Actionable
Color
Theory
An agency I helped co-found with the goal of making unique websites for unique clients, Futurist Horizons has provided an outlet for me to develop creatively. Using the principle idea that each person or business is different, we have helped our clients with web design, branding, and other custom services as required. Before we started working for others, we had to create our own.
Futurist Horizons
Starting From