Lesson Info
13. Design Principles: Color
Lessons
Why Design Matters
05:50 2Design Vs. Aesthetic
06:27 3Impact Of Design
07:01 4The Design Process: Understand Your Audience
09:17 5The Design Process: Understand Your Content
05:21 6Design Principle: Alignment, Grids, And Spacing
05:47 7Design Principles: Contrast
02:55 8Design Principles: Repetition
03:20Design Principle: Hierarchy & Proximity
05:37 10Principle Scale And Balance
02:48 11Design Principles: Typography
04:29 12Design Principles: White Space
01:11 13Design Principles: Color
06:09 14Design Principles: Graphics, Icons, And Photos
02:51 15Design Principles: Layouts And Focal Points
01:53 16Design Principles: Color-Blind Accessibility In Design
01:41Lesson Info
Design Principles: Color
So finally, we're moving on to color, which is very important, because I think a lot of people love to use all the colors and it just becomes a little overwhelming. And color has such, such power to influence what people are feeling, how people interpret information, especially concerning charts and things like that, and how they even interact with your design if it's something that they can click on, a website, maybe it's an interactive PDF or something like that. So basic color theory, really teaching us that certain colors mean certain things. And if you have done any branding or marketing, you know that brands choose color to really prime us for how they want us to feel about their brand. So there's this great article, you can go read all about this, but this is the color emotion guide. And you've probably never thought about this before, but I think it's just amazing to look at this and see how all these different brands have kind of used color, and using them to try and create a ...
certain emotion. So color in action. Wanna go through a poll here, and this is a fake poll, but let's just roll with it. So, a poll for how many people are in favor of a new budget. And how many people do you think are in favor of the new budget? Mmm, 81%. Why? 'Cause it's green. And I would think it's green if I didn't closely read the logo, which says, or the legend, green is not in favor, but a lot of people would get that wrong, and a lot of people would think, oh, 81% are in favor, just by the use of color, right? So color, huge impact. If this were some very important data point, I could easily manipulate how people are going to interpret this. But in this example, how many people are in favor of viewing the new budget, not in favor is red, in favor is green, much easier, we are being transparent. It's no confusion, right? And when you look at them all side by side, it's a lot clearer, even in black and white though, it's important to think, what shade are you using? So color can really train us, also, to expect certain things. Remember that repetition, repetition also has to do with color, so it can prompt us to anticipate or take a certain action. So when you see a little red circle with a number inside of it, what do you think? Normally, you are now trained to think, someone needs me, something is new. I am being validated, or there's a message, or a comment, or a like, or something, it's this, that's why you are now trained, and you're somewhat addicted, because anytime you see those red circle numbers, you wanna touch, you wanna see what's new over there, right? So we've been ruined because our brains are now trained to expect, red means go, do this action. So color creates this really consistent, visual language that impacts recall and actions. And we had this example before, but you can see now, you're noticing the repetition of color, even in this class. And if you're presenting, it's also helping me at the same time. But color can also add a lot of complexity, and especially in business cards, we see this all the time. So let's look at this business card. It's not bad, it's pretty pink. But first of all, this business card is a little hard to read, because pink on pink, depending on what your computer looks like right now, there could be different levels of contrast, but when you put colors on it like that, can be very, very hard to read. So we just lighten it up a little, whoops, we went backwards, if you just lighten it up a little, it's hard to see maybe, but this is a very, very light, light pink. So it's a lot, lot more readable than it was that darker pink like that. So color is impacting readability as well, which we know is so important. Color, some people like to use a lot of color, and I've seen business cards like this, homepages, brochures, et cetera, where they're using so much color. And the problem is, is this bad looking? Not necessarily. But, think of it from a cost perspective. The more color you add, the more expensive it's going to be to print. So as a designer, I'm thinking about those details, because back to the economics of design, we need to think about those details, and that could really impact your budget for this thing. It becomes very different if you're printing large poster boards and brochures and things like that, but we have to consider the impact of color. But you can still make something pleasing, even if you're just using one color, not to mention, it's a lot cheaper to print, as well. But between these four, I would argue that I think some of them look, some of them feel a little bit it more professional, a little bit more pleasing than others. And depending on your own definition of professional and pleasing, we might disagree, but I kinda gravitate to the ones over here. Just the ones over on the left are a little wild and colorful for me, but again, it goes back to that balance of subjective and objective in design, and the message you are wanting to communicate to people about your brand.
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