Choosing colours for your packaging and designs can be considered one of the most important factors in packaging design strategy. Colours have the ability to assist consumers in decision making if used correctly. For example, if a designer can hone in on emotional needs of their target markets, they can then use colours which will provoke different emotions and sway purchasing decisions. Colours can also be used to persuade the consumers eyes into focusing in on certain elements of your packaging. Here are a few of the best places for choosing colours for packaging designers:
Colour theory is complex. You could spend the rest of your life becoming an expert on colour; but if you are just trying to get a decent foundation, start with Color Matters. Color Matters provides a lot of great content and resources.
Palleton is great when you’ve run out of ideas and need something to just throw ideas at you. They have a tool called the colour randomizer which basically just picks colours in no particular order that work well together. You can then take that one step further and look at how those colours look together in their examples tab.
If you are used to working in Adobe Creative Suite, then its a no brainer that you would use this resource for chosing colours. We generally use this program when trying to determine complementary colours for our packaging projects. Why is Adobe Color CC a good choice? It is extremely easy to use. It doesn’t have a million bells and whistles and is fairly straight to the point.
Pantone is usually on point with their ‘Pantone Colours of the Year”. If you would like to design something that is going to be on trend or even above the fold, we suggest looking at their ‘colour of the year’ section. They also provide a lot of great content on colour and a few decent tools.
If you have any tools that you love to use for choosing colours or colour theory, please comment below!
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