Where I get my colour inspiration

Opening up a blank canvas is an intimidating first step in any design project. When I’m stuck, I try deciding on a colour scheme and that usually motivates me to really get started. Read on for a list of resources that have helped me pick my colour theme!

Film & Television

Recently a client told me she loved the colour scheme in To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before and this became the inspiration for her portfolio website. The movie uses A LOT of teal. Lara Jean’s bedroom is a great example. In the resulting project, we used teal and pink with other pastels.

Lara Jean’s bedroom

Next time you’re watching something visually stimulating, take a screenshot. Or search out promo shots and colour drop to your heart’s content!

I mean…. is anything more inspiring than staring at this movie? The pinks! The purples!

Bookmarks

Books

Sometimes when I’m stuck, I just look around my space, which is full of books. Book covers are great inspiration for colour, typography and imagery.

Bookmarks

Interior Design

It might be because I love minimal web design and minimal interior design is trending right now, but looking at before and after photography has a way of immediately motivating me to make something. Instagram is an amazing source for home photography, just be prepared for A LOT OF WHITE (click Decor on your Explore page or follow @apartment_34, @houselarsbuilt, @themakerista). Other links below!

Via Style by Emily Henderson

Bookmarks

Colour Generators

I used to love browsing COLOURLovers to find colour palettes shared by other users. The site seems to have since been taken over by bots or ads or both. Now I find Coolors is a great substitute! You can generate random palettes, explore trending palettes and easily copy hex codes.

A Coolors palette

P.S. There are many contrast checkers available online that you can use to determine whether your foreground text is readable and WCAG compliant.

colourcontrast.cc

Bookmarks