diy tip: color matching

diy tip: color matching

You've found an image that persuasively communicates your brand, and now you want to build a website around it.  Here's how you extract the color palette from that image so that you can build frames, backgrounds and text that matches (cut and paste the link into your browser after you read this):

http://www.colourlovers.com/photocopa

You'll have to sign up to the site in order to use the tool, but this involves no more than establishing a user name and password.  Once you're signed up, navigate to the "photocopa" page, click "photo" (just under "publish" at the top right), and type in the url of the image you want to use.  You instantly get a range of colors found in the image, expressed as small samples to the right on your screen.  Pick on various samples or on the image itself to create a palette at the bottom left.  Clicking a small icon at the top right of each palette swatch gives you the Hex, RGB and HSV codes.

If you ever wondered how graphic designers matched color, there's your answer.

diy tip: color

diy tip: color

Josef Albers, an artist and teacher who came out of the Bauhaus, published a book in 1963 "Interaction of Color", in which he showed how perception is shaped by both object and context. Color, for example is perceived differently, depending on the background.  

Homage to the Square, 1965

What does it mean to us in branding and graphic design?  We suggest you never pick a color in isolation: always pick them in pairs (foreground/background for example), or pick them conscious of the context in which they will be seen...even if that context is a white page.  Color changes depending on the context.

fun facts: color, and why it matters

fun facts: color, and why it matters

The good people at colorcom.com offer these little tidbits:

1. Color alone increases brand recognition by up to 80%.  

(Pick good colors people)!

2. People judge people, environments and products within 90 seconds of initial viewing.  Between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone?  

(You have to wonder where they get these facts: turns out its surveys)

3. 84.7% of survey respondents stated color accounts for more than half among factors important to choosing products.

source:www.colorcom.com/research/why-color-matters

tools: color

tools: color

There is so much emotion and meaning invested in color and it is unquestionably a powerful component of brand identity.  As our case histories show, we often select color based on associations, not specifically on potential "meanings", yet those meanings are something to consider nonetheless and keep in mind in a selection.  The global color survey takes a stab at identifying those meanings, asking you for your color associations before showing you the results of their continuing inquiry (cut and paste into your browser to pay a visit):

www.colormatters.com/color-symbolism/global-color-survey

With only 20 or so colors and associations, the approach might be a bit reductionist, but on the possibly complex road to a color selection, not a bad place to start.

Another place to find meanings associated with color: Art Therapy

http://www.arttherapyblog.com/resources/color-meanings-symbolism-charts/#.UwutcvldV8H

Neat word clouds with footnotes for divergent international meanings distinguish this website.

The Visual Voice approach relies as much on association as on emotion.  We ask for colors and images that speak to our clients to start, independent of context, but then rely on our own associations and creative thinking to generate options.  Sometimes an image or photograph will speak to us, and color becomes a byproduct of that selection rather than a focus in itself.

We always discuss both meaning and association in helping our clients choose among the options we present, but ultimately, here's what counts: is the brand identity appropriate, is it meaningful, is it visceral and evocative, and does the client feel empowered by it?