There are many times when there’s no photo provided by the customer that can be used to “pull” a color palette from. When in doubt and you need a quick place to start, try this theory. Choose two similar colors; for example, the hues red and orange. Add one color that contrasts against at least one of the already-chosen two colors.
A final color for the triad palette might be a shade of green to contrast your original pair of red and orange. Try an eggplant purple with a shade of burgundy and use marigold yellow for the contrasting splash of a third color. Try it on a few projects and you’ll be taking control over your color palettes in no time.
There is also the option of using a color gradient. A gradient that consists of two opposite ends will contain a gray neutral mush of some kind in the middle. It’s not that you are doing anything wrong necessarily. The colors in the center of a gradient of two colors that are on opposing sides of the color wheel tend to have a neutral hue.
This is why you may find, in the midst of some gradients, the perfect hue or a neutral mess of a color. A gradient from green to blue will have some lovely tones in between the two colors, while in the middle of a gradient consisting of yellow and purple, you are likely to find a hue that doesn’t do much for your color palette.
Jennifer Foy, Unisub
