Color theory is a topic in school often glossed over, arguably seen as a second-tier subject as opposed to a core component of a design education. Despite this tendency, the truth is that if you want to be a well-rounded designer creating products you should also probably have a fairly good grasp on color theory. 

On our discussion boards, designer and Core77 reader DeeDee brought up a nuanced question perhaps all-too-familiar to designers not working primarily within the scope of color. DeeDee writes:

"New to the footwear area of design. Went to university for fashion design so I am familiar to a certain extent to the idea of color palettes. However, I am concerned how to put a color palette together for footwear. My previous experience with color palettes was spread across multiple pieces on a line of people. So color was spread out across multiple pieces creating the color unity.
Now [that] I'm designing footwear I feel limited. I'm having difficulty picturing my shoes across a line. Just so many material breaks... and no one outfit wears multiple pairs of shoes. Difficult for me to pair just shoes together since it's not part of one outfit.
Does anyone have anything to help me look at color palettes for footwear? Just need a different way to look at it.

This question, although pointed, got us thinking—what are some good basic color theory pointers for designers? Looking not only into the science of what works, but also the very important psychological aspects, here are a few pointers we dug up in our research. 

Color for Beginners—Monochromatic

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To give ourselves a base understanding of color schemes, we should first analyze the most basic and harmonious of all palettes: the monochromatic color scheme. A surefire way to ensure your color palette is harmonious, you can stick to a collection of different shades of the same color. Although a bit boring, this is often a safe bet.

So how do we spice it up a bit if we're looking to add more than one color to our collection of available hues?

Add More to the Mix—Analogous

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The next baby step toward creating a truly striking color scheme is the analogous color palette, or a collection of colors that all sit next to each other on the color wheel. This strategy starts to introduce new colors within the same warm or cool family, making the scheme harmonious but not necessarily highly predictable.

Be careful with complementary colors

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Choosing complementary colors, or colors on the opposite side of the color wheel i.e. orange & blue or red & green, is one step up from an analogous color scheme and can often be a good strategy for creating a color palette as these hues are striking in their perfect contrast. The only problem is that these colors are so dissimilar when placed side to side, the combination can be quite jarring, creating a visual vibration effect. So unless you are going for a highly graphic effect, make sure to give them some white space in between or add another compatible color within the mix. 

Be aware of the psychological factors

As nice as it is to believe that a color can have a universal meaning (for example, yellow evokes happiness while white portrays innocence and purity), there are simply too many cultural factors at play for a color to be universally understood in one particular way. There are certain factors regarding color in relation to the consumer market though that are important to consider in a psychological context:  

1. Market researchers have discovered that up to 90% of impulse buys can be heavily influenced by the presence of color, whether it's being used on a product or in an advertisement. So yes, color matters! 

The Isolation Effect

2. A psychological theory called the Isolation Effect shows that an item that sharply stands out from its surroundings is more likely to be remembered. Research also shows that consumers often prefer color palettes that include one highly contrasting accent color. 

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One suggested way to achieve this accent color effect is to create a palette that consists of analogous colors, or colors that sit next to each other on the color wheel, and contrasting those hues with one complementary color or the complementary tertiary (for example, a color that is 50% green 50% yellow green, which would be the direct complementary color for the magenta in this chart to the left).

Technology Is On Your Side

While it is important to exercise your knowledge in areas like color theory, it's also good to realize that today we have many tools at our disposal to help us through complex problems. There are a number of great apps to help you explore color relationships such as the Yale Interaction of Color iPad app based off the studies of color master Josef Albers, which chronicles a large vocabulary of color terms while also having an interactive palette section that allows you to experiment with colors and see them side by side. 

At the end of the day, the fact of the matter is that color theory within the scope of design is a soft science. There is no singular surefire way of creating a harmonious, elegant, and truly original color scheme. On top of all this, it's important to note that beautiful and effective color schemes don't only rely on science and psychology but also factors like incoming trends—which is why we want to hear your thoughts on it! 

What are your tips when it comes to formulating your own color palettes? How do you go about organizing them? Where do you draw inspiration from? We want to hear from you—

(Comment on the thread below with your ideas or check out the original post and contribute on our discussion board!)