Color is a visual experience for the viewer’s eyes and brain. It’s cool to make this experience unique each time. I think the sensation of novelty experienced when you look at certain colors is very important. That’s why new, unhackneyed colors are always very advantageous and why the fashion in color changes so frequently.

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Transitional colors resulting from the mixture of basic colors are in fashion now — for example, yellow plus green #E4FF33 and blue plus violet #523BFF. These are shades for which you won’t easily find names in the usual lists.

This year, bleak and subtle colors (earthy #6D8256, vinous #B34F70)

are also in demand — just because they haven’t yet worn out their welcome. I don’t much like such colors, but in combination with classical gold, silver or bright acid colors they can be interesting. There are several basic colors that never die. The absolute leader is black, of course.

Black is always popular, and monochromatic combinations of black, grey and white are now much used both in the fashion industry and in graphic design. The electro blue #003DFF has stayed popular over many years — it has the right energetic vibe.

The natural and fresh yellow #FFEE2E is constantly used because it allows designers to come up with a shade that works for their particular project, conveying the proper emotions, saying the right thing. For the 15 years that I’ve been in the design industry, I have seen many changes in the particular yellow used, but yellow never annoys me if it is used modestly.

Present-day digital design tends to use plain, bright colors, frequently in sophisticated gradients. Don’t forget that there is often a big difference in the same color online and offline. The screen emits light, and that makes the difference. In addition, different materials and textures also make the same color look different. Colors and textures substantially shift the shade of the color, depending on the reflective properties and the white balance.

It’s almost impossible to make saturated cold colors — cold green, bright blue and everything from blue to violet — look good offline. Without backlighting, they don’t contribute much. Orange Pantone also looks much better online than offline.

But such problems are largely manageable now, at least partially. New chemical paints containing light-reflecting particles have come on the market, and thanks to these particles, these colors show a very subtle gleam. But most print shops don’t use such paints.

Max Orlov

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Max Orlov is an art director who has worked in the sphere of branding and digital products since 2001. In 2000 he launched ONY, a visual communications agency. ONY’s team does identity and UX/UI design for online companies and classical offline businesses. Clients include Rambler & Co, My.com, MegaFon, Samsung, Tele2, Yota, Adidas, Bork.

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Wes Anderson, 2014

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The Grand Budapest Hotel is very cool and stylish from the viewpoint of its coloristic decisions. The thoughtfully considered color schemes and its rhythmic quality give the movie the look of a cool designer’s work.

Color and texture are what is of most value in the painter’s art. This is the essence of painting,
and it is always weighed down by the subject.

Kasimir Malevich

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You may find more visual analysis of the Grands Budapest Hotel here

Anish Kapoor

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I love how British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor works with color. He uses simple forms, and he actively uses color and color gradients in his work.

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Proceeding to a new project, we at first investigate what colors are used in that niche and then choose between the typical colors and color combinations (so as to remain in the category) and very atypical colors. Each choice has its advantages and drawbacks. In general, choices depend on the brand’s communication strategy.

As a rule, we look for forms and ideas simultaneously and work in monochrome. Only when we have decided on those do we move to work with color. These days the colors linked with different product categories often intersect. Here’s a fresh example with orange color.

Recently, we launched a new high-end product in the European market — a DNA-based skin-care complex, whose identity is based on orange #FF6C0B. BORK, yet another of our clients, also works in the high-end segment and also uses orange #FF5900. But BORK uses it mostly as an accent. Their identity is dominated by black. Paradoxically, orange is commonly thought of as a “discounter” color and as the color of the travel industry.

In a rebranding for Skylink mobile, we also used orange. Skylink offers mobile internet for those who travel a lot and visit places that lack internet. Using images of beautiful places and orange color, we got the right voice and tone for the company’s communications.

Crucial here is the amount of orange. If there’s not much of it, the product looks high-end, but a large amount of orange in combination with plain, chunky fonts makes the product a discount offering. If you employ delicate highlights with orange and choose the right shades and color combinations, your orange identity looks high-end.

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Workmode

Cool use of gradients and work tone in the photographs. It’s nice that the typography remained black and white. This work looks fresh and up-to-date, despite the fact that the color combination is not new.

Sila Sveta

Take care of your eyes! Cool use of onscroll gradients. Good use of black and white in the text and headlines. The background gradients were chosen so that the black and white text remains readable.

Budgy

Good example of multicolor combinations on one screen. The onscroll animation also adds to the overall good impression.

There is a logic of colors, and it is this alone,
not the logic of the mind, that the painter must follow.

Paul Cezanne