It’s always good to be able to articulate design choices to your clients; why you put something where, why you chose the color scheme you did, etc. This knowledge is one of the biggest differences between a designer and a non-designer. But there is a lot to remember when it comes to the realm of graphic design – so much so that it’s pretty much impossible to remember everything from all the theories of graphic design, to web design best practices to Photoshop keyboard shortcuts.
With that in mind, I decided it would be useful for me to have all of the basics of color theory contained in one place – specifically, a cool infographic-esque poster. This way, I can quickly reference things that may have slipped to the back of my mind since design school. The end result is this: The Color Theory Quick Reference Poster for Designers.
*Edit: we now have an Elements of Design Quick Reference Poster as well as a Principles of Design Quick Reference poster too!*
The idea is that this graphic can be either printed out or used as a desktop wallpaper. During meetings, phone calls, or any other sort of client interaction, you can reference this poster if you need to – either for your own benefit, or to point something out to your client.
The graphic contains info on:
- the basic color wheel
- passive vs. active colors
- cool vs. warm colors
- subtractive vs. additive color
- color types
- color relationships
- meanings attached to colors
- basic terms pertaining to color
Hopefully this will be as useful to you as I’m hoping it will be to me. Here are the various files for download – please share, but don’t pass off as your own! Note: if you’re having issues getting the PDF, right-click and choose “Save Link As”.
- Print-ready, PDF (11″ by 17″, 300DPI)
- Print-ready, white background, PDF (11″ by 17″, 300DPI – click to view)
- 1920X1200 Wallpaper
- 1680X1050 Wallpaper
- 1440X900 Wallpaper
- 1280X800 Wallpaper
- EPS file (if you want to make your own changes)
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If you like this, you might like our Elements of Design Quick Reference Poster too! Enjoy!
Color Theory Quick Reference Poster…
A sweet infographic on color theory. Informative & nice to look at, this is a great tool for designers of any kind. Various files for download….
Thank you! I’m putting it up on my desktop.
Thank you for this great piece of imagery
Very nice!
No problem!
I’ve been looking for something like this for the past couple weeks, it’s perfect! Thank you!
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This is fantastic! Thank you so much.
Excellent resource thanks!
Very useful. Thank you for share.
Cool. I’ll be having it printed to decorate my webdesign class.
Also very happy with the white background version, the other one might get outdated sooner.
Thx!
As being synesthete I live a life in colors. Synesthesia means that I see colors when I see words and numbers. I transform this in paintings of names and birthdays. The color theory fascinates me always.
Thank you! Putting it up on my wall now.
Excellent tool – and nice design! ..useful for showing clients as well.
Thanks for the compliments, guys & gals – I’m glad the graphic is proving useful to you!
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Very interesting article, thank you:)
Thanks a lot for this one, really useful, will definitely print this poster.
Great teaching tool, thank you
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I’m in your debt; I’m a indie film dude who is in dire need of this knowledge. Thank you!
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This is FABULOUS-I was going to create one for my classroom-now I can just tweak this slightly-thank you SOOOOO much!
Glad you can use it, Maureen!
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This is great!
Printing and putting on my wall.
Thank you.
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We had just started working on a colour wheel today to explain to a client what their brand’s colour palette was and how complementary colours work. This is a great tool for both designers and clients! Thanks.
Thanks
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Thanks so much for the color theory wallpaper! I just updated my screensaver.Everyone could benefit by a lesson in color theory. I live it and breathe it.