Colour Harmonies

What is a colour harmony?

“Harmony can be defined as a pleasing arrangement of parts, whether it be music, poetry, colour, or even an ice cream sundae.”

When it comes to colour, however, there are different types of colour harmony.

1. Complementary
2. Analogous
3. Triad
4. Split-complementary
5. Rectangle
6. Square

Complementary

This type is when there are two colours in harmony that are opposite each other in the colour wheel, example: red and green.

These colours are best for when you want something to stand out, such as an advertisement. However, these colours aren’t great for text and they can only be used in smaller doses.

An interesting fact is that complementary colours are good at balancing each other, and this is used in many products. For example, in Lush Cosmetics, there is a shampoo that is purple from the violet leaf absolute inside, and this is great for balancing any brassy tones in blonde hair because they are complementary colours.

Analogous

This is a harmony where the colours are next to each other on the colour wheel. This can be very pleasing to the eye and this scheme is usually associated with nature.  

Usually, you choose a main colour which will dominate (e.g. primary green), another to support your main colour (e.g. cyan) and another as an accent (e.g. a lighter green).

Triad

In this colour scheme, you choose colours that are evenly spaced around the colour wheel, and this gives a vibrant effect even if you use a lighter hue of those colours.

For a successful triad scheme, you should choose one colour dominant (e.g. purple) and two evenly spaced out colours to accent (e.g. orange and green)

Split complementary

This colour harmony type is a slight variation from the complementary harmony type, given that instead of two colours, you have three.

All you do is choose two colours adjacent from the colour you want (e.g. purple and orange are adjacent from primary green), and this gives less ‘tension’ than the complementary colour scheme, and it’s really easy to use.

Rectangle

This scheme offers lots of opportunities for variations when choosing colours. It’s similar to complementary as you have two complementary pairs on the colour wheel, but you can still let one colour be more dominant and that tends to make this scheme more successful.

Square

This scheme is very similar to a rectangle harmony as you have two pairs of complementary pairs, and it works best if you choose one dominant colour.

However, it is different as the pairs are more evenly spread out around the colour wheel.