Color Schemes

What is a Color Scheme?

A Color scheme is the choice of colors used in a design that are used in a deliberate manner to create style and appeal. There are multiple types of color schemes and its important to think about how the colors fit together when making a website. So with this article I would like to give you some does and don’ts of color scheming, along with some example color schemes that look good on almost any website. 

One of the most recognizable color schemes is the red, white, and blue of the American Flag.

Monochromatic Scheme

A Monochromatic Color Scheme is one that has the hue, but with varying tints tones and shades. To simplify that, its taking one base color and either adding more white, gray, or black to it to give it different gradients. This allows you to give different accents on a site without giving a lot of contrast or variation. Its good for a clean and simple design. 

An Example of a Red, Monochromatic color scheme

Analogous Scheme

An analogous color scheme is when you choose colors that directly relate to each other. This creates the same effect as the monochromatic color scheme without making it too bland. With a Analogous color scheme you are looking more for things to blend together and harmonize with each other. I would recommend either using all warm colors (red, orange, yellow, etc.) or all cool colors (purple, blue, green). The idea is to make the colors flow from each other without giving too much accent to one part of the page.

Example of an Analogous color scheme

Complimentary Scheme

Complimentary color schemes are color schemes that use colors opposite of the color wheel. Complimentary color schemes are often used when you would like for an area of your site to be more prominent than other areas. By using colors that are across from each other on the color wheel you are able to make contrast and give a lot of emphasis to certain parts of your sites. 

Example of a complimentary color scheme

Examples of good color schemes

So what if you do if you want to make a good looking web site and you don’t care about color theory. You just want something that looks good that you can put on your site and call it a day. Well lucky for you, I’m writing this blog post and will give you some examples of some good color schemes. Thanks to the offical UARK brand page, there are a few color schemes they have laid out that look good on almost any site. Just remember when deciding what color scheme you could like to use, that you want the emphasis to remain on the content of the website, so try not to use an extremely distracting scheme.

UARK Scheme

Offical UARK Palette

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Earth Tones

Palettes: 4 and 9

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Pastel Scheme

Palettes: 12 and 13

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