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Comment by sek | Hacker News Reader

Is there any good resource to learn how to use colors in design, the stuff i make always looks like crap because i only take standard ones.

I envy this guy for this ability, incredible good taste in unobtrusive colors.

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Practice copying other's work. If you know the mechanics of Illustrator or Photoshop, challenge yourself to reproduce something you admire (from Dribbble?) pixel for pixel from scratch.

Take a particular area of the screen and without using an eyedropper tool, try to select the exact color of each detailed element yourself from the color picker tool. So for example when you see subtle lines or gradients, how does that color vary from the base color? Is it simply darker? Or does it change hue or saturation?

These exercises will train your eyes to have a good feel for how the colors blend and flow together on screen. With lots of practice, you'll develop your own style and your stuff will stop looking like crap.

Johannes Itten, of the Bauhaus, is the go to guy for colour theory, both these books are fantastic:

The Art of Color: The Subjective Experience and Objective Rationale of Color

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Color-Subjective-Experience-Object...

The Elements of Color: A Treatise on the Color System of Johannes Itten Based on His Book the Art of Color

http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Color-Treatise-System-Johanne...

there's a field of color theory, concepts like compliments, but then tertiary compliments, and several other forms. unobtrusive gets into an overlap of usability concerns, taste, colorblindness, and just overall theme. i'm sure if you just pay attention to a little more and google some you can find answers to what you're looking for. ubuntu has a nifty color theory utility called avage ... and there are sites like color lovers and such.

The thing is, i look at this theme and i know it looks great, but i can't understand why! As an hacker really bugs me.

I know this color tools, but what are the ingredients that makes something look good compared to another design? When i think the rounded colors are the reason, something like this comes up and proves me wrong.

I am aware design is not a trivial matter (i work at IDEO), but where do i start?

Two things that transcend trends. White space + good typography. Colors are an accent.

There is an underlying grid. The typography has a consistent visual flow. The elements form the structure on the "page/screen" instead of creating containers to hold the elements. Not to sound pompous, but there is clarity. You may want to look into swiss design for influences.

If you wanna talk to someone who went to art school with more specific questions, feel free to email me. My email is in my profile. :)

The email in your profile doesn't work.

Fixed and responded to your email. Good luck and don't blame us when you start to see the world differently.

I can understand feeling frustrated, but it's a little unfair on yourself. Most designers hone their ability through constant application of their skill, not to mention very often years of expensive schooling. Nobody does it overnight. Although it's certainly possible to do without the expensive formal schooling.

> what are the ingredients

The ingredients (AKA the elements and principles of design): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_elements_and_principles

If you're not going to quit your job to go to SVA or RISD, I'd say the best place to start is to pick up a few books and do exercises. Give yourself time, don't get frustrated, and work at it. There are a lot of good resources in print out there. You could do worse than Alan Pipes's Foundations of Art and Design

http://www.laurenceking.com/product/Foundations+of+Art+---+D...

I'm not aware of anything really fantastic available for free online.

Thanks for the suggestions, what is so difficult for me is i don't see progress. How i said, i don't think it is something to learn overnight. I just don't saw a starting point yet, in the technical world there is always a tutorial.

That book sounds very interesting, this is probably the thing i was looking for.

This might be helpful too, a very good book on the basics:

http://www.amazon.com/Visual-Grammar-Design-Briefs-Christian...

I'm just like you in that I'm more of a hacker that has trouble figuring out how to make things look good. Try this book (I've read 3/4 of it--excellent book):

http://www.amazon.com/Design-Hackers-Reverse-Engineering-Bea...

It was made just for people like us!

I really like the book Design for Hackers http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005J578EW/ref=as_li_ss_tl?... by David Kadavy.

I read it, and I've told about six of my friends to buy it. They all have, and we've all gone from really no design sense whatsoever to at least being able to understand WHY something looks good (or not)

someone friendly here showed me this website (here example: [1]) as an .. ekhm... "inspiration" for colors for their websites.

Because I suck on simple graphics design (layouts+color matchmaking) I use it too.

Each image has colors it majorly use plus you can pickup your color and see others projects. very cool!

[1] http://dribbble.com/shots/444224-NikeFuel-Active?list=popula...

Play around with a color wheel[1]. There are set ways to choose colors that go well together: for example, you can just use shades of a single color, or you can use a color and its complement for emphasis. I think actually seeing a color wheel and the results is a very visceral way to get a feel for basic color theory.

[1]: http://colorschemedesigner.com/

I also suck at design, so I always find a palette I like on colourlovers.com and it works good.

I highly suggest taking a few basic color theory, or just design 101 classes, at your local community college or art school. It's cheap, and it'll cover the basics, which is really all you need to get started on learning the rest yourself!

Go to study older maps, the best place to learn about subtlety in colors.

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