We could dedicate an entire book to the subject of color—and plenty of people have. As a designer, there’s a lot to learn about using color, from the psychology to the science. When developing a graphic identity, however, perhaps the single most important thing to know about color is at what point in the process to make decisions about it.
Color brings such an immediate emotional quality to a mark—it can tempt designers into jumping ahead and designing with a particular color in mind. Resist this temptation. Complete your initial design for each new mark without regard to the color(s) it will eventually take on. Because most graphic identities face color limitations depending on the application, you’ll need to ensure that a mark will work in several different colors. And because colors are often influenced by trends, what feels contemporary today may look dated tomorrow.
That said, a color treatment can make or break a graphic identity. Color choices that are too dated, illegible, unsophisticated, etc., can drag down even the most wonderfully drawn mark.
Once you’re ready to consider color for a mark, start with the natural dimensions of color: hue (red vs. blue), saturation (bright blue vs. blue gray), and brightness (light blue vs. dark blue). Revisit the color wheel and think about how complementary colors with the same values play visual tricks. Consider additive color (where every color together makes black) or subtractive color (where every color together makes white). Understand the context of color—how a light shape on a dark field looks smaller than a dark shape on a light field.
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