Color Basics for Non-Designers: How to Pick Colors That Look Good Together

You do not need a color wheel to pick good colors. Most attractive designs follow a few simple patterns. Learn these and your posters, posts and invitations will look more professional immediately.

1. Start with contrast

The most important color decision is not “which blue?” but “can people read it?”. Text needs strong contrast with its background: dark on light or light on dark. Mid-grey text on a mid-blue background looks fine on a bright monitor and unreadable on a phone in sunlight. Accessibility guidelines (WCAG) recommend a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text.

2. Use the 60-30-10 rule

Interior designers have used this for decades and it works on screens too:

• 60% — a dominant, usually calm color (background).
• 30% — a secondary color (blocks, shapes, large text).
• 10% — an accent for the thing you want noticed (a button, price, date).

Look at the “Business flyer” template: white dominates, blue is secondary, the orange call-to-action bar is the accent.

3. Five palettes that are hard to get wrong

4. Color meaning (roughly)

• Red: energy, urgency, sales, food.
• Orange/yellow: optimism, attention, affordability.
• Green: nature, health, money, growth.
• Blue: trust, technology, calm, corporate.
• Purple: creativity, luxury, beauty.
• Black/gold: premium, elegant.

Meanings vary by culture — white is for weddings in many countries and mourning in others — so think about your audience.

5. Text on photos

• Place text on a calm area of the photo (sky, wall, table).
• Darken the photo with the brightness slider, or place a semi-transparent black rectangle behind the text.
• Add a soft shadow to white text.

6. Gradients

Gradients look best between two colors that are neighbours (blue → cyan, pink → orange). Gradients between opposite colors (red → green) often turn muddy in the middle. The Background panel offers tested gradients you can start from.