The language of color in design

Color is one of the most powerful tools in a designer’s toolkit. It shapes user perception, emotion, and behavior — often before users consciously process content. Thoughtful color use increases usability, drives engagement, and reinforces brand identity.

Classical color theory dates back to the 1700s with Newton’s color wheel establishing foundational relationships: primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. Influential theorists like Goethe and Josef Albers explored psychological and perceptual effects of color. The Bauhaus movement emphasized rational, functional use of color in visual design, which is still relevant today.

Colors can be grounded into three foundational categories based on the color wheel:

• Primary: Red, Blue, Yellow
• Secondary: Orange, Green, Purple
• Tertiary: Blends of primary and secondary

There are also color harmonies, which describe how different colors go together to create a desired effect:

• Complementary: High contrast (e.g., blue + orange)
• Analogous: Visually pleasing, low contrast (e.g., green + yellow-green)
• Triadic: Balanced and vibrant (e.g., red + blue + yellow)

Colors can also be divided into warm and cool colors. Warm colors like red and orange are energetic and attention-grabbing, while cool colors like blue and green are perceived as calm and composed.

Colors carry emotional and cultural connotations, for example red = urgency, green = success, and blue = trust. Brands should capitalize on these relationships, using color strategically to communicate the right message. Certain colors align most closely with certain industries, for example

• Blue for banks and tech (trust, intelligence)
• Red for sales or fast food (urgency, appetite)
• Green for sustainability (nature, safety)

Color plays a key role in the usability of your website or application. You should use appropriate colors to signal the meaning of elements on the page, for example:

• Status indicators
• Action buttons (e.g., primary CTA in a bold, branded color)
• Interactive states (hover, active, disabled).

Additionally, color coding systems can help users distinguish between categories, priorities, or states. Think calendar views, tags, or information-dense dashboards.

To build out your palette, start with a base color, then expand using tools like:

• Color harmonies (complementary, triadic)
• Accessibility-focused tools (Adobe Color, Coolors, Stark, etc.)

Keep in mind that neutral colors (white, gray, black, beige) help balance and support more vibrant tones. Most designs should have a comfortable combination of neutral and bold colors. Finally, keep brand colors front and center, and surround them with supporting shades that don’t compete for the user’s attention.

High contrast improves legibility, especially for text and UI elements. The industry best practice is to follow the WCAG 2.1 guidelines for contrast ratios (minimum 4.5

APCA

Using too many colors leads to visual clutter and weakens visual hierarchy. You should also be sure not to rely on personal taste instead of functional logic. Just because a color scheme is one of your favorites doesn’t mean it’s the best for the design or brand. Additionally, minimize inconsistent color use across different screens or platforms. This issue is less common with websites, and more common for native mobile apps where two codebases must be maintained separately.

Implementing colors properly in your design boils down to a few key action steps:

• Build and document a color system or token set (primary, secondary, success, warning, background, surface, etc.).
• Maintain visual hierarchy: use bolder/brighter colors for primary actions and quieter tones for secondary content.
• Test your palette across different devices, screen brightness and lighting conditions.

Always prototype and test with real content — colors behave differently depending on layout, text, and surrounding elements.

There are many tools out there for helping you select the right colors. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of helpful tools:

• Palette generation: Adobe Color , Coolors , ColorBox , Huemint
• Accessibility testing: Stark , Contrast Checker , APCA Contrast Calculator
• Applying and testing tokens: Figma and design system plugins within Figma

Color is a language — and like any language, it has rules, structure, and room for expression. Thoughtful color use enhances usability, emotional resonance, and visual clarity. To achieve a design that is both beautiful and effective, aim to balance creativity with a focus on contrast and accessibility.