Website color schemes: Theory, practice, and inspiration

Color is a key component of your business’s branding, and also helps communicate important messaging to users as they interact with your site.

As designers, we love the color. Having an infinite color palette and the ability to choose options that represent a brand makes this an exciting part of the web design process. The brand you’re designing for should always be the main focus when creating a color scheme.

Color choices should always align with the values the brand stands for.

How to think about color schemes and your brand

When starting a web design project, you may be working with an established brand. No matter what stage the client is in, try to be mindful of what’s already recognized in the market (and therefore shouldn’t change) and what opportunities there are for change.

Advice for established brands

1. Presentation is everything
2. Show your work sooner than later
3. Find a mentor
4. Don’t work alone

Most people would say red. Consumers are used to seeing this brand in stores, restaurants, and other places. To stay on brand, the Coca-Cola website incorporates red to tie in with the overall brand.

Advice for new brands

If you’re in this situation and brand guidelines need to be established, it’s important to consider the color scheme before fully launching the website. You can always test and change things later, but it’ll help to review mockups of the color scheme first before actually building it out.