Pantone Booklet - Use of Colour within Graphic Design

Colour creates life, it is everywhere around us, which means so is inspiration. Within Graphic Design colour can be used in many different ways, it is either used subjectively, as everyone has different perceptions of colours. What one person may think is a harmonious colour scheme, another may disagree. Just as when you ask, ‘What’s you favourite colour?’. Everyone’s answer is different. As Johannes Utten stated, ‘colour is in the eye of the beholder.’

It’s used within branding to be remembered, colour is the most influential part of a design and is what we recognise and relate to first before we even begin to read any text. It can be used on gig posters and book covers to convey a message, or create a sense of emotion or feeling within the song or text. 

Colours aren’t just pretty, they are used by physicians, chemists, physiologists, psychologists to young children. They represent our world, emotions, feelings, our thoughts, our likes and dislikes, and all these factors have to be taken into consideration when designing. It’s not all about harmonious colours, it’s a deeper meaning of how colour makes people feel and communicate, rather than what two colours look like next to each other. After all is’t that what graphic design is all about, having meaning to convey a message. 

Looking into colour trends within Graphic Design, Blue is the most used, also using only two colours is very popular within design. Which relates to the idea of recognition using only colour, colour creates a more memorable impact within a design, and using only a limited colour palette lends itself to sustainability and ethics of design, as less colours obviously means less printing costs, this type of design is best for the environment. ‘Overall a limited colour palette is more efficient.’

Within design, colour is used to provoke thoughts, feelings and attention. If all design was in black and white, it would lose it’s meaning and would be extremely monotonous. Using colour trends within design is actually quite thoughtless, as what colours may convey a certain feeling in another’s work may not be the feeling and thoughts behind your own. Colour needs to have a reason, it can’t just be your favourite colour, or a colour that you have seen another designer used. Colour should stay subjective, which means one colour cannot be right for everything. for example the Pantone colours of the year, ‘Colour decisions shouldn’t be made for us’.