Using colour
Choosing a palette
A working method for picking a small set of colours that sit well together, for a room, a website, an outfit or a poster.
Presented by ClearTrust Free for designers, students and the curious.
A palette is a small, fixed set of colours chosen to be used together. Good ones are short: one or two main colours, a few neutrals and a single accent. The most reliable way to build one is to start from something real, settle the lights and darks before the hues, and test the colours side by side in the place they will be used.
#F6F1E7Main indigo#27408BSecondary slate#6B7A8FAccent marigold#F2A900Text charcoal#22252AStart from something
Choosing from every possible colour is hard. Choosing from a source is easy. Take a photograph, a painting, a textile or a view that has the feeling you want, and pull four or five colours from it. A block-printed bedspread, a Kerala mural, a bowl of spices or a street in Jodhpur already holds a balanced set, because someone or something has done the balancing. Brands and interiors often begin from one fixed element that cannot change, such as a logo colour, a floor or a sofa, and build outwards.
Neutrals and lightness
Most of any palette should be quiet. Whites, creams, greys, browns, navy and black give strong colours room. A neutral with a slight tint of the main hue ties a scheme together better than a pure grey. Then check lightness. A palette needs a clear light, a clear dark and something in between, or everything merges. Turn the palette to greyscale on a phone to test this. If two colours become the same grey, they will not work for text on a background or for shapes that must be told apart.
Limit and test
Three to five colours is enough for nearly any job. More than that and none of them reads as deliberate. Give each a role: background, main, secondary, accent, text. Use the accent sparingly so that it keeps its force. Then test in real conditions. Paint a large patch on the actual wall and look at it morning and evening. View a screen design on a phone outdoors. Hold fabric to the face in daylight. Colours shift with their neighbours, their size and the light, so judging them in isolation misleads.
How to do it
- Find a source image or object with the mood you want and pick four or five colours from it.
- Choose one as the main colour and one as a small accent.
- Add two or three neutrals, lightly tinted towards the main colour.
- Convert to greyscale and make sure you have a light, a mid and a dark.
- Assign each colour a role and try the set in the real setting.
- Remove any colour that is not doing a job.
Sources and further reading
- Color scheme on Wikipedia
- Material Design: The color system
- Handprint: an artist's colour wheel
- Schloss and Palmer, Aesthetic response to color combinations: preference, harmony, and similarity (2011)
Original text by the Rang desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Meanings of colour vary from place to place and person to person. If we have something wrong, tell us.