What is COLOR THEORY and why is it important in GRAPHIC DESIGN?

What is color theory?

Color theory is a term used to describe the collection of rules and guidelines regarding the use of color in art and design, as developed since their early days. Color theory informs the design of color schemes, aiming at aesthetic appeal and the effective communication of a design message on both the visual level and the psychological level. Colors can be combined to form one of the five main color schemes that allow designers to achieve harmony in their designs.
Color temperature is another vital consideration in design—by distinguishing between warm, cool, and neutral colors, we apparently have the power to evoke emotional responses in people. Warm colors are those with shades of yellow and red; cool colors have a blue, green, or purple tint; neutral colors include brown, gray, black, and white. While these groupings hold true in a general sense, emotional responses to colors can also be heavily affected by gender, experiences, cultural associations, and other personal factors.

Why is color important in design?

The importance of color design stems from the significance of color to the human mind. Color creates ideas, expresses messages, spark interest, and generate certain emotions. Selecting colors for a website necessitates choosing color combinations that are sober and harmonious to the eye. The simplest method in selecting color combinations is by mixing comparable colors to see if they work well together. Colors can be combined in website design from the same color palette or different ones, but the color palette should not be too bright, too dark, or distract from the content.

In order to choose the right colors and color combinations, it is important that the graphic designer has a basic understanding of color theory. Color theory is the study of color in art and design, their relationships with each other, and principles used to create harmonious color schemes.

Little History of Color Theory

Color theory was originally formulated in terms of three "primary" or "primitive" colors—red, yellow, and blue (RYB)—because these colors were believed capable of mixing all other colors. The RYB primary colors became the foundation of 18th-century theories of color vision, as the fundamental sensory qualities that are blended in the perception of all physical colors and equally in the physical mixture of pigments or dyes. These theories were enhanced by 18th-century investigations of a variety of purely psychological color effects, in particular the contrast between "complementary" or opposing hues that are produced by color afterimages and in the contrasting shadows in colored light. These ideas and many personal color observations were summarized in two founding documents in color theory: the Theory of Colours (1810) by the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and The Law of Simultaneous Color Contrast (1839) by the French industrial chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul. Charles Hayter published A New Practical Treatise on the Three Primitive Colours Assumed as a Perfect System of Rudimentary Information (London 1826), in which he described how all colors could be obtained from just three.