How to pick complimentary colours for logos in 3 steps

[Paul Murray]

I put together a quick guide on how I find complimentary colours for logos, branding or whatever. I normally use this technique and play around with a single colour version of a logo in white and change the background colour to find a two-colour scheme that I like.

Great if a client has a colour they like already, you just use that as a starting point and tweak it until you have something that works.

 

[@GCarlD]

Nice, not something I would necessarily use/do but would be handy for those just starting out.

Nevertheless, I gave it a quick go to test and it doesn't seem to work for me. Where am I going wrong?

 

[Paul Murray]

You're probably using Illustrator, which shows a different result than Affinity. I'll see if I can tweak it and get it working in Illy too.

 

[Paul Murray]

Fixed it. Just make the object black in Illustrator instead of white and it should work.

 

[@GCarlD]

Ah yeah, that's done the trick

It's probably worth mentioning in your first post that it is for Affinity as not many people have/ use it yet: White for Affinity | Black for Illustrator.

 

[Paul Murray]

I've changed the guide to mention you may need to use black instead. Not ideal but I can't guarantee which is the 'proper' colour to use.

 

[scotty]

Very handy actually.
Freehand used to have a very good function for selecting complimentary colours and it was pretty extensive.

This is how I do it:

Step1.
Pick a random colour.
Question. Does this colour make you feel sick?
Yes: Choose another colour.
No: Go to step 2

Step2.
Pick another random colour.
Question. Does this colour combination make you feel sick?
Yes: Choose another colour.
No: Send to client and demand payment.

 

[@GCarlD]

Very handy actually.
Freehand used to have a very good function for selecting complimentary colours and it was pretty extensive.

This is how I do it:

Step1.
Pick a random colour.
Question. Does this colour make you feel sick?
Yes: Choose another colour.
No: Go to step 2

Step2.
Pick another random colour.
Question. Does this colour combination make you feel sick?
Yes: Choose another colour.
No: Send to client and demand payment.

Haha, who needs colour theory and the colour wheel eh?

 

[david12]

I always use palette of colour from adobe color wheel https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/. You can find interesting you colour or use explore tab and use made one.

 

[Drifter]

In Adobe Illustrator
basically:
Window > Color > (top right flyout menu) Compliment
And to pimp that method up:
use the eyedropper tool on a colour, find the compliment and then
in the Swatch panel's flyout New Swatch.

 

[smithjoe]

Pick complimentary colors for logos in three steps, first identify your primary brand color, then choose a color wheel opposite or adjacent to it, and finally, ensure good contrast and readability.

 

[hankscorpio]