Exploring Spring Colour Palettes

So we’re now in spring and the flowers are blooming, thank goodness for a bit of colour after winter! I love spring for it’s pretty colours and they’re a great way to snap some photos to use for colour palettes later on. So let’s discuss exactly what makes a good spring colour palette.

What makes a good spring colour palette?

• a good variety of light, medium and darker colour

• includes some softer, pastel or lighter colours

• can include bright saturated colours (think poppy red, daffodil yellow etc)

• includes yellow and/or pink (usually)

• has variety of warm AND cool colours

• good balance and variety of colour values (i.e contrast between colours)

What are the most important colours to include?

Two of the most important colours in a spring colour palette are yellow and pink. You can include a soft, lemon yellow or a bright daffodil yellow as well as a hot pink or a pale, baby pink. Remember that if you’re using a hot pink for example, the bright daffodil yellow may need to be adjusted so it’s not TOO bright and garish on the eyes. See the example below to see what I mean.

Comparison of how yellows and pinks work together

You can see in the example above how the bright, saturated pink looks against each of the yellows in turn. The pink is either easier on the eye or is competing, and therefore not easy to look at.

This top combination shows the saturated pink against the 5 different yellows with a variety of saturation. The palest, softest yellow on the left works well with the bright pink, whereas the brightest, most saturated yellow on the right doesn’t sit easy on the eye as both colours are competing against each other. It’s just not easy to look at!

If we change the hot pink for the softest, palest pink in the example below, the bright yellow works better as it’s now not competing against it.

The pale pink works well with all of the yellows because it is much softer and provides more balance.

If you include both yellow and pink, great! your pattern or artwork will sing. If you include just one of them, it’ll still work, though just not be as effective in providing that ‘spring’ like feel to it.

Examples of one of my patterns with a palette I created:

The example colour palette below show a good balance of colour value with yellows, orange, coral-red, green and blue. Notice how there are two softer, pastel, light yellows colours in the colour palette, which offer some contrast again the more vibrant and bright orange and coral-red. The blue is a mid shade colour and more on the cooler side but offers a good balance against the warmer yellows, orange and red. The green is a warmer green with a yellow undertone so sits nicely with the other colours.

The example patterns below were coloured with the colour palette as shown above. The only additional colour I added that’s not shown in the palette above, was white. All four patterns have yellow in them in varying amounts (i.e how much yellow). You can include a lot of yellow or a little, but yellow seems to be a universal spring colour. You can also include a bright sunshine yellow or a light, soft pastel lemon, as the yellow makes it ‘feel’ more spring like, as well as evoking feelings of joy and happiness.

In the examples below, all four patterns have no yellow in them as I’ve removed it and replaced it with 2 other pinks. As pink is a classic spring colour, they still work and can still class as spring patterns but just have a different feel to them without the yellow. The light blue pattern below works the best as the brighter coral-red against the blue background provides more contrast, so it pops more. Also because it contains a warmer yellow-green it works well to provide more warmth to an otherwise cooler colour palette.

Colours to avoid

If you’re wanting to create a spring colour palette, it’s also important to know which colours NOT to use and therefore avoid.

These are:

• colours that are dark AND cool

All of these colours are dark, cool colours and wouldn’t sit well in a bright, fresh spring colour palette. They don’t give the ‘feeling’ of a spring colour palette so wouldn’t catch the eye of an art director looking for patterns for their spring product line. It’s important to remember the TYPE of pattern your designing and therefore what colours would suit it best. I’ve never seen a fruit pattern for example with green strawberries! The colours need to match the pattern and the subject you’re designing for.

Well that’s it, I hope you try out the colour palettes above and give them a go. I’m sure you will be happy with the results. Remember to tweak the colours to your liking and that the suggestions above are just that, suggestions. There are no ‘rules’ in pattern design (or art in general for that matter), so go with what you like and use the suggestions above as a guide only!

By signing up you’ll also get access to a beautiful FREE pdf ‘Mastering Colour Palettes guide’ and get full access to my FREE Resource library with pre-done colour palettes and nature photos for loads of inspiration :)

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Free resources to help you

To help you with your own colour palette creation, I’ve created a downloadable FREE colour palette blank template for you to use in your work. It’s an A4 single page PDF that you can use when exploring colours and using nature photos as a source of inspiration. It’ll also help you to see if you have a good selection of colours from light to dark and whether there is a good contrast between the colours you’ve chosen. Download it below!

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