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Color Combinations

by Geetesh Bajaj

About Color Combinations
Colors, Computers And Convention
Like Black And White
Looking Further
The Magic of Color

Color Links
- around 25 links to the best color web sites online

The Psychology of Color
- An Indezine Presentation - Flash Required (opens in separate window)

About Color Combinations

Colors and combinations
Vibrant, contrasting and well-matched
Like black and white

Two colors at opposites
Yet complementing each other
Like day and night

Color combinations - a simple theme that can be carried further to infinite ends. In their most simple form, colors describe in their statures as adjectives - all the while making visualization a part of our subconscious. The inbuilt mechanism of the human mind represents each color with its own specific qualities - of vigour and victory, and of peace and perfection. Colors come together all the time - either in nature or in artistry. Some colors work well together, some just don't - and so it is that we're discussing color combinations presently. 

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Colors, Computers And Convention

Color combinations are a very different playing field in the area of computer graphics than they are in the traditional. That's because results which would never be possible conventionally can be applied using binary technology - today's powerful hardware and software makes it equally easy to come up with terrible color combinations as to experiment with new ones. One click of a mouse - that's all that separates a masterpiece from an amateur trial. If Vincent Van Gogh could create with lesser colors than the number of buttons on your mouse or tablet, then maybe you too need to curtail the urge to use all the colors available in the spectrum.

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Like Black And White

Look at black and white and imagine - about chess and checker boards, white chalks on blackboards, black laces on white shoes, black newsprint on white newspapers, black sketches on white drawing paper, olde-world black and white televisions and movies, and more.... Of all the in-between colors - gray in a million shades, and silver, steel and aluminum. That's the power of a color combination - truly phenomenal.

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Looking Further

Yet, that's only the beginning - like scratching the tip of an iceberg. Explore under the kaleidoscope and you'll see a million shades of color - each of them has it's own story - waiting to be retold - again, and again! If you need any more proof, view a sunset, rainy reflection on roads, rainbows, butterflies - even ice cream in all its colors. Color is pure inspiration - it sets moods - it creates ambiences, and does so much more. Just that we need to look around ourselves with an eye of a color connoisseur.

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The Magic Of Color

Everywhere, the power of color incorporates itself with rich, natural combinations - the way nature intended it to. Let's look at a leaf and the way sunlight falls over it to create an ethereal combination with hues ranging from golden rust to emerald green. It's so amazing that this play of color combinations is happening all around us and we are unaware of its existence. Many of us imagine the study of color combinations to be a result of studies involving science and psychology - yet color is all around you, waiting to be appreciated...

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Color Links

Pantone's All About Color section discusses fundamentals, articles, research findings and trends on color theory.

Color Wheel Pro is an application that enables you to interactively create various types of color schemes and preview them on real-world examples like corporate identities, web sites and logos.

Color Wheel Expert is an easy-to-use application for anyone who works with color, allowing you to create your own color schemes and palettes.

Understanding Color - Color as an Element of Design is an excellent article with an interactive activity section.

To find which colors coordinate well with each other, visit the ColorSchemer site where you'll find upto 15 colors to complement your chosen shade.

Choose The Right Colors for your PowerPoint 2002 Presentation is an article posted on Microsoft's Assistance Center.

The International Color Consortium is the force behind the ICC profiles standardization.

Color professor J L Morton discusses every nuance of color at her extensive site.

The Tech site makes a splash with color in a light, entertaining style.

Choose and analyze your favourite colors at the Dewey ColorSystem site.

The Kodak Digital Learning Centre provides a free online course on color theory.

Squant is a new primary color - read more about the color and its controversies.

Adobe provides a technical guide called Basic Color Theory for the Desktop.

WebDesignClinic has an introduction to Color Theory.

The Colorful (and Confusing) World of Color by Gary W Priester looks at color in every sense.

The Microsoft site has an article which ponders about the effect of colors on color-blind users.

Hiroshi Sasaki discusses Color Psychology in detail.

The Mood of Color explores fascinating facets of color.

The PSP Power site has a nice introduction on Advanced Color Theory.

Web Reference has good information on color combinations - check out the main  World of Color page or the Color Wheel page.

If you design web pages, there's a nice HTML RGB Color Combination Chart here - it's a single .gif image file you may want to save. There's something similar but more interactive at the Dream Artists Hex Code Page

Colormix  shows you how to create more colors with the 216 color palette using dithering and a Java application online. The resultant swatches can be downloaded and saved onto your computer.

The Audience: Psychology of Visuals at the Presentations magazine site discusses the psychology of color in presentations.

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