So Many Colors: 4 Great Resources to Make Life Easier

I struggle with colors, especially when it comes to matching. Without any formal training, it’s been tough to know what really works and what colors to use if I’m trying to achieve a specific purpose, like motivating learners or gaining subscribers.

I’ve spent countless hours obsessing over colors and have found several helpful resources that help take some of the guess work out of it for me. Hopefully one of my four favs will save some color-challenged designer from the eyestrain that I’ve come to associate with color matching.

Material Design Palette

The feature that I use the most on this site is the palette. You simply choose two colors that you want to work with and voilà – you’ve got yourself a palette! Since I invested in Camtasia for school, as well as to build my video editing skills, I made my first very short, very silent tutorial on how this baby works:

Besides the palette feature, the icons and colors sections are worth checking out as well.

Color Lisa

This site is more inspirational for me than it is functional, but I spend a lot of time on here looking at beautiful colors. If you love a famous work of art, this site might be able to provide you with the color palette. For example, one of my favorites is The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai, and with the click of a button, this site provided me with an inspired color palette to use as I wish:

The Psychology of Color

I became enamored with Neil Patel a few years ago when I stumbled upon the guide that he co-wrote with Bronson Taylor, The Definitive Guide to Growth Hacking. It really spoke to me and helped me uncover my natural ability to understand consumer behavior. I subscribed to his blog and was really excited when I heard about another guide that he co-wrote with Rita Puri, The Complete Guide to Understanding Consumer Psychology.

Chapter Four, The Psychology of Color is amazing and is one that I look at on a regular basis. For example, this is just one section of an infographic that conveys a lot of super helpful information:

Hell-ooo-OOO Red Orange, Black and Royal Blue!

Colordot

I took what I learned from designing the first business card in my series, networking like a shark, and got to work on the next one.

I minimized both screens (Canva and Colordot) and put them side-by-side to use Colordot to find a green close to one on the image on the back of the card.

Please let me know if you have any recommendations for color matching resources – I’d love to hear what you use and how you use it so I can give it a try!