The Difference Between Color Harmony and Related Color Scheme
What is Color Harmony?
Color harmony is a broad term that can be used to describe many things. But when it comes to selecting color palettes for your website, brochures, or presentations, you're most likely looking for related color schemes—not contrasting ones. Color harmony refers to colors that naturally go together; for example, red and orange are related colors because they can both be found in a sunset. Colors that contrast from one another may work in an art piece but will typically create an inconsistent feeling when used with text and other elements on your website or in a presentation. So how do you avoid using color schemes that won't complement your business branding?
The related color scheme uses colors that are next to each other on a color wheel. In fact, those colors will usually have a complementary pairing (colors that are opposite from each other on a color wheel). For example, blue might be paired with yellow or orange. Both of these examples look harmonious because they are related colors; both complement and contrast each other in an appealing way. Contrasting Color Schemes: Colors that you find directly across from one another on a color wheel tend to work well together in creating contrasting schemes. For example, using purple and yellow is less likely to create effective contrasting colors than combining purple with green, or yellow with blue. A monochromatic color scheme uses different shades of one color, so if you were looking at shades of purple as your color palette, you would see shades like lavender, lilac and eggplant. An analogous color scheme utilizes colors that are adjacent to each other on a color wheel - for instance, light reds, dark reds and oranges would all fall into an analogous color scheme.
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What is the Contrasting Color Scheme?
Contrasting color schemes are an eye-catching way to present a design or project. They tend to attract attention, which is great for certain types of advertising campaigns, like seasonal sales. This method works best for highlighting one particular item against an otherwise bland or muted backdrop. While it's easy to throw some contrasting colors together without much thought, creating a strong color scheme takes careful planning and experimentation. If you're just getting started with color harmony, try a basic complimentary palette to get acquainted with how your favorite colors interact. Don't worry if your first attempt doesn't work out perfectly—after all, practice makes perfect!
Complimentary color scheme
When you’re creating a color scheme, you want to make sure that every color is pleasing. The easiest way to do that is by pairing colors that have a similar hue. These colors are known as complimentary colors. Two complementary colors have opposite hues on a color wheel; they’ll appear as if they belong together when used together in an artwork or design project. For example, red and green are complementary colors because their hues oppose each other—red has a hue of red-orange while green has a hue of blue-green. Complimentary color schemes tend to be more subtle than contrasting color schemes, but still provide great harmony for your design project.
The double complimentary color scheme is a variation of a monochromatic palette in which one color is added to its compliment to create a balanced color scheme. The colors are directly opposite on either side of their compliments on either side of the color wheel; they are yellow-orange to red-orange, blue-green to green-yellow, red-violet to blue-violet, etc. With just two colors instead of three or four found in most monochromatic palettes, you will find that it is simpler to design around since you can use an analogous pair for accents without needing much contrast.
Split complimentary
Split complementary color scheme uses two colors opposite one another on an analogous color wheel. Split-complementary colors are evenly spaced on either side of a central color. This is a very visually striking color scheme that creates high contrast and makes both colors stand out from one another. Just like complementary colors, split-complimentary pairs create tension in a piece of design because of their close relationship to each other. However, it’s easy to overlook just how similar they really are!
Triade
Tríade is a color harmony made up of three colors that are evenly spaced around a color wheel. It has 6 combinations, or triads, each one evenly spaced at 120 degrees apart. The complementary colors are directly opposite each other on a triadic color wheel. For example, red/green/blue or yellow/purple/orange are triadic color schemes. Purple, red and green make up a related color scheme when they’re used together in design with two other hues of their choice (let’s say blue and orange). Red-violet / blue-violet / yellow-orange are an example of a complementary color scheme in design.
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