The Importance of Colour Scheme: #1 Amazing Guide on Everything You Need to Know

In this article, we are going to discuss why your website’s colour scheme is important. Colour plays a really important role in every project that you have, from printing promotional flyers to creating your brand’s logo and establishing your brand’s identity. This is no less true for your website’s colour scheme. By using different colours, you are able to convey emotions, drive conversions, and even earn loyalty from your customers.

When building your website, choosing the correct colours may be a difficult task, but not only is it important to find the correct colours to convey your brand, but balancing primary and secondary colours can also be a bit of a challenge. So in this article, we have broken down some basic tips on colour design in order to help you choose the best colours for your brand.

What is a Colour Scheme?

A colour scheme is a selected group of colours that are used for design and artistry. When you use colour scheme for your website, you want the site to be easy for your customers to look at, to navigate and for your brand identity to be visible and easy to understand. When it comes to branding, it is one of the most simple but essential roots for an organization to succeed. Moreover, there are so many reasons why an organization will use branding, and we will tackle the subject from a number of areas.

Establishing a unique brand identity is important because it focuses on constructing a brand that possesses a lot of human characteristics. Brand’s identity and personality should reflect what an organization wants to project to the public. It is important for organisations to use and develop their personality in their marketing functions and then bring that forward to their website. So choosing a good colour scheme could help you establish that brand identity as well. Make sure it is very visible and easy to understand.

One of the most important ways to accomplish this is through your colour scheme. By choosing an interesting and eye-catching colour scheme, you can ensure your customer’s attention. Without the right pop of colour, your website can bore customers or be confusing to navigate. A great colour scheme will help you keep customers on your site for longer, create an emotional response to your brand, encourage something called brand loyalty, and help you stand out amongst the competition. Brand loyalty is the most important aspect when it comes to being a company and a customer. If you think about it, have you ever wandered into a grocery store?

How Colours Affect Your Brand

You tend to have a tendency to buy products from a company that you are more acquainted with. That is something known as brand loyalty, and having a good colour scheme can help you establish that. So colour surrounds us in everything that we do, from the outfit we put on, to the decor of our home, to the drinks that we buy. Colour plays a really huge role in daily life, and it can affect our mood and attitude towards products and services.

We can see popular brand colours and what they’re commonly used for. If you look at the colour purple, purple is a colour that is commonly associated with royalty and luxury. So if you think about a website like Cadbury, they use a lot of purples, not only on the website, but they use a lot of it on their packaging and their marketing as well. So it is no surprise that this brand uses purple in a lot of their marketing because by using this colour, they convey a sense of luxury and decadence in their product. They want their customers to associate their brand with being more rich and more sophisticated than the competitors.


And using the colour purple across their branding, their marketing, and their website really helps achieve that. Without even the words, you can tell by the colours as well just what this brand is suited for. And you can get a sense of what their product will be like as well. And if it is something that you are looking for, you are more inclined to buy. So that is just one example of how colour can play a role in our perception of a brand.

The Colour Wheel

So now, let’s talk about the colour wheel. The primary colours are the basis of the colour wheel, and these are colours that are found naturally and cannot be created by mixing other colours as well. The easiest way to pick out a colour scheme for your brand is to use this colour wheel. The colour wheel is made up of 12 colours, which make up a set of primary, secondary and tertiary colours. By understanding how this colour wheel works, you can create colour schemes that work together and will look great on your website. So as mentioned before, first of all, you have the primary colours, and these form the basis of your colour wheel.


They are fine naturally; they cannot be created by mixing other colours at all. And they are blue, red, and yellow. Then you have the secondary colours, and the secondary colours are created by mixing equal parts of two primary colours. On the colour wheel itself, the primary colours are the secondary colours that sit directly between each of the primary colours that are mixed to create them. So, for example, the primary colour blue and red make the secondary colour purple. You will be able to see on the colour wheel, purple is directly between blue and red.

The secondary colour, orange, is made by mixing the primary colours, yellow and red. And you can see it is directly orange, it is directly between these two. And the secondary colour, green, is made using a mixture of yellow and blue, and that sits directly between the yellow and blue on the colour wheel as well. So those are your secondary colours. And lastly, then you have your tertiary colours. And tertiary colours are created by mixing different primary and secondary colours. So these colours are located between the primary and the secondary colours that are used to mix them. So in total, you can see there are six tertiary colours.


