Color Schemes
Complementary Color Scheme
Colors from opposite positions on the color wheel are considered to be complementary. Red and green, yellow and violet and blue and yellow-orange are complementary colors.
Using complementary colors creates a high-drama, high-contrast look for your project, especially when the pure hue is used for each; banking giant ING showcases a complementary color scheme. A complementary color scheme is great for small pops of color to make items stand out but can be difficult to use. Avoid using a complementary scheme for large projects or as the basis for your website, also avoid text in complementary colors.
Several other types of complementary color schemes combine this two-color pairing with additional colors for four-hue palettes. The split complementary scheme uses a color, a complement and the two colors adjacent to it. A dual complementary scheme uses two colors side-by-side on the wheel and the pair of opposite colors. Further, the near complementary scheme uses a hue just to the right or left of the complement color on the wheel to form a color pair.
Analogous Color Scheme
Analogous color schemes use adjacent colors from the color wheel. The result is a visually pleasing and calming display of color. One of the colors in an analogous color scheme is used as a dominant hue. Select a second color to support the dominant hue and a third to use as an accent.
One idea behind this use of color comes from nature. Think of a field of grass, it is made up of many variants of green and yellow. This principle is applied on the website for the Yellow Bird Project, which appropriately uses a yellow scheme.
Triadic and Tetradic Color Schemes
Triadic color schemes, which use three colors equidistant from one another on the color wheel, are among the most popular used by designers. Triadic color schemes create a sense of equality and security, because of the use of varying hues.
Triadic color schemes also tend to be quite vibrant and should be used in a way that best uses this feature. Balance color by selecting a dominant hue and use the two other triadic colors as accents. Julie & Co. starts with purple for the borders and right rail and adds green and orange accents for photos and text.
A tetradic (or rectangle) color scheme, which uses a combination of four colors, is similar to the triadic because it is vibrant and should contain one dominant color. The arrangement of colors comes from two sets of complementary colors, meaning the four hues are not equally placed around the color wheel. A rectangular scheme may use a combination of red and green with red-orange and blue-green. Watch how warm and cool colors are used in this scheme to create the desired effect.
