What Does Color Mean to Your Blog? Why You Should Care
by Jeremy Krakowski
I wrote an article for the Emerald Newsletter this month, http://www.arealchange.com/emerald, and it was so well received that Sandi asked me to give a few of the nuggets that I shared in that article with our main blog! I’m so excited to share this topic with you today as it’s something that I am passionate about, but first some background on myself and what I do here at A Real Change International, Inc.
My name is Jeremy Krakowski and I am the Media Director for A Real Change, which means I'm in charge of the graphics, audio, video, and other aspects of design for the company (with respect to what works and what Sandi wants done). I am very passionate about color and what it represents. And it’s really an integral part to everything that I choose to do.
Color tells a story, a very big story. It speaks, it’s alive. It’s living breathing, God created such a wide range of colors for a reason and that reason, is beyond just being variety, ie. “the spice of life” – but it speaks to us, creates emotion inside of our souls. Even with the release of the Apple iPhone 5s, Jony Ive, the brilliant mind behind the designs of Apple Computer used color to tell the iPhone story in a remarkable new way, beyond anything that was done before (well, since the original iMac).
Red symbolizes strength, where as White symbolizes purity and innocence, Black is dignified and professional. Green is the prime color of the world, and the earth; It signifies growth and life.
Being able to use colors properly on your website, pictures and blogs has a great impact on how it is perceived by your target audience! What work’s for one may not work so well for another! But how can you actually KNOW what colors are good and go together? Half of it is how they “feel” and what they are telling you, but the other half is knowing what works well together and doing proper research to create a palette.
I want to give you an example of this in action. We recently had a class called Information Publishing Made Simple. I had to come up with a solution that represented growth, new creation, and building a business in info publishing using graphic design.
After I identified some colors I wanted to use, I made sure they were complimentary using one of my favorite web apps (and now an iPhone application, to capture color on the go) called Kuler by Adobe.
This is huge, so make sure you don’t miss this. Write this website down and save it to your favorites: http://kuler.adobe.com
Take a look at the picture above. This image is how designers used to have to pick color schemes, by finding photographs and then comparing the color tones to pantone color palettes. Today, we can use Adobe Kuler to do that exact same thing, in a fraction of the time.
I find the Adobe Kuler app to be a breakthrough in creating color palettes and the best part is that it is absolutely free! The possibilities are endless with this software and iPhone application. I suggest you check it out and play around.
Finding the right color doesn’t have to be hard, with a little creative research and fun, you can find color schemes for your next graphic, website, or product.
Jeremy Krakowski
