4 Easy Color Schemes You Can Use to Design Your Ads

By Carla San Gaspar

Creating your own design for color printing marketing materials is easy when you know the basics of color harmony. Whether you're designing a poster or a business card, understanding a few color schemes is a great way to create unity in your designs. Grab a color wheel and jumpstart your creativity.

1. Monochromatic
   • This color scheme uses one pure color in different tints and shades. A tint is simply a pure color added with white, while a shade is a pure color that is added with black.
   • The monochromatic color scheme is the easiest and safest color scheme to work with when you're simply starting out.
   • Using solid white, black, and gray is a great way to make your colors stand out. Gradients that recede can be used as background.
   • Although this color scheme can be used stylishly in expert hands, you can simply use this to create simple and manageable prints that focus more on content rather than style.
   • You can use this scheme for business cards that aim to establish a color your customers can associate with your business.
2. Achromatic
   • This also falls under the monochromatic color scheme but deserves special attention. It literally means no color. It is a combination of black, white, and different levels of gray.
   • It can be used to set your marketing materials apart from all the other full colored prints, and give the air of power, superiority, or purity as is often associated with black or white.
   • Be sure to have pure black and pure white incorporated into your print, as well as a wide range of gray. A relatively flat gray design may make your print look muddy and bland.
   • You can use this color scheme if your business image is simple but elegant.
3. Analogous
   • This color scheme uses the colors adjacent to your dominant color. If your base color is orange for instance, your analogous color scheme will include yellow orange, and red orange. It looks almost like a monochromatic scheme.
   • Designs that use analogous color schemes often feel harmonious and unified. Because the colors appear slightly similar, they may appear to lack impact. You can remedy this by adjusting the saturation of your colors. Make some of the colors appear duller and make your dominant more vivid to create a more striking design.
   • This color scheme is great for brochures, catalogues, and websites that take more time to read and can benefit from a relaxing color scheme.
4. Complementary
   • This uses a color that is directly the opposite of the dominant color in the color wheel and creates high contrast. It is a more dynamic combination where the dominant color naturally stands out.
   • You should avoid foreground and background combinations though as they may give your viewers an eyesore. You should also avoid discordant schemes or colors that are in between being complementary and analogous: not quite opposite, but is too far to be analogous.
   • You can use complementary color schemes in color printing your outdoor advertisements like banners, posters, and even flyers that need to catch your customers' eyes.

Full color printing can aid to help in making colorful and vibrant prints. To find more of its procedures and application please feel free to visit color printing wholesale

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carla_San_Gaspar

Website Blunders - Never Use FrontPage Themes

By Linda Goldsborough

Front Page themes consist of unified designs and color schemes that take into account the use of navigation bars, fonts, bullets and other website components. While the front page themes can give a uniform look to the site they don't give a very professional appearance to your site. Sites using themes all tend to have the same bland look.

Many people are familiar with front page designs because they are commonly used by amateurs when setting up personal websites. Using these themes will mark your site as unprofessional and make some people leery about your business.

When designing your website you should try to make it look as professional as possible yet functional and unique. The best and easiest way to accomplish this is by using templates for website design. Templates are now available in many varieties so finding one to suit your business should be easy.

Before you choose a template for your site design spend some time looking at other web sites. Note what you like and what you dislike about certain sites. Make a list of things you think look professional on a web site. Also notice things such as navigation, links and color schemes. Take note of where you like to see certain features on the page. Make a sketch of what your ideal home page would look like.

Now you have a pretty good idea of what to look for in a template. You can look through templates until you find one that incorporates most of the features and colors you want. While you can make changes to templates they are easiest to use as-is. One of the first things that visitors will notice is the color scheme used. Try to make it one that stands out yet is not garish or gaudy. Find a template that has the proper amount of link buttons pre-made for you.

When looking for a template try to find one that looks professional and fits into the philosophy and product you are selling. Learn what the different colors mean. Blue and green are generally soothing colors while red and orange are active colors. Muted colors are more mundane while brighter colors tend to be more memorable. Make sure that your company name can fit properly in the allotted spaces and that you have enough link buttons for the functions you need. Finally, think about the overall look of the site and choose a template that reflects your company best.

To discover the Top 30 Website Blunders and how you can avoid them when launching your next website, please visit http://www.7dollarguides.com/blunders

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Linda_Goldsborough