The color wheel is one of the most important tools you can use to develop color schemes and, by association, moods and experiences for the people using your information. Once you recognize how the color wheel works, you can pair colors, shades, and tints in ways that evoke the specific mood you’re looking for. Understanding how colors work in harmony can assist you in the design of any professional document, be it a PowerPoint slide deck, data visualizations, training materials, or a promotional brochure. Note that most good color schemes only use three or four colors (or even fewer) to keep a design simple, clean, and consistent.
How the Color Wheel Works
The color wheel can be divided into twelve colors, separated into three distinct groups—primary, secondary, and tertiary. Each of the twelve colors assumes a position around the wheel and each shares a relationship of some kind with another color on the wheel. The three primary colors are red, yellow and blue; each color is placed equal-distant from the other, as if a three-point triangle in the circle. The three secondary colors are green, violet, and orange and each falls equal-distant between two primary colors, also forming a three-point triangle. The remaining six colors, the tertiary colors, fill the rest of the gaps on the wheel.
The twelve primary, seconday, and tertiary colors that are in the middle ring of the color wheel make up the “core.” As you tint each color with white, the colors get ligher towards the center. As you shade each color with black, the colors get darker towards the edge, creating variation of the core twelve. In general, keep a color scheme along the same ring of tint or shade.
Use the color wheel to determine a scheme that uses four or fewer colors. Also, consider visiting Adobe’s color scheme website, which can help you find just the right combination of colors for your project.