She shoots colors all around...

I enjoy reading about color theory. I remember my 7th grade English teacher, who was a former Clinique salesperson (not sure how that made her qualified to teach English, but hey, it was Catholic school), once gave us a lesson on color theory, explaining how different colors had different meanings and could invoke different emotions when you see them. The example I remember is McDonald's, which uses red and yellow in its logo; the yellow gives off a "temporary" vibe so people won't stay in the restaurant long, but the red makes them want to come back.

Color is a vital part of any type of design. When I recently designed a layout for my online portfolio, I used the colors white, cream, teal and navy blue to give visitors a feeling that I was professional and mature, yet youthful and creative. The type, layout and other design features all added to the feeling I was trying to convey. In fact, I’d say that I almost always first choose a color palette as the inspiration for whatever design I’m doing; when I choose brighter colors I usually end up with more geometric, block-like shapes, and when I want to work with darker or more earthy tones my design is more traditional or organic.

Just for fun, I looked up the psychological traits of my two “favorite” colors -- white and green. White is purity, innocence and cleanliness, and green is nature, fertility and growth. I also like brown, but that was not on there. No one really likes brown, but I think it’s warm and earthy and it makes me feel good.