Colors

• Colors are insidiously complicated
• All my mathematical approaches to color end up taking on a more humanistic method
• Good designs work in shades of gray (colors can be added in a separate step)
• When designing links in text or handling errors in forms, a good approach is to rely on color and something else (underline, label, shape, icon)
• Over the years, I’ve learned that it’s fun to do a project in Pantone’s color of the year once every 12 months (or at least to use that color in the palette of one of your projects)
• Sip is great at naming colors
• Contrast is essential
• I wanted to write that I have never read a book about colors in my life, but that would be untrue: I have read Color Accessibility Workflows by Geri Coady, published by A Book Apart
• All the 17k color names from the color‑name‑list API

January 6, 2024