Every UX/UI designer has to deal with color when building interfaces for websites and mobile applications. If you are new to this field and don’t feel confident just yet to combine and mix colors, you should definitely learn how. In this article, you will discover a collection of the best books about colors put together by top specialists from professional UX/UI design agencies.
Top Books About Color Design
Janice Lindsey “All About Color”
Canadian Janice Lindsey has written an amazing book about color, which often scares beginners due to its size. Despite the amount of information, this book is easy to read. The reader will be captivated by a fascinating story about the perception of color by people from different eras.
Johannes Itten “The Art of Color”
This book is so legendary that the 12th edition is already on the market. Johannes Itten spent his entire life studying and researching how color behaves in nature and how great artists use it. His results culminated in this book – the most complete, interesting, and useful written work on the art of color. It is useful for designers, but also for illustrators, photographers, and artists interested in the nature of color.
Derek Jarman “Chroma: a Book of Color”
When the British artist and director was writing this book, he lost his sight – that is why it was so important for him to transfer all his accumulated knowledge to paper. His book teaches how the perception of color has changed since the Middle Ages in various fields, from fine art to religion. It is a fantastically written story that is beautiful, fascinating, and informative. This book will delight all those who want to learn more about the history of color.
Sean Adams “The Designer’s Dictionary of Color”
The main difficulty in choosing a color palette is understanding how exactly the client perceives the colors. This particular book about color will help make sense of this issue. You should not expect pre-made solutions from Sean Adams. You will get some, but not nearly as many as you would like or probably expect. But if you read the book carefully, you’ll discover something much more valuable than a couple of ready-made examples. You’ll acquire a deeper understanding of how to work with color and choose shades.
Sean Adams, Terry Stone, Noreen Morioka “Color Design Workbook: A Real-World Guide to Using Color in Graphic Design”
The authors of the book, using practical examples, show readers how color can help create the right emphasis. The publication has many tips for specialists and examples of effective solutions. The book is ideal for beginners who often do not fully understand the power of color which can both ruin entire designs and save them.
Kassia Saint-Clair “The Secret Lives of Color”
If you want to not only learn how to choose colors and create suitable color palettes but also know what lies behind particular shades, it is worth paying attention to the book “The Secret Lives of Color.” Kassia Saint-Clair wrote it by conducting an entire investigation, collecting every single piece of information bit by bit as well as interesting facts about the history of each significant color in the history of art. This book will surely broaden your horizons and will be especially interesting for those who are fond of colors. However, it should be noted that there is not much knowledge that can be put into practice. This book is a collection of amazing facts about the history of color.
Leatrice Eiseman “Colors for Your Every Mood: Discover Your True Decorating Colors”
Using her color book, Eiseman helps the reader develop a “color sense” – the ability to choose the right shades based on purpose and context. To make skills second nature and natural, reading one book is not enough – you have to devote massive amounts of time to practice and create dozens of layouts. The author addressed the book to all creative people who have to work with colors so that it will be equally useful to both illustrators and web designers.
Conclusion
If it’s still difficult for you to choose a color palette for your layout, pay attention to useful tips for choosing shades and convenient services that make it easier to work. And if you want to learn how to choose colors as well as all the other skills needed by a popular web designer, you must start putting your new knowledge into practice every day.