Color is weird. You think you know what "blue" is until you see it next to a neon orange and suddenly it looks like mud. Honestly, most people overthink the process because they’re trying to follow a rigid set of rules they found on a random Pinterest infographic. If you want to know how to make a color palette that actually feels professional, you have to stop thinking about what looks "pretty" and start thinking about how light and psychology actually interact in the real world.
It’s about friction. Or the lack of it.
Look at a brand like Slack. Their palette is a chaotic rainbow on paper, but in practice, it works because of the white space surrounding it. If you’re building a brand, a website, or just painting a room, your colors are a language. If everyone is screaming, nobody gets heard. You’ve probably seen those "aesthetic" palettes on Instagram with five muted earth tones. They look great in a square box. They usually fail in a functional UI because there’s no "action" color. There is no hierarchy.
The Science of Seeing (It’s Not Just Vibes)
Human eyes are biologically wired to notice contrast. This isn't just an art school theory; it’s survival. Our ancestors needed to spot the red berry against the green leaves. This is why the "Complementary" color scheme—colors opposite each other on the wheel—is the most common way to learn how to make a color palette. But it’s also the easiest to mess up. If you put high-vibrancy red text on a high-vibrancy green background, the edges of the letters will literally appear to "vibrate" to the human eye. This is called chromostereopsis. It’s physically painful to look at for long periods.
Experts like Josef Albers, who wrote the legendary Interaction of Color, proved that color is entirely relative. A grey square looks warm next to a cold blue, but it looks freezing next to a deep red. You aren't picking colors. You're picking relationships.
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Start With One "Anchor" and Build Outwards
Don't try to find five colors at once. That's a disaster. Start with your primary brand color or the "hero" hue. Let's say you've picked a deep Navy. That’s your anchor. Now, you need a "Neutral." This is where most people fail. A neutral isn't just "white." It’s often a very, very desaturated version of your anchor. If your anchor is Navy, your neutral might be a "Cool Grey" that has just a hint of blue in it. This creates a sense of harmony that the brain registers as "expensive" or "premium" even if the viewer can't explain why.
Next comes your "Action" color. This is the outlier. If you’re following the 60-30-10 rule—which is a classic interior design trick—60% is your dominant neutral, 30% is your secondary/anchor, and 10% is that loud, obnoxious accent color that tells people where to click or look.
Why Digital Palettes Are Different From Physical Ones
Mixing paint is subtractive. Mixing light on a screen is additive. This is why a color palette that looks amazing on a printed business card might look like neon garbage on an iPhone 15 Pro Max with an OLED screen. When you're figuring out how to make a color palette for the web, you have to account for "Display P3" vs. "sRGB." Modern screens can show colors that literally couldn't exist on monitors ten years ago.
If you want to be a pro, check your contrast ratios. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) aren't just for lawyers. They’re for humans. A "light grey" on a "slightly lighter grey" might look chic to you, but anyone over the age of 40 or anyone standing in direct sunlight won't be able to read your content. Use tools like Adobe Color or Coolors, but always verify the contrast ratio. A 4.5:1 ratio is the bare minimum for standard text.
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The Psychology of "Cultural Color"
We like to think red means "angry" or "passion," but that’s culturally specific. In China, red is prosperity. In South Africa, it can represent mourning. When you're designing for a global audience, your color choices carry baggage you might not intend.
Research from the University of Winnipeg suggests that up to 90% of snap judgments made about products can be based on color alone. But here’s the kicker: it’s not about the "meaning" of the color, it’s about the "appropriateness." If you’re starting a rugged outdoor brand, a hot pink palette feels "wrong" to the consumer’s brain, not because pink is a bad color, but because it doesn't fit the context of "ruggedness."
Advanced Layering: Tints, Shades, and Tones
Once you have your three main colors, you need "steps." This is how you create depth.
- A Shade is your color plus black.
- A Tint is your color plus white.
- A Tone is your color plus grey.
Basically, if you only use your raw hex codes, your design will look flat. Professional designers create a "scale." They’ll take that Navy anchor and create five lighter versions and five darker versions. This allows you to use the same "color" for shadows, borders, and backgrounds without it feeling repetitive. It creates a cohesive "vibe" that feels unified.
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Common Pitfalls to Avoid
Stop using pure black (#000000). It doesn't exist in nature. If you look at a black chair in a well-lit room, it’s actually a very dark grey or a very dark blue. Pure black on a digital screen is "ink trapped" and creates too much contrast against white text, leading to eye strain. Go for a "Charcoal" or a "Deep Onyx" instead. It’s softer. It feels more "analog" and human.
Also, don't ignore the "60-30-10" rule just because you want to be edgy. Balance is a biological requirement for the brain to process information efficiently. If you have 50% Red and 50% Green, the brain doesn't know what to prioritize. You end up with "Visual Noise."
How to Make a Color Palette for Discovery and Ranking
If you're creating a palette for a blog post or a brand that needs to pop in Google Discover, you need high-impact visuals. Google's AI looks for "image salience." This means the subject of your image should stand out clearly from the background. A palette with high "chroma" (intensity) usually performs better in Discover feeds because it catches the thumb-scroll.
However, for SEO, your palette needs to support "Readability." If Google's crawlers (and users) see a high bounce rate because your "aesthetic" palette makes the text unreadable, your rankings will tank. Use a very light or very dark background with high-contrast text. Save the "fun" colors for buttons, icons, and accents.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Project
- Find a Reference Image: Don't look at other websites. Look at a photo of a desert, a piece of 1970s architecture, or a Renaissance painting. Nature and history have already solved the "what colors go together" problem.
- Extract the Core: Use a color picker tool to grab the three most prominent colors.
- Check the "Grey" Test: Turn your palette to grayscale. If all the colors look like the same shade of grey, your palette has no "value" contrast. It will fail in the real world. You need light, medium, and dark.
- Define the Use Case: Assign roles. "Color A" is only for headlines. "Color B" is only for the background. "Color C" is only for "Buy Now" buttons.
- Test for Accessibility: Run your hex codes through a contrast checker. If it fails, tweak the brightness until it passes. No excuses here.
Designing a palette is less about being an artist and more about being an editor. You’re cutting away the colors that distract so the important ones can shine. Start with the "why" before you ever touch a color wheel. If you understand the goal of the project—whether it's to calm someone down or get them excited—the colors usually start to pick themselves. Focus on the value (lightness vs. darkness) first, and the hue (the actual color) second. That's the secret to a palette that actually works across all mediums.