Why Blue-Green Is The Best Colour Combination
Blue and green are very natural colours. Green is of course the colour of plants and blue is of course the colour of the sky. If you look at a picture of the globe from space the most predominant colours you will see are also blue and green. Both colours are all around us and by using these colours in design it gives a much more natural look to your product be it a website or printed piece of work.
The blue-green combo is a valuable colour combination to use, and to ignore it would be a foolish mistake.
Of course if my word, and the powers of nature aren't enough to swing things for you, perhaps some industry professionals may change your mind. In a book published by Jakob Nielsen entitled 'Designing Web Usability' the front page of the book uses a blue and green colour scheme (see below)
As well as this Microsoft also use blue and green quite a lot in their programs. For starters the task bar on a XP PC has a green start button and the rest of the taskbar is blue. As well as this Windows Live messenger uses a blue 'buddy' and a green 'buddy'.
So with so many big companies using the blue-green combo, and with nature adopting it's own colour combination of the two, to turn down the use of blue and green seems quite a stupid thing to do,
It is the definative colour combination.
7 comments:
I’m personally not too keen on the Neilson book. I think the blue is too dark and doesn’t complement the green very well. I do like the MSN icon however, as the colours work together alto better.
I think nature is probably the strongest link to your colours, as you have said in your post. Many new companies wanting to push an environmentally friendly agenda usually pick the lighter shades of each for their logos.
I agree that you have picked the best colour scheme. I forgot about the MSN logo but what I did notice is that HP now use this colour scheme for their new packaging for ink cartridges.
Obviously they are trying to put out the idea that their cartridges are more eco-friendly.
I agree with Julian that the Neilson book is a really bad example of this colour scheme, I wonder if Jakob had a hand in it's design like he had a hand in his publicity shots?
I also agree that the MSN logo looks good in this colour way, I wonder if the designer was trying to evoke an eco-friendly interface? or was it just a happy accident?
Your comprehension of the pros of a blue and green colour combination was evident. However, I believe that you could have taken the time to further explain your reasoning on the nature concept. Overall, not a bad start.
Cheers 'anonymous' (can take a guess who).
Perhaps I could have taken some more time to explain the nature concept but then it's a case of to what degree do I go to explaining about every concept I mentioned?
This is true. But if you do not explain any idea or concept with enough clarity and brevity, how can you expect anyone to be sold on your ideas?
The dearest anonymous
Interestingly, teal/turquoise is my favorite color, and I think it's due in part because the brain obviously perceives both blue and green simultaneously.
I don't think your statement requires additional explanation. It's pretty straight forward. Nature is the best designer.
But unless you know for a fact, it's risky to assume to know why certain companies choose certain color schemes. It could be pure coincidence. And many design decisions aren't always the result of psychological or color theory analysis - a decision can easily be based on something as simple as "Wow, that looks great - let's use those colors".
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