Complimentry Colours: Ultimate Guide to Colour Theory

Colour has an important part to play in communication of any kind, involved with emotions, stimulus to the mind, perception, and recognition of brands. Complimentry colours are one of the most used colour theory principles which contribute to balance, contrast and harmony when you’re using them in your design. A thorough understanding of how to apply them ensures that every printed marketing material, interior design, and branding element stands out effectively.

What are Complementary Colours: Why do They Matter?

Complementary colours are a pair of hues on the colour compliment wheel that sit opposite each other. Secondly, these combinations generate a notable contrast, for example, blue and orange or red and green, which improve the appearance. They are strategically used by designers and marketers to draw attention, create emotions in branding, advertisements and even construction hoarding.

What Makes them Stand Out?

Colours that are complementary originate from the traditional colour complement wheel. That is, these are pairs of colours directly opposite of each other, for which the visual contrast is the strongest. Some well-known complementary pairs include:

• Appropriate for festive decoration and branding: Red and Green.
• Sports team logos and advertising use Blue and Orange.
• Yellow and Purple are seen in luxury and entertainment branding.

Complementary colours are perfect to use for marketing, designing the product package, and digital designs.

Colour Compliment Wheel: A Designer’s Best Friend

A colour-compliment wheel is a must-have tool in the design world. It will help the professionals to find out the appropriate colour combination and evoke different emotions with it. The wheel consists of:

• Primary Colours – Red, Blue, and Yellow
• Green, Orange, Purple – (created by mixing of the primary colours) Secondary Colours
• Shades – Three colours that are created by mixing two primaries.

The colour complement wheel allows brands and designers to create visual contrast, which will attract and help brand identity.

For instance, branding panels on the storefront and marketing pieces will feature a complementary colour scheme to make them visible and brand-aware. Since the market can often be overcrowded, businesses can achieve value by contrasting the colours they are using to make a statement in that marketplace.

What are the Contrasting Colours: Are they different from Complementary Colours?

Complimentary colours restrict themselves only to direct opposites, but the contrast colours deal with it further. Readability and readability require contrast in design; focus, and aesthetic appeal require contrast, too.

The contrasting colour schemes are of three general types.

• Light vs Dark: High contrast for readability (e.g., black text on a white background).
• Warm vs Cool: This creates depth and mood (e.g., red against blue).
• Saturated vs Desaturated:  Choose the way of making certain elements stand out by saturating or not.

Using the contrasting colours principle in digital design will help to make clarity, eliminate visual fatigue, and promote engagement.

How to Use Complementary Colours Effectively

Knowing how to use complementary colours can have a huge effect on the perception of your customer. Some effective strategies include:

1. Branding and Logo Design

Colours that complement one another are used by major brands to create contrast and to ensure that the logos of the brands are immediately recognisable.

For example:

• FedEx uses orange and purple for a vibrant, trustworthy appeal.
• Blue and orange give Fanta an energetic freshness.

To learn more, visit this guide on, how effectively you can use complementary colours for hoarding panels to make them visually appealing.

2. Marketing and Advertising

Complimentary colours are also used for advertisements, posters, or digital banners to have an impact on potential customers. In hoarding construction, there are the right colour combinations which can make advertisements more visible on construction site hoardings such that the displayed information comes into the engagement of passersby.

3. Interior and Web Design

Complementary colour schemes are commonly applied in website design and interior design to make the environment aesthetically good. A well-balanced colour palette allows the user to have a positive experience and for the brand to be represented.

Research showed that up to 85% of brands are recognised more easily when there is use of colour  (Hubspot). For this reason, businesses carefully select colours from the colour compliment wheel to use for their logos, packaging, and marketing materials but with contrasting shades.

Conclusion

Whether it’s branding, advertising or web design, which one is the best is a major decision taken by designers and others: mastering the use of complimentary colours can elevate the design project to new levels. The colour compliment wheel helps in arranging visually pleasing colour combinations with a structured approach and the basic principles of what colours should contrast with each other to ensure that designs are neat and clear.