Streamline Your Redesign: Working With Restricted Colors

Before you start designing, have in mind a rough color scheme that you would like to apply to your web site. It seems to me there are 3 categories, or distinct styles, of coloring being applied to web pages: the Ones (variations of a single hue), the Twos (variations of opposite colors), and the Threes (3 primary colors used throughout). When you have the primaries in mind, as well as an idea of the layout, stick to it.

Prior to designing, let's create a color swatch that will help us keep our web page toned and uniform.

Open the Swatches Menu. Go to 'Replace Swatches, and choose the Web Safe Colors swatch.

I'm in a blue mood today, so I want to restrict my palette to shades reflecting that. You can pick any color really… I'm just using blue as an example. I'm going to also save a single yellow hue for the design. Right click every swatch that doesn't meet the criteria you set and delete it.

Once you have a group of colors matching your scheme, take another look at what you are left with.

Now we are going to weed this group down even more, until you are left with 8-10 colors.

Now when you design your site, be sure to restrict yourself to only these colors. Save the swatch so that you can reuse it over and over again.

Run through the design process. It may take a few trial runs, but practice builds not only character, but a huge fan base!