Now, it is time to reveal the secrets of how designers and artists choose colors to create stunning and emotional images that imprint in people's minds. They use an astonishing combination of art and science called the color theory, to create color harmony.

Color wheel basics

The invention of the color theory dates back to 1666 when Isaac Newton mapped the visible spectrum on a wheel. Painters, designers, VFX artists, and anyone who deals with visuals use it to summon particular emotions and feelings from the audience.

The color wheel not only shows the existing colors but also depicts relationships between them, in order to locate which combinations create the most eye-pleasing effect when put next to each other.

The color wheel demonstrates the 12 main colors which are red, blue, yellow, green, orange, violet, blue-green, yellow-green, yellow-orange, red-orange, red-violet, and blue-violet.

Color wheel by tomboy-fashion.com

These colors in the center of the wheel are called primary colors. In the RYB color wheel, those are red, yellow, and blue. When you mix any two primary colors, you get secondary colors, which are green, orange, and violet.

By combining one of the primary colors with one of the secondary ones, you will get tertiary colors. Among them are yellow-orange, yellow-green, red-orange, red-violet, blue-green, and blue-violet.

Apart from screening Dribble in search of inspiration, web designers use a slew of online services to streamline their work. They are extremely useful and simple to work with:

• Color Hunt
• Paletton
• Colormind
• ColorSpace

Color terminology explained

The world of color, art, and design may only seem chaotic. In reality, it follows a set of pretty strict rules and has its own technical language. Learning some basic terminology before taping into the ocean of infinite color combinations might be extremely helpful when it comes to describing your requests to the design unit.

• Hue. Artists and designers often use this term interchangeably when they mean the term "color." While the latter is used to describe all colors in general, including black, grey, and white, the term "hue" refers to one of the primary or secondary colors on the color wheel as the base of the color we actually see.
• Tint. Use this term when you need to describe a hue with white added to it. Tints may range from a slightly paler version of a given hue to the almost completely white with a dash of color.
• Shade. The opposite of tint, if short. This term represents a hue when you add different amounts of black to it. Imagine how colors in the room become darker and darker when you start dimming the lights. Different shades of a hue may vary from a slightly darker version to almost black.
• Tone. The effect of a "tone" represents variations of a certain hue but instead of adding pure white or black, you add a combination of two colors. Which is any grayscale color, excluding pure white or black.
• Color temperature: warm vs cool. Simply put, it refers to "warm" colors like red, orange, and yellow and combinations of these colors and their hues. Warm colors are typically associated with sunshine, energy, and heat. "Cool" colors presented by blue, green, and light purple, refer to freshness and chill.