Understanding colour
Out of all the visual elements colour is perhaps the most powerful in its ability to control emotional responses. Much research has been done to understand how colour can affect our moods. In order to understand colour schemes it is important to see how colours relate to each other. As you can see in the simple colour wheel, each of the three primary colours has a secondary colour that is opposite it on the wheel. Red/green, yellow/violet and blue/orange. These are known as complementary colours, and using them together creates very dynamic colour schemes. More common is to use analogous colours; these are groups of three colours that are adjacent to each other on the colour wheel. Using a small amount of the opposite complementary often enhances these colour schemes.