What role does color play in the design of a website?

Recently, I was talking with a client concerning the design we had created for his new website when he said, “Color doesn’t really matter, does it?” I quickly said “Yes, color matters very much.”

So many colors from which to choose

While anyone in marketing or design knows how important color can be, other people might not.  When color is not involved in what you do, I can see why you might think it’s not important and why it’s easy to overlook the role it plays in the design process.

Take a visit to your local paint store and look at all the paint samples.  You’ll see how many shades and tones there are of each color and quickly realize there’s so many more choices than just the basic green, blue or red.  In fact, you can go crazy looking at all those colors and trying to pick the exact ones you want, even if you have it narrowed down to a blue or green.

Now imagine you are designing a website and you need to pick colors that appeal to a specific demographic and that represent the perfect image you want you portray. Are you starting to understand why color is so important?

What color best represents your company?

If you have a cleaning company, you want your website to look clean and bright, to practically sparkle so we use white and fresh, vivid colors.  Using dark, dingy colors will give the visitors the wrong impression.  It’s often a subconscious message but your brain does react strongly to colors and so, it’s important to take this into consideration when planning a website.

It’s amazing how changing the background color will give the entire site a totally different feel.  We spend hours picking out just the right shade to use for each color and then, spend more time in deciding where and how to use each color.

So, whether you want your website to appear friendly and professional or strong and corporate, there’s colors that will give it just the right feel.  It just takes time to find the perfect color combination.