Making Your Website Pretty: Choosing Colours

When it comes to the look of your website, colour scheme is very important. It’s something that a visitor will notice as soon as they land on your page (whether they realize it or not). The colours of your site will set the tone. For example, if you want to portray a sleek, professional look, a monochromatic colour scheme of black and grey tones is a good starting point. If you’re going for a more inviting, family-oriented look, you could try something brighter with 2 or more contrasting colours. The possibilities for colour are endless. The trick is to finding the best combinations for the message and tone you want to brand yourself with.

Over the course of the next few weeks I will introduce you to some classic colour schemes, with ideas as to how you can adopt them yourself to communicate your desired tone.

The first of the classic colour schemes we will go over is one of the most basic, but still most widely used:

The Monochromatic Colour Scheme

A monochromatic colour scheme pulls from different shades of a single colour. Variations in lightness and saturation of the colour will form your palette. This is a really easy colour scheme to get right – you never have to worry about the colours clashing or if one colour complements another, because you are working with shades of the same colour.

This colour scheme can lack contrast. To spice it up, try adding a pop of bright colour as an accent. This can elevate your colour scheme to something that says “wow”.

Here are some websites with Monochromatic Colour Schemes:

Prudential Example - www.prudentialexample.com

This is an example of a monochromatic blue colour scheme. The background, drop down menu and header banner all pull from the same blue tone. The site looks cohesive and professional. Even the colour of the agent’s shirt complements the palette.

Example #2 – Example Real Estate Agent

This is an example of a monochromatic gray colour scheme, but with the introduction of a red accent colour. Using just a small amount of this bold colour adds enough contrast to catch a visitor’s eye.

Authored By: Tara, Client Relations