Whether you're designing a brand-new website or changing the color scheme of an existing one, the palette you pick is super important. After all, Sonoma County online marketing and branding relies heavily on color.

Have you ever noticed that the logos of nearly all fast food restaurants feature the colors red and yellow? This is so because they both promote hunger!

Colors can bring about all types of moods. For instance, blue denotes dependability. The color green can bring to mind nature or make you feel like something is fresh — a great color for healthy eating brands! Orange is often associated with fun, while black denotes elegance or luxury.

So, how do you choose the color palette for your own website?

Start with Psychology

As you can see from the associations we listed above, color psychology plays a vital role in marketing. The associations we make regarding color start as infants and tend to stay with us for our entire lives.

Diving into color psychology is super important if you are launching in the global market. Many color associations are cultural, and what means luxury to an American might mean something else entirely to your European market.

Learn Color Theory

Color theory is a body of rules and principles designers employ to engage consumers through visually appealing color schemes. Designers use a color wheel and comprehensive collected data about human optical ability, psychology, culture, and more to choose the ideal colors for a specific brand.

Colors are divided into three groups: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Then, to make things a little more advanced, you add in hue, chroma, and lighting. Color theory needs to be your friend if you want your website to have a cohesive and meaningful design.

Find Your Ideal Color Combination

Once you understand the psychology of colors and have mastered color theory, you can start thinking about color combinations. You may want to use complementary colors — ones that are across the color wheel from one another, like red and green.

You may want to find a triad which are colors evenly spaced on the color wheel. Red, blue, and yellow make up a triad. You could also choose a monochromatic color palette which would be a single color in various tones.

A Web Designer Can Help!

Finding the perfect palette for your Santa Rosa website design isn't something you have to do on your own. A web designer can help you understand the psychology and theory behind the colors. You can stick to what you do best — running your business.