How to Choose the Right Color Scheme for a Website
Choosing a color scheme for your website is much more than an artistic choice. The colors you use can impact everything from brand identity to sales, directly influencing the success of your website or your client’s.
Understanding color theory
In traditional color theory, primary colors are red, yellow, and blue. In the web design world, we use red, green, and blue (RGB). This RGB color model is designed for electronic displays like computers, smartphones, and televisions.
In digital design, RGB values range from 0 to 255 for each color channel:
Pure red is represented as rgb(255, 0, 0)
Pure green is rgb(0, 255, 0)
Pure blue is rgb(0, 0, 255)
White is all colors at full intensity: rgb(255, 255, 255)
Black is the absence of all colors: rgb(0, 0, 0)
Changing these three values helps web designers create millions of different colors. For example, a burnt orange color is rgb(191, 87, 0), while a sky blue is rgb(135, 206, 235).
You’ve likely seen the RGB color picker wheel in design applications. This tool visualizes how the primary colors blend and helps you pick precise color values for your web design projects. Many of these tools help you experiment with different color harmony rules:
Monochromatic: different shades and tints of the base color
Analogous: colors next to the base color on the color wheel
Complementary: colors opposite the base color on the color wheel
Triadic: three colors evenly spaced on the color wheel
A basic understanding of color theory and color harmony rules is essential for creating a well-balanced and visually appealing color palette in your design work, ensuring that every element aligns with the client's brand identity and effectively communicates the desired mood and message.
The role of color in web design
When applying color theory to web design, consider how colors can affect emotion and behavior. There's an entire field of color psychology, most of which is rooted in location, culture, and history. For instance, in some cultures, red makes you feel energized, while blue makes you feel calm and relaxed. In others, red symbolizes danger and blue represents wisdom.
As designers, it’s important to recognize the feelings colors can evoke and how color can drive behavior. For example, you may decide to style a bright button color to highlight a call-to-action.
Practical tips for choosing color schemes
When you create a color scheme for a website, there are some things to consider:
1. The brand
Sometimes your client will provide you with a complete brand guide, which includes color usage. If not, ask them to share adjectives that describe their brand and website visitors. Then research their competitors. You’ll want to choose colors that help them stand out, while remaining true to their brand and expectations.
2. The base color
Think about what color aligns with the brand and its main characteristics. For example, blue for trust and corporations, green for calm and health, or red for energetic brands (at least in North America… more on this later!).
3. Color combinations
Add your base color to a color combination tool to experiment with different color harmony rules and create the rest of your palette.
4. Try the 60-30-10 rule
Use your base color for 60% of the design, such as for backgrounds and larger elements. Use a secondary color for 30%, like headers or other key graphics. Then use an accent color for 10%. This is great for calls-to-action.
5. Test for accessibility
Use a contrast checker to ensure the text is easy to read against the background. Discover resources to help you build more accessible Squarespace websites.
Applying your color scheme to Squarespace
When building a website on Squarespace, you’ll set your color palette in the Site Styles panel. Squarespace offers five color options for the palette, such as the following:
White or off-white
Light color
Accent color
Dark color
Black or off-black
These colors inform section backgrounds and impact the colors within each type of block: text, shapes, buttons, and more.
Pro tip: In the platform, swap out the colors in the palette to update the look of the entire site and show your clients what you have in mind on a template before beginning the site design. If you have more than five colors in the brand’s palette, consider using the additional colors in blocks that support custom colors (like shapes), or in the images you upload to the site.
Sample color combinations for different websites
The following examples demonstrate how to harness the power of color to achieve your design goals:
Editorial and portfolio sites
Editorial sites often rely on white, black, and shades of gray. This minimal look also serves some portfolio sites and ecommerce sites that have images in many different colorways. Staying neutral with your color palette means you aren’t competing with the showcased work or products.
Business sites
Businesses that want to portray a professional and trustworthy brand frequently use color schemes that include grays, blues, and greens. Try this palette for a site in the commercial or financial sector.
Bold brand sites
Bold brands wanting to stand out can do that with a punchy color scheme. The following example pairs bright neon hues with standard black and white for a visually engaging brand.
The sky is the limit when it comes to creating a color scheme for your brand, and sometimes rules (like choosing a typical base color or relying on the 60-30-10 split) are made to be broken.
Common color combination mistakes
There are a few mistakes to avoid when choosing the color scheme for a website. This includes forcing too many colors. Site visitors have limited attention spans and want to easily absorb the information they need. But if there are too many colors competing for their attention, they won’t know where to look on the page.
Another common mistake is neglecting accessibility best practices. For instance, think about websites where the text is difficult to read because there isn’t enough contrast between the text and the background. Contrast is just one place this comes into play, but it's important to consider your client’s visitors and ensure they can read and interact with your website.
Lastly, be aware of cultural implications of colors. Frequently, companies overlook the impact of their color choices on international audiences. If your client's website aims to attract a diverse audience or a culture different from your own, it's important to research and ensure that the colors used are suitable for evoking the desired emotions and actions.
Selecting colors for websites
Selecting website colors is a key factor in how your client’s website is perceived. A carefully curated color scheme can significantly elevate a web design project by creating a cohesive visual experience that resonates with the audience. It not only enhances the aesthetic appeal but also supports usability by guiding visitors’ attention to key elements and improving navigation. Moreover, the right colors can evoke specific emotions and associations, aligning with the brand’s message and increasing user engagement.
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