The color palette is the primary tool of every graphic designer. This resource is used to define the range and tones indicated to compose any image. We bring you free online generators and the meaning of each color to communicate assertively.
Have you heard about the color palettes? A color palette is a very practical resource to carry out any design: from a logo to an event flyer or a signage poster.
One of the most important benefits of color palettes is to access all the tones along with their gradations and nuances to find the right range. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I explain everything you need to know about this great tool.
What is a color palette?
A color palette or color palette is the set or variety of colors commonly used by a person in a graphic piece, a work of art, a web page or the decoration of a site. It can be made up of all the colors or just a selection of shades.
What is a color palette for?
A color palette it has quite a few interesting uses, not only for designers but for brands. These are some of the features that a color palette can have.
- They generate harmony between the colors that compose it.
- They add character and personality to a brand,
- They provide graphic identity to a piece.
- They can influence the behavior or mood of those who observe it.
- Relates pieces and objects through the use of defined colors.
A brand can work with color palettes that combine, or with a single one that he created starting from a single tone.
For these reasons, when creating a design it is essential to be clear about the objective of this communication: what is the message I am trying to convey? For example, if my goal is to generate a sale, what emotion do I seek to awaken in the user to achieve it?
Why is it important to define a color palette?
If you have a brand, define in your color palette specific is important because It will help you create a visual identity and give your products personality, packaging and graphic content. I share with you some of the advantages of associating your brand with a color palette.
Benefits of having a color palette for your brand
- You will have a homogeneous visual communication.
- It can serve as an identifier in social networks.
- It will associate your business with certain values and feelings associated with color.
- You will transmit a more professional and reliable vision.
If you can associate color palette with your brand’s buyer persona, it will help you understand and decide how to communicate with your audience.
How to define your color palette?
Now that you know what a color palette and you want to establish your brand, these steps will help you choose your color palette in an easy and simple way. Follow them!
- Think about what values you want to associate with your brand.
- Analyze the colors used by your competition.
- Create color combinations that work with each other.
- Check out annual and industry color trends.
- Use a generator color palettes.
Let me explain each point in a couple of lines and avoid doubts.
1. Think about what values you want to associate with your brand
According to the psychology of color, each hue has associated feelings and emotions and when choosing the color palette of your brand, it is necessary to consider that those you choose go with the values that define your enterprise. For example, if you are into sustainable products, you are likely to lean towards a green color palette or brown tones, if you have a food business you may include reddish, yellow or orange tones in your color palette. Later we will talk in more detail about this association to guide you better.
2. Analyze the colors used by your competition
In addition to values and emotions, you need to consider the tones used by your competition, so that you can differentiate yourself from them and avoid comparisons, associations or even confusion on the part of the audience you are targeting.
3. Create color combinations that work with each other
A pastel color palette it can be very flashy, but it won’t necessarily work with your neon communication. There are different kinds of combinations according to the use of color and the way in which they are related and complement each other. You can create monochromatic color schemes, between analogous, complementary, adjacent complementary colors, color triads, or tetrad color schemes. Find the one that works best for your business and combine the tones and colors that you think represent your brand.
4. Check annual and industry color trends
Reviewing annual color and design trends is a good method of choosing color palette that works not only for clothing businesses but for any type of company. Every year Pantone announces and some ways to combine the tone with example. With them, you will surely find the necessary inspiration to create the color palette for your brand.
5. Use a color palette generator
Have you used one before? There are free tools that help you choose and generate color palettes free, so you can use them for your brand, in products, designs and packaging. If you haven’t heard of them, here I recommend some of my favorites.
Since pastel Color Palettes, to monochrome, let’s learn about the best online resources to create them!
Color Palette Generator: 6 Free Tools
storecloud
Our Color Palette Generator allows you to find the perfect color combination for that visual piece you are designing.
There are three ways to use this free tool, depending on the options you’ll see in the header.
Popular
Here the idea is to work with color combinations that are currently in trend. If you don’t find one that fits your idea among the first options, you can continue generating variations.
Monochrome
In this case, you will see color palettes based on a single main toneand the whole range that opens from it.
use an image
Lastly, if you need extract the color palette from an existing design, this is the indicated mode. This is going to be especially useful if you need to follow the general aesthetics of an image or photo that you already have.
Let’s imagine that you really like a painting, a banner that you uploaded a long time ago or the decoration in a corner of your house. With this mode, you will be able to detect the color palette to identify which are the main tones of that image and, thus, be able to replicate it and work with the right range.
Adobe Color: Color Wheel
allows you to start from any tone to find various color combinations. Let’s see what can be done with the two basic functionalities of this tool.
color wheel
The Color Wheel is used to create a color palette of a certain harmony rule. Among the options available to choose from, we find:
- analogues,
- monochrome,
- complementary,
- compounds,
- personalized.
Then, it gives us the possibility to select the color mode that best suits our needs. Here we can define between RGB, CMYK, HSB and LAB.
Image
This functionality allows us to extract the color theme from a preloaded image. What we do is upload an image file so that the tool works based on it.
From that input, Adobe Color returns the color palette with which we are going to make sure that the tones are going to combine with each other.
Cohesive Colors
This is the quintessential color matching palette. If you’re working on a design and hue compositing isn’t working, we recommend trying .
From the original range of your graphic piece, a tone is introduced and its intensity is defined. With this, the generator color palettes creates a new join that is consistent to ensure that the schema works.
pallet
If you are beginning to define your entrepreneurship, you are going to love it. This tool allows you to generate a color palette based on themes or places. Yes, you read right!
Introducing topics such as “autumn”, this resource brings us closer, for example, pastel color paletteif this is what is being used in the indicated industry or sector.
ColRD
This will be the ideal ally for people who work with an image bank. In this case, the idea is that we can identify the color palettes that are working in an existing graphic piece.
One of the biggest advantages of using it is that it activates your creativity because it allows you to start from any image you like (be it a photo, a work of art, a website, etc.) to replicate it in a new design.
BrandColors
For the last tool we get fully into the branding strategy of the brands. This color generator is focused on representing the color schemes used by businesses according to the market to which they belong.
In this way, it gives the guideline of which shades are working best for certain items.
The meaning of each color to define your color palette
You already have several tools at hand to create matching color palettes, great! But, you may be wondering how to choose shades so that they communicate what you want.
At this point the psychology of color enters. This discipline studies the effect these have on our behaviors and emotions. In other words, it analyzes the perception we have of each tone and how this can make us act accordingly.
This is where the color palette It plays an important role in marketing and sales. When selecting the ranges of a logo, a web page, the flyer of an event or a newsletter, colors can be used in favor to promote certain decisions in the user.
Let’s see the key points of each shade so you can design a magnificent color palette:
- Red: it is the most striking tone of all and, for this reason, a red color palette it is used in the most important signs (such as, for example, those of danger). We associate it with both love and hate because it evokes fire.
Used sparingly, it can be a good choice for a call-to-action, as it is highly visual and doesn’t go unnoticed.
- Green: if we continue with the complementary tones, we arrive at the green color palette, symbol of nature. Everything that has to do with the environment, ecology, peace, hope and harmony is linked to this color and, likewise, with money.
It is a tone that relaxes and calms us.
- Yellow: one yellow color palette It represents youth, inspiration and optimism, as well as tending towards the intellectual. On the other hand, it can also be associated with warning, so it’s important to use it sparingly.
It is usually used for new releases, promotions or offers because its…
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