For example, the tertiary colour chartreuse sits between yellow and green. So you know that yellow is the primary colour used to make chartreuse, and green is the secondary colour mixed with yellow to make this colour. Amber is a tertiary colour if you mix yellow and orange. Vermilion is a tertiary colour if you were to mix orange and red. Magenta is a tertiary colour if you mixed purple and red. And violet is a tertiary colour if you mix blue and purple. And finally, teal is a tertiary colour if you were to mix blue and green.

So tertiary colours are made with one secondary colour and one primary colour; that way, you now have an understanding of the different colour subsets in the colour wheel. Now you can use that to figure out your colour harmonies. So colour harmony is defined as the property that distinct, aesthetically pleasing colour groups have. So it is created by selecting colours that will work well together and complement each other very well. There are many different techniques that can be used to pick out harmonious colours. For example, complementary colours are two colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel.


So, for example, purple and yellow would be an example of complementary colours because they are directly opposite the colour wheel. And it doesn’t have to be primary to primary, secondary to secondary or anything like that. It can be any two colours on the colour wheel that are directly opposite. So green and red are complementary colours. Blue and orange are complementary colours.

Then you have split complementary; this technique is a variation of complementary colours. It includes three colours, so you have one base colour and two colours that are adjacent to its complement. So you have got the base colour purple and you have got the two adjacent colours as well. These makeup split complementary.

Then you have got a dyad. So this is two colours that have one colour between them. So, for example, vermilion and magenta are a dyad, and they have got red in between them. You have got a triad that’s made up of three colours that are spaced equally from each other on the colour wheel. So magenta, vermilion, and amber are spaced equally on the colour wheel, and they’re the three colours together and form a triad. Then you have analogous. These are three colours that are directly next to each other on the colour wheel.


So magenta, red, and vermilion as an example. And then you have a rectangle, or sometimes known as terrific. These are two sets of complementary colours, equaling four colours in total. So if you remember, complementary colours are colours that are opposite of each other on the colour wheel. Thus, two sets of those would make a rectangle.

And then, finally, you have got a square. So those are four colours that are all equally spaced from each other on the colour wheel. So for example, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. These colours form a square on the colour wheel, with each colour being spaced two colours apart from the other colours. So that is an example of a square colour wheel. Going back to the brand colour statistics, this is useful to understand the psychology of colours and what each colour is used for.

Each colour can be used to convey a different meaning and provoke different emotions. We have seen that earlier in the example of Cadbury using the colour purple to convey luxury and decadence within their product. Some of this is subjective and can change from person to person, but for the most part, there are common colour portrayals for each colour and examples of brands use them for the colour.


For example, the colour white is typically associated with anything clean, pure, minimalist, sleek marketing. And you can see this as an example in Apple’s website. Apple uses a lot of white on their website that is broken up with black as well. But this portrays a really sleek and minimal design and a sense of cleanness as well. And this helps with the product that they sell to ensure that their brand also portrays that as well.

So this would be good for any personal projects that you have. If you wanted to use this colour scheme, this colour scheme would be good for those projects as well. Then you have pink. And traditionally, pink is associated with femininity, sensitivity, and respect. And you can see this, for example, on Barby’s website, or the Barby page on the Mattel website. So Barby was traditionally seen as a very feminine character. And the colour pink has been used for decades across their marketing and their packaging as well. And now it has been brought over to their website and it portrays that sense of youth femininity as well. And it really does suit the product that they are trying to sell.


As pink does convey that, they have really stuck with that with all of their marketing, their product packaging, and now their website as well. Next, we have red. And red traditionally represents power, passion, life, romance, danger, etc. A popular example would be Red Bull. So Red Bull does use a lot of red within their packaging, and they bring it forward slightly on their website. The red is seen as a call-to-action colour. So you have got the buttons that are highlighted in red.

