I'm putting together a small flier for my company. I am adjusting a template that I purchased on the web to suit my needs.
My logo has 2 colors: blue #263B79, which is the main one, and orange #EF3520, which is the "accent" color. The flier comes with a header that has a solid color background (currently #3EC7B8).
How can I choose a good background color for this logo? Are there any rules (of thumb) I should follow?
Thanks in advance.
There are lots of rules of thumb you could follow when picking colors! Here is a great post if you'd like a crash course in color theory and color relationships.
The main takeaway:
Color relationships are set methods of choosing colors that relate in some way to each other and look good together... There are seven color relationships: monochrome, analogous, complementary, triad, tetrad, neutral, and random.
I think your main two color values fall most closely into the clashing or random color relationship.
This is when your color scheme isn’t methodically chosen; there’s no direct relationship to the colors, and no set way of picking them.
Why it works: These can feel intimidating, but they don’t need to be. Think of red and blue; those two colors aren’t next to each other, or directly across from each other. They have no real relationship to each other that makes sense, but they still look good together. There’s nothing clashing about them – our eyes still find them pleasing. That’s the very definition of a random relationship that works.
When to use them: I’ve found that a lot of random color schemes that I’ve used were happy accidents. Because they don’t fit into a pattern like the other color relationships do, there’s going to be a lot of visual interest and contrast with random colors, simply because our brains want to classify or puzzle out a relationship that isn’t there. So, use these when you want a more complex color scheme that is inherently interesting or a lot of contrast.
Bottom line: Even with color theory rules and guidelines, color choice can be a pretty subjective process. You can educate yourself on some of the theories behind why colors work well together to better make your own informed decision.
You can use https://color.adobe.com/explore/ to complete your color scheme. For example, you can search for blue and orange and the website will return several schemes that contain your colors. Choose what scheme you like, click on "Info" and take the hexa code. Hope it will help you :)
You could go for the color that is complementary with your main color (#263B79) or with your accent color if you're not happy with the result.
The Color Scheme Designer allows you to quickly find complementary colors by providing the RGB code of your desired one.
However, if you are not satisfied with this approach, I assume a white background would go well with your color scheme, if you can find a way to integrate it in the flyer.
The background is not really defined by your logo, but with the overall design. Lets say the design of the website. The one that define this is the identity brand manual.
Although this changes with trends a white background is the prefered one.
You also can make a white only or black only versions to combine with any color.
And you can try a white outline arround the logo and use one of the corporative colors again.
In general, this background color should be part of your brand. Try to avoid colors that are not part of your logo.
Imagine a bank logo that is red. But you choose a complementary color for the background... then, all the site will be green, and your bank will be asociated with green, not red. That is so not good!
