Colour palettes can be seen everywhere. They are an area which designers much consider when working on a project. A well considered palette is as important as the grid, the choice and layout of type, the concept or any other element the designer takes into consideration.

For the most part, designs that are viewed from a distance or up close for that matter are heavily reliant on colour to grab the eye of the viewer. If you see something from a distance it's much harder if not impossible to see detail or read it, but easy to spot what colours make up the image. We see image then decode it. We see the shape, the colour & the text, then instantly decode what we see and try to make sense of the image.

Here are some way of approaching colour palettes. I took these photos to observe colour palettes:

Trolley

Chairs

Arm Chair

Fire Extinguisher

This can be applied to any objects. Try it.

There are plenty of websites that can generate palettes for you based on the image you upload but sometimes its better when you do it yourself.

Degraeve.com

colourlovers.com

Check out Muggie Ramadani Design Studio, there design process is inspirational.

Also, I totally forgot, check out http://kuler.adobe.com/

I hope this inspires you in your next project.

About the author

My name is Youssef Sarhan and I am a Graphic Design student at The National College of Art & Design, Ireland. I co-founded WhiteInk with my friend Tim Phelan; which we occasionally write on. I also talk about and give tutorials on motion design at Keyframe Kid. Have a read of either to learn more about who I am and what I do.

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