In Talking Color

Today I decided to take a detour from my assignment and genre specific research in order to start looking at one of the most basic design elements I’m inevitably going to have to make a decision on: Color. As I’m sure you can tell by the hideous color palette of this blog, I don’t have a natural eye for color. If I had my way, the world would be a monochromatic 1950’s sitcom. But, anyway, a unique color pattern that has been carefully planned with respect to target audience is more important than personal preference when it come to media production. So, I perused the web looking for some insightful design tips on what colors work together and what these colors mean. Thankfully, my regular coursework for this class has given me a background in elementary color pop-psychology. However, this article I found (URL and citation included below) gave me some of the additional info I needed. It discusses color theory, and specifically the taxonomy of colors into warm and cool designations. It goes on to describe the calming and refined effects of blue. According to the author, blue is a color of trustworthiness and dependability. I can think of no better quality that I would want to attribute to a political-themed magazine. So without further ado, and with the help of the image editor on google docs, I am going to present a few options of color schemes for my border and masthead.

Choice 1

Choice 2

While both of these possibilities have merit, I’m going to have to say that the second one seems more right for this project. While all of the colors seem to fit the right tone of the magazine, I like the bottom right color the most. It is bright enough to catch attention and exude importance. I decided to try the color out on a masthead in the Cinzel font just to check it out, and I really like the result. I think I will choose this as my title color for my articles as well. As for the gray, I’m slightly unsure about it and will likely change it once I know what my color image will be.

Left of Center

Chapman, Cameron. "Color Theory for Designers, Part 1: The Meaning of Color – Smashing Magazine." Smashing Magazine. N.p., 17 Dec. 2016. Web. 16 Mar. 2017. <https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/01/color-theory-for-designers-part-1-the-meaning-of-color/>.