A “Designers Color Wheel” Guideline!

Fashion design element: Color schemes, what are they and how to use them!

This is the last and most essential element of design to take into consideration while designing. There are many different color schemes to choose from and experiment with but in this article I’ll speak about the main ones you’ll see in everyday fashion and arts. 

Warm colors  

Reds

Yellows

Oranges

Burgundy’s 

Cool colors 

Blues

Pinks

Purples

Greens

Color tip!!... 

When working with colors in fashion they are referred to as warm or cool colors. The examples listed above gives you a clue about which hues falls into which category. Cool colors gives off the illusion of reducing size. They also have a calming and soothing properties to them. 

How to match these colors???. 

Well the best way to match these colors will be to simply just keep them in the same category. Warm colors matches with other warm colors and cools should stay with other cool colors. 

MONOCHROMATIC COLOR SCHEME 

Monochromatic colors is used by designers to combine different shapes, tints, and intensities of colors on wheel to compliment one color. In other words, it’s all the colors of a single hue. It’s based off of one color for example red and then extended using the same colors shades, tints, and tones. Tints are achieved by adding white. Shades and tones are achieved by adding darker colors such as grey or black. 

Ex. A white and black clothing line 

Monochromatic color wheel

COMPLEMENTARY COLOR SCHEME

Complementary colors are used by designers by connecting two colors located directly across from each other on the color wheel. The usual primary colors to choose from is red, yellow, and blue. With this method what you will do is choose the color that’s across from the primary color on the wheel(the second color is called the complementary color).  This is known as color harmonies. Use this when you want a specific area in your design to stand out! Easy to use right? You’ll only make one mistake while using this color wheel method and that is by using it in large doses. 

Complementary color wheel

ANALOGOUS COLOR SCHEME

Analogous colors is anything that pleases the human eye. On an advanced color wheel you’ll be given a shade and then three shades after it. When using the analogous color scheme the best way to work with it is to select colors that are next to each other on the wheel. There has to be 1 dominant color, 1 supportive color, and 1 accent color.