Color is one of the most powerful tools a designer has to communicate a client’s message. It can symbolize an idea, can invoke meaning, and has cultural relevancy. Successful color relationships can determine whether people buy a product or use a client’s services. Color can aid in wayfinding,
it can give structure to projects with multiple components, and it can show emphasis and convey mood. Whether it is suggesting space or showing movement and rhythm, color always has a story to tell.
As much as color can help to catch and hold a viewer’s attention, it can also present myriad challenges for the designer. The subjective nature of color may cause a designer to shy away from using bold combinations or from taking risks with tone and value. Preferences for certain colors sometimes
get in the way during the approval process with a client. Cultural associations can lead some viewers to misinterpret information, and the technical difficulty of representing a color correctly on screen, in print, and on other media can be daunting. Fortunately, as difficult as it may seem to choose
the right hues for a project, there are numerous examples of engaging graphic design that are made possible by successful color relationships.
Learning which colors work well together and how to create successful tonal relationships will save time and money. But more importantly, color can help designers elicit the correct response from an audience and produces triking graphic design.
