Color aids understanding. It can improve the efficacy of just about any document. Color can tie related elements together so their relationship is apparent at first glance.

Color emphasizes. Color can lead the reader’s eye to the key point, the benefit or the bottom line.

Color shows ranking. Color and tone can create hierarchy and ranking. Color can create structure in complicated content. It can also highlight, emphasize or separate elements to aid comprehension.

Use color to guide the reader. Color’s value in communication lies in the simple fact that it is not black. Prioritizing typographic information with color is easy, because curiosity compels viewers to look at the colored type. By reserving color for what is most significant, you can easily guide the reader through content.

Use color to sort out information. By assigning color to type, you codify the information and help the reader navigate material more quickly and with less effort. Use color to designate a recurring theme in a series of documents or recurring aspects within a single document. Keep in mind that the practical maximum number of colors people can easily remember is four. Using more than four colors in a document can actually begin to detract from the process of providing information.

Use color to link related elements. Color intuitively bridges the gap between elements on the page. The green line on the graph with the green words describing it … the red title with the key paragraph in the same red … the blue pull quote with the blue name … the orange cause with its orange effect. … Separate elements are immediately seen to have a relationship when color is used to link them.

SEVEN RULES FOR THE BEST USE OF COLOR WITH TYPE

1. Plan to use color from the start
Color must be more than an embellishment. It should add value. Whether it’s for running heads or simple list-bullets, the color plan and palette should be part of the initial design process. Color should not be an afterthought or a decoration. Don’t waste the power of color.

1. CDMiConnect
Somewhat ironically, the tagline for CDMiConnect is: “We consistently create a stronger connection between our clients and their customers.” The orange palette used by designer Eric Snowden (formerly with CDMi, now at www.ericpaulsnowden.com) shows how planning to use color consistently and for a purpose yields effective and stunning results in a design.

2. Use less color rather than more
Because it is so much fun and such an engaging medium, it’s easy to overuse color. Be discriminating, however, in applying color to the page. A simple drop initial to mark the beginning of copy or a pull quote to break up lengthy text can benefit from the judicious use of color. A page that is awash in color, however, is just graphic noise. It is a color’s rarity that makes it noticeable and powerful.

2. QUA Spa
For the new QUA spa identity, Addis Creson wanted to digress from the conventional category branding, ideas and imagery so often associated with spas. Magdalena Hladka says, “Our aim was to create an artisan quality to the brand and the collateral—with the watercolors, stitching, texture of the paper we used, even the ink. QUA therapists are also called ‘artisans,’ and that’s the strong message and the point of difference both for the brand and for the experience.”

3. Use color consistently
Few documents stand alone; most are part of a series. Color can be used to tie several documents together. If it is coordinated with consistent typography and uniform layout, a unique scheme can help create unity among many documents, and build brand identity.

3. Deramaxx
Because pharmaceutical advertising tends to be copy-heavy due to regulatory requirements, Colle+McVoy created a way for the ad to remain clean and bold while still providing necessary information: placing corresponding 1/3-page ads with the regulatory information.

4. Make large areas pale, small areas bright
A solid page covered in a brilliant, saturated hue is probably painful enough to push viewers away. Yet the identical hue may be ideal for a small, sparkling spot or typographic highlight. The rule of thumb is: The bigger the area, the more muted the color should be.

5. Avoid color clichés, and trust your common sense
A lot is written about the meanings of colors, and interpretations abound: Purple is majestic, green means go, red means stop and blue is cool and trustworthy. My advice: Go with your gut instinct.

Images: 24300557, Polka Dot Images; 24054066, Photos.com; available at www.jupiterimages.com

6. Choose colors for their value and chroma rather than their hue
Hue—the “redness” or “blueness” of a color—is useful for recognizing elements or categorizing information. It also provides identification to the document.

Value—the darkness or lightness of a color—makes it stand out or disappear on white—the darker, the better. Black reads best; that’s why we use it all the time.

Chroma—the brightness or saturation of a color—gives brilliance or dullness. A color can be very bright but very light—like process yellow—so if you use it to set text, the copy can become virtually invisible.

The combination of value and chroma affect your communication much more powerfully than hue does. Safest bet: Pick the dark shades of bright colors. You can always make them lighter by screening.

7. Use color-friendly fonts
Regardless of how bright a particular color is, that color is paler than black and contrasts less with a light background. As a result, type printed in color will not have the impact of simple black. You can compensate for this paleness by adjusting other attributes of the type. Increase the impact by bumping up the type by one weight (book to regular, regular to semibold, semibold to bold, etc.). Or set type a size larger. Another trick is to make lines of copy shorter and increase line space slightly. If type is worthy of color, it is worthy of being legible.

The bottom line is that color can be a powerful communication tool—just remember that it is not decoration and should be used sparingly.

SIDEBARS:

Gray is a color
Creating visual interest is a balancing act. Bland pages with no contrast or focal point have nothing to interest the reader or pull them in. The only thing worse than a bland page, however, is one that is overly busy and distracting to the reader. The most common contrast is light and dark. To expand your range of value in an otherwise black-and-white document, add contrast by introducing shades of gray; you’ll gain the benefit of more “color.”

In addition to giving you an additional color, gray does something else: Gray softens. It makes bold type a little less bold and big type not quite so imposing.

There may be times when the bold face you are using is just slightly too bold. It may jump off the page too much, distracting the reader and even disrupting the reading process. If switching to the next lighter weight of type does not provide enough emphasis, try setting the bold type in gray. This will tone down the bold to just the right degree of importance.

Large type—whether for initial letters, headlines, subheads or titles—can also be visually tempered with the use of gray. The job of large type in most documents is to introduce the reader to the text. It can vary in size from only slightly larger than the text to something that is the dominant element on the page. Setting type in a gray tone can add another dimension to large type. Display type can be muted to the perfect contrast, or very large initials can become subtle introductions to text copy.

The use of several grays can also create hierarchy and order within complicated graphics. The trick to using gray is to maintain contrast. Although an infinite number of gray tones exist between black and white, it’s best to limit your choices to increments of at least 10 percent. And while it may be tempting to create a document with four or five different gray tones, the net effect can be a lack of visual cohesion. It is much more effective to use just one or two shades of gray. Contrast is key to readability.

Finally, like any other color, you should use gray strategically—not randomly—to achieve a desired effect.

Black, white & red: The best typographic colors
In print, white is the absence of all color—while on screen, it is every color at full strength. White is the brightest color and the perfect backdrop for any other color. Every other color stands out from—and contrasts with—white.

Black contrasts most powerfully with white. It’s the best, most logical choice for type set on a white background. Type can be set in other colors, but every step away from black is a step away from the perfect contrast. Gutenberg, Garamond, Caslon, Bodoni and Baskerville could all have chosen to set their text in a color other than black—but didn’t. Hundreds of years later, we still revere their work as some of the best typography ever produced.

And then there is red. Yellow on white is difficult to read. Red on white isn’t. Blue type fades against a black background. Red doesn’t. If you are considering a third color for typographic communication, think of red first. After black and white, red is the most powerful color for type. Because it is so compelling, however, it should not be used to replace black. A lot of red type can easily become overpowering.