Selecting Your Color Palette

This technique works really well when designing chronological books and allows the viewer to make assumptions on how to easily navigate through the book. USE THIS CHECKLIST TO SELECT YOUR COLOR COMBINATION: 1. One bold/saturated color . This color should be vibrant and eye-catching, and should be the color you select first. You will use this color for accents and central parts of your design. This is your dominant color. 2. One contrast color. This color can be the complement to your dominant color. Use this color when you need to break up your scheme. 3. One or two dark colors. Used for headline text and accents. Make sure these colors are dark enough so the font you select for your headlines and subheads is readable. 4. One or two light colors . Used for backgrounds and other large areas of color. Make sure they are light enough that text could be written on them and still be readable. 5. One neutral color. Used in backgrounds and accents. It is necessary to ground your color scheme. This could be white, black, tints of black or shades of tan. You will use the dominant color most often in your design, while the other colors will help complement the dominant color. For your set of colors, make sure you consider the saturation and tone of all the colors. Try to keep the same saturation, vibrancy and tone to ensure the colors work well together. Even though your colors should have the same saturation, it is possible to use shades and tints of your dominant color to give you more options for color on your spreads. This is a good option for large background areas with an overlay of type. Using shades and tints of the dominant color will keep the design uniform and you won’t be introducing too many “new” colors into your palette. You should also think about how your palette will work with the visual elements you are using throughout the book. For example, if you are using transparent boxes or bars on photos or just as a graphic element, remember that when the opacity is taken down on certain colors, the color can change – red becomes pink! Most important – make sure you have selected a color combination that you like before you start implementing your design!

Photo by Paulette Reynoso

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