Approximately 8% of men and 0.5% of women are affected by some form of color blindness. That’s 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women. While there are multiple forms of the condition, red/green color blindness is the most common. A person suffering from this form of color blindness will generally have trouble seeing variations of both red and green.
Red, White, and Blue
Published in
10 min read
Jun 29, 2017
Human-computer interactions are heavily based graphical UI elements and color plays a critical role in this.
When designing a new product, it’s often difficult to decide on the color scheme because of the infinite number of possible color combinations. In this article, we’ll cover eight basic rules that can help you select the right color palette.
Limit the Number of Colors
Applying color to a design project has a lot to do with balance. The more colors you use, the harder it is to achieve that balance. You will get better results if you stick to a maximum of 3 primary colors in your color scheme. According to a University of Toronto study on how people used Adobe Color CC, most people said they preferred simple color combinations that rely on only two or three colors.
If you need additional colors beyond those you’ve defined in your palette, make use of shades and tints.
How to Create a Scheme
So how do you choose those two or three colors? The color wheel can help.
There are a number of predefined color scheme standards that make creating new schemes easier, especially for beginners:
- Monochromatic. Monochromatic schemes are the simplest ones to create, as they’re all taken from the same color, but include variations in tints, shades, and tones. Monochromatic colors go well together, producing a soothing effect.
- Analogous. Analogous color schemes are created from related colors; one color is used as a dominant color while others are used to enrich the scheme. While this is relatively easy to pull off, the trick is in deciding the vibrancy of the colors you’re using, as the entire scheme will be exaggerated by it. For example, Clear, a gesture-driven to-do app, uses the striking analogous colors to visually prioritize your current set of tasks. While Calm, a meditation app, uses the analogous colors blue and green to help users feel relaxed and peaceful.
- Complementary. In their most basic form, these schemes consist of only two colors that contrast strongly. This scheme is used to attract the viewer’s attention. When using a complementary scheme, it is important to choose a dominant color and use its complementary color for accents. For example, when the human eye sees an object full of different kinds of greens, a bit of red is going to stand out very well.
- Custom. Creating a custom color scheme isn’t as complicated as many people think. There is a simple trick you can employ to create great color palette: Simply add a bright accent color into an otherwise neutral palette (e.g. a traditional monochromatic scheme). The newly-created scheme will be one that’s very visually striking.
Color Theory
So, the psychological benefits of wearing red are clear. But outside of trying to evoke the American flag, why do we think you should specifically pair it with blue? Simply put, the color wheel holds the answer here. Red is an intense color, and the richer of the two warm primary colors on the color wheel, the other of those being yellow. Thus, because it is often so bold and intense, it works better in smaller doses, when paired and grounded with a complementary cool color.
While red’s direct complement on the color wheel is actually green, the color green contains some warmth, given that it’s composed of blue and yellow. Also, the red and green color pairing has a particularly strong association with the Christmas holiday in many parts of the world. As such, at least in the world of menswear, it can often be a smarter choice to pair the intensity of red with the only cool primary color there is, blue. And another plus for using blue in this combination, as we’ve already said: blue is one of the staple colors of classic menswear, so you’ll be able to find it in almost any garment and in almost any shade.
Pairing Blue & Red: Accessories
With most brighter or more intense colors, the safest bet is to wear them in your accessories. Therefore, you can start by incorporating red into your tie or your pocket square, possibly also with blue. As we’ve said countless times before: when it comes to ties and pocket squares, don’t wear overly shiny satin silks, and don’t match your pocket square and tie together exactly. Both of these choices are just going to come off looking cheap and unstylish. Instead, you could try a tie that has some texture to it, like a grenadine tie or knit tie in red. Another option would be incorporating red into a pattern like a shantung striped tie or a medallion pocket square from Fort Belvedere.
For a different sort of accessory, you could also wear a red boutonniere, such as a carnation or a rose. Boutonnieres aren’t commonly worn by most men these days, so you’ll definitely stand out a bit if you try one, but if you’ve got one that’s working harmoniously in your outfit’s color palette, it’s going to look smart. You could also wear red cufflinks.
Socks
Qe, here at the Gentleman’s Gazette, are not big fans of outlandish or crazy socks (as we’ve discussed before) and as we’ve also said, red is an attention-grabbing color, so you have to decide–if you’re going to wear socks with red in them–whether you really want people’s attention directed at your ankles instead of your face. To balance this, you could go with a subtle yet distinctive option like the shadow striped socks featuring midnight blue and burgundy from Fort Belvedere.
You could also go a little bit bolder, such as shadow stripes featuring navy blue and red, or blue socks with red and white clock patterns. And of course, now would be a good time to note that not every element of your outfit has to feature both colors working together. You could, for example, wear socks that just had shades of blue or red on their own, and you could incorporate other accent colors as well as with any outfit. Just be sure that things are overall working harmoniously together and not fighting for the viewer’s attention.
