The Power of Color

By Joanne Glasspoole
Posted Friday, October 1, 2004

Do you find it hard to choose color schemes for your Web designs? It is a question I get asked often. An effective color scheme can make or break your Web site. If it doesn't convey the personality you are trying to achieve, you may end up alienating the people you are trying so hard to get to notice you.

In my quest to design successful, attractive Web sites, I spend a lot of time picking colors. Making sure colors coordinate well with each other is not an easy task. But, with the right tools and a good sense of what looks right, you can achieve the look and feel you desire.

Color has the power to make us feel hungry, cool, warm, excited, sexy, joyful, sad. Can you imagine the world without color?

Following is a brief summary of some of the emotions/feelings associated with color:

. Red-warmth, love, anger, danger, boldness, excitement
. Orange-cheerfulness, low cost, affordability
. Yellow-attention-grabbing, comfort, liveliness, cowardliness
. Green-durability, reliability, environmental, luxurious, optimism
. Blue-professionalism, loyalty, reliability, honor, boredom
. Purple-power, royalty, elegance, artificial
. Gray-conservatism, traditionalism, intelligence, serious, dull, uninteresting
. Brown-relaxing, confident, casual, reassuring, earthy
. Black-elegance, sophistication, formality, strength, illegality, depression, morbidity
. White-cleanliness, purity, newness, virginity, peace, innocence, simplicity, sterility

The above associations are not universal. Depending on the country, different colors can mean different things. If you are designing a Web site for an international audience, it is crucial that you pay particular attention to choosing your color schemes. Choosing the wrong colors may prove detrimental to the success of your Web site.

For more information about color, visit the following Web sites:

. The Color Schemer
. ColorMix
. Palette Man
. Pantone
. ColorPicker

About the author:
Joanne Glasspoole is the editor/publisher of CYBER QUEST. Each issue is jam packed with original reports, news briefs, cool Webmaster tools, and more. To subscribe, send email to Majordomo@lists.kdv.com with "subscribe cyberquest" in the body of your message. Visit Joanne's web site at (http://www.glasspoole.com)