Harmonious color palettes
Approaches to creating groups of colors that pleasantly agree with each other
Look up “harmony” in the dictionary and similar definitions will come up: “the combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce a pleasing effect”, “the quality of forming a pleasing and consistent whole” or “the state of being in agreement or concord”. In the realm of color, a harmonious color palette could be defined as a group of colors that agree with each other and create a pleasing whole. Here are some starting points to achieve that.
Give them something in common
Often, the reason why a palette looks disparate is because the hues are very different from each other and each color has been treated differently in terms of saturation and value (amount of lightening/darkening). Hence, each appears to come from a different planet.
One solution is to select similar hues by sticking to, for instance, close monochromes, a couple of adjacent hues or a larger section of the color wheel (ex: only warm colors), which will tie all the colors together independently of how each one is treated. Actually, the more restricted the hue range, the more variations of value and saturation will help enliven these palettes.
When dealing with a palette of unrelated hues, doing the opposite and choosing a unified treatment can help: the colors might all be desaturated, lightened, darkened, etc. Even contrasting, pure colors will relate to each other by sharing the same purity. No need to be mathematically precise though, as it can be pleasant and useful to have one or two colors gently stand out from the group.
Alternatively, increase the consistency of a group of colors by adding an undertone or “color filter”, as if all the colors were bathing in the same warm sunset light, or sitting in the cool shade. A “yellow filter”, for instance, will muddy cool colors such as purple and blue but keep warm colors bright. Experiment digitally by layering a color over a palette and testing different opacities and mixes. This approach can be a way of creating a common atmosphere while reducing the stimulation created by the presence of many different hues.
Equidistant hues
Another way to link colors together is to choose hues sitting at equal distances from each other in the color wheel. This would include picking analogous hues, but also skipping every one or even two hues when using a more detailed color wheel.
The larger the jumps the closer we get to schemes such as the triadic or square, when three or four colors are evenly spaced in the entire color wheel. These also remain linked through a consistent distance, but their main beauty and strength comes from contrast and complementarity.
On top of this, you can decide to give these colors a consistent treatment for added homogeneity, or play with value and saturation instead and maybe allow a few colors to pop.
Include mixtures
Finally, one can borrow the “parents-baby” concept from color theorist and artist Josef Albers, particularly when wishing to add more toned-down colors to an existing palette while keeping it harmonious. It consists in finding the “baby” of two parent colors, a mixture that will create the illusion of transparency when simulating an overlap between the parent colors.
If finding a mixture sounds tricky, try picking a color halfway between two original colors using a color wheel and desaturate and adjust its value as needed. Or, play with different blending modes and opacities if working digitally. These can result in unexpectedly pleasing results.
There can be a variety of possibilities that appear to be natural mixtures and bring the colors together, so no need to strive for a perfect 50–50 mix. All it needs is to appear to have a little bit of both. As a one might say: “I look like my mother but have my father’s nose”.
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Note: the color wheel used in the illustrations is the Munsell color wheel.
