5 common colour mistakes you probably aren’t thinking about
It isn't often that we talk publicly about our mistakes, but if more of us chose to share, maybe we'd feel a bit less alone. There have been just a few times I've made mistakes in my career as a designer, but I've learned from each and every one of them.
I have often tried to do everything myself rather than looking for help and searching for resources that will make running my business easier than trying to do ALL thing things by myself without even just a bit of guidance.
Which is why I’ve created this blog post. One of the most common areas of design I see people ask about is colour so I’ve created this article to help you choose your colour palette by avoiding some of the most common mistakes I see others make.
Here are the five most common colour mistakes I see on a regular basis and a few tricks to fix them.
Using highly contrasting colours together. Colours that are opposite to one another on the colour wheel, like red and green, also known as contrasting colours, tend to visually vibrate when they are used right beside one another. If you have contrasting colours in your palette, the best way to use them is to use one at full strength and a tone of the other. Doing this will make the colours appear to be more harmonious.
Using colours that are too light. Have you ever designed a document or social graphic where something felt off so you asked your peers what they thought and someone chimed in and said they can’t read it? Well, that my friend, is what happens when you are using colours that are very light and can’t be seen against a white background. The solution to this is always make sure that any colour with white is a bit darker and any light colour you want to use is only combined with a darker background.
Not enough contrast between colours. How do we remedy this? Always make sure that you have enough visual contrast with your colours by combining light with dark or dark with light. For example if your brand colours include grey and black, make sure that you are using a lighter tone of the grey against the black so that the elements in your graphic can be easily seen.
Using too many colours with type. Lots of variety isn’t always a good thing, especially when it comes to using a rainbow of colours in a block of copy. Too many colours can be distracting and actually take away from your message, rather than enhancing it. If you are looking to make a word or phrase stand out, try to use another typographic variation such as bold and/or italics.
Not enough colours in your palette. Do you ever look at your palette and wonder - are these too similar? You love the tonal effect that brings a calming feeling but when you start using them together, nothing really seems to stand out. You may just want to try varying your tones a bit by making a few colours darker, lighter, brighter or a completely different. And if you need help with this, be sure to check out Adobe Color. This incredible has a ton of palettes to choose from and/or use for inspiration.
And a tool that I would highly recommend when designing with colour is to use is the WebAIM contrast checker. If you are achieve a WCAG AA or AAA pass, you have enough contrast in your documents so that they can be read. For more information visit: https://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/