matches.
Colors too close together on the color wheel sometimes look bad because they don’t provide enough contrast and hurt readability.
Good matches
Bad matches
Credit: Blend magazine, Ball State Journalism Workshops

8. Understanding Color
But color does more than make things look pretty. Color adds information that helps readers better understand what the story is about.
Association: When people see a single color or a certain color combination, they often associate them with things they know or are passionate about, i.e. sports teams
Emotion: Color can also evoke an emotional response
Not all color or color combinations mean the same thing to all people – different cultures have different associations

9. Understanding Color
Association: Most people associate pink and blue for newborns or baby girls or boys.
Association: Most people associate red and green for Christmas or the holiday season.
Association: Many people associate blue and white for Ford motor company or the Indianapolis Colts.
Association: Some people associate red and white for Coca-Cola or the Cincinnati Reds.
Association: Many people associate black and orange for Halloween, the SF Giants or the Cincinnati Bengals.

10. Understanding Color
Emotion: Many people feel orange evokes optimism, friendliness, and happiness.
Emotion: Many people feel green evokes freshness, healthy living and renewal.
Emotion: Many people feel blue evokes calm, serenity and strength.
Emotion: Many people feel red evokes excitement, anger and frustration.
Emotion: Many people feel yellow evokes energy, caution and surprise.