Call to action colours, when they are highlighted in a dark colour like that, engages the user and leads them to click on what it is that you want them to do. In this example, they’re using the colour red to draw users to their products and essentially go through all their products. That’s the main thing that they want this website to do. So it’s a really good example of how the colours that you use can essentially lead users to do exactly what it is that you want them to do on your website. Next is the colour orange, and that is associated with words like friendliness, spontaneous, confidence, and so on.


So, for example, Fanta uses a lot of orange in their branding. They brought it over on their website as well. But you can see that the orange makes it very fun and engaging and does promote that friendliness vibe onto their website. You can see that their buttons and their call to action are a darker shade of yellow as well. So again, it is a different way of using your colour schemes and your complementary colours in order to lead the users to what you want them to go to, whether that is to explore your product, buy your products, or get in contact. You would use colours like that to lead your users to the right place on your website.

The next colour is blue. And blue is a colour that is mostly associated with trust, dependability, calmness, and smartness. And you see this in a lot of social media examples. For example, Twitter and lots of other social media, for example Facebook, they use blue as their main colour to convey that calmness and trust as well. People are more inclined to use websites that have associated with blue because there is that trust.


It is a colour that does promote a lot of trust. Twitter is an example. Facebook is another example. You can see Facebook, their logo is fully blue and all of their accent colours, and their call to action colours are blue as well to guide you in the right direction, but also make sure that you are going to the place that they want you to go to. The next colour on the colour wheel is yellow.

Yellow is a colour that is traditionally associated with sunshine, happiness, and just a really nice feeling in general. Mcdonald’s is a big user of yellow so you can see it in their logo. It is used across their website extensively. So it is used in a lot of their call to action, their accent colours and so on. It is a very bright, uplifting colour, and it makes you feel good when you are using it. So yellow is a great colour to have if you want to evoke that sense of joy and happiness. And again, they are using their main accent colour as the called action colour to guide the user to where it is that they want to go on their website, whether that is to order something or to find out more.

It helps the users navigate across their website instead of them being everything blending together within their background. So it is a really good colour to have. Another colour is black. Black invokes the sense of boldness, mystery, and strength. A really popular example of brands using black is Nike. So Nike uses a lot of black on their website. Black and white are both used, and black is used to break up the content a little bit. But again, it evokes that sense of boldness, which is a really good thing for Nike to be associated with, and strength as well.

Again, those are common themes that work with Nike. So they use a lot of that in their logo. They use black in their cross-branding, and they use it on their website as well. Moreover, they use it to separate out the different calls to action on their website. So it is a good colour to use. Purple, as we mentioned, evokes a sense of loyalty, luxury, prestige, decadence, etc. And we see that a lot in Cadbury’s website and Cadbury’s branding as well. It just seems like a more expensive and luxury product compared to the other competitors that they might have out there.


Brown is another colour that you can use in your branding. Brown represents protectiveness, reliability, and a sense of wholeness. Hershey’s used it a lot in their packaging and they use it nicely on their website as well. And again, they use those colours to guide the user to their nav bar. They guide it to their main call to action, whether it is to listen to something or to just move on to another page and so on. And finally, another colour that provokes a really strong sense with their colour is green.

Green is very strongly associated with being eco-friendly, healthy, wellness, and outdoors. And a really good example of a company that employs a lot of green to convey that is Whole Foods Market. You can see on their website, a lot of them use green to portray that sense of “this is a very earthy and eco-friendly company”, or at least that is what they want to portray at the forefront of their business. A lot of their branding is to do with health and wellness, and the green really portrays that. And again, they use green as an accent colour and use that for their call to action, their call to action banners, their contact banners, and more.


So it is a really good colour for that. However, it also just means they are using it in a way that conveys exactly how they want your website, andhow they want you to perceive their branding. So those are just some colours. And again, the psychology of colours, the meaning of it is subjective, and it can change from person to person. But those are just what they are traditionally used for known for even to this day.

Knowing which colours will promote the right emotion and identity for your brand is a huge part of choosing the right colour scheme for your website. And all of that will help balance out colours on your website. However, it is really important to make sure that the colours balance out. So it is recommended that you break down the colours you want into three main categories. You have got your main colours, your pop colours, and you have got your neutral colours. So main colours are what will be used, for example, for approximately 75 % of your website design. You use these colours on every page of your website for content, headers, and general information.


