Choosing Colors for Design

I'm always excited when I start on a new design project about experimenting with colors. It's definitely an important element, the right colors and images can help you communicate more effectively and can make the site. For some projects, I'll be given an existing logo or images that will point me in a certain direction but I've also worked with pretty much a blank slate, nothing but ideas to run with. This can also be as challenging as it is fun though and I always find myself spending a surprising amount of time switching out colors and trying different shades or scraping an idea all together and going in a totally new direction.

So I was really happy to run across this article from good old Sitepoint!
21 Stimulating Color Palette Tools For Designers

A few of these I'd heard of and used before but some were completely new to me and since I love finding resources like this - had to share!

A few I really like:

ColorCombos.com
Just click on the color palette and it provides hex codes, lots of search options as well and tons to choose from. You can even enter a url to grab colors from a site.

ColorBlender.com
Enter a color and the system creates a palette for you

Jeff Minard’s Color Palette Generator
Upload a picture and system generates a color palette based on the .jpg. Here's one I tried - love it!



Again, just a few but some really cool ones!


From a Vintage Christmas card, inside - Forget the sweet nothings, where's the present?