Then you’ve got pop colours; those are these colours that are used sparingly throughout your website. Pop colours are used to highlight only the most important information your customer needs, such as your call to action. And this can be in the form of a button, it can be in the form of a banner or a form or something like it. And then you’ve got your neutral colours. So neutral colours are used sparingly, but more often than pop colours. These colours are used for backgrounds, negative or empty space and within your content.

How to choose the colour scheme that is correct for your website? One of the good ways to do it is to break down your colours into the main colours, pop colours and neutral colours. In order to choose the correct colour scheme for your website, you will have to take into account all the information given in this article. So what type of emotion or feeling do you want your website to convey? Do you want to use primary, secondary or tertiary colours? For example, if you own a yoga studio that focuses on mental wellbeing and strength, green may be the perfect starter colour for you to look at.

Green can bring that feeling of nature, well-being, and energy, and it is really perfect for inspiring yoga customers to try yoga, at least. The next step is to choose how many colours you want to work with.By taking a look at the different colour harmony techniques, this can be narrowed down. Then based on your main colour, you can decide to use similar colours with the analogous technique or completely opposite colours by using the complementary colours technique.

The best tip for any colour theory beginner is to keep your colour scheme simple and incorporate your branding. So when you are building a website, brand identity is insanely important. You want to make sure that your site will convey the right message to promote your brand and, most importantly, keep customers engaged with your site. All of this can be achieved by choosing the right colour scheme. Not only is this helpful for your website, but the same colour scheme can then be used for packaging, social media posts, and many more promotional aids. By choosing a colour scheme that works for you and your brand, you take the first step towards designing an amazing standout website.

Website Platforms for Creating Your Brand Palette

Moreover, there are some website platforms out there that make it really easy to design your website; design to create a brand palette and apply that to your site. They do most of the work for you in terms of applying the correct colour schemes to the correct branding on your site. For example, the Wix platform, you will notice when you are on the Wix Editor. So if you are on your editor, there is an icon for site design, and you can see they have something called the site theme, and this is your site colour palette.

If you click on customize, you can customize the colours and you can see that they have broken down the colours into five different colour forms. Color one, for example, are colours used for the background and text across your website. If you have added Wix apps like Wix stores, Wix blogs to your site, those pages use the same background colour and text as well. In a lot of cases, you will see that the brightest tint is used for the background, while the darkest tint is used as the text. With Wix, we recommend creating a high-contrast preparing so that the information on your site is easy to read.

Colour two is your action colour, and this is also known as a call-to-action colour, and it is used to drive visitors to make the choices that you want by selecting an action colour that stands out. This colour is used for action elements like links, buttons, and menu elements. It also appears in themed elements like buttons and boxes, as well as pages related to Wix apps. The tint in the middle of colour two is used most frequently. So we recommend choosing one that contrasts with your background colour. This ensures that the most important elements in your site area are accessible and noticeable.

Colousr three, four, and five are additional colours. So you can choose up to three additional colours to complete your colour scheme. These are displayed in various places across your site, so you want to make sure you pick complementary colours to the other colours that you have chosen so that it all works together. If you are having trouble with picking a colour scheme yourself, you can choose an existing theme that they have. So, for example, if you wanted to use one of their themes, they have a preview that will show you different colours that are being used in that theme. And what you can do is you can click on a theme colour and it will update your site with that theme colour. And that way it takes away a lot of the stress of picking out colours.

So if you are not sure about what blind colours to use, you can just use one of their existing colours as well. And they will apply to your site theme in any way that you want. Or you can use it as a starting off. So you can start off with the colours that they give you and then click on Colours and update one of the colours if you are not happy with one of them. However, they break it down for you, so it’s a good way to ensure that you are using the correct colours and you have the colours that you want to be used on your site.

When building a website, brand identity is extremely important, and we have seen that so far. You want to be sure that your site will convey the right message, promote your brand, and, most importantly, keep your customers engaged with your site. So by choosing a colour scheme that works for you and your brand, you take the first step to designing an amazing standout website. To find out more about perfecting your website, contact ProfileTree using our contact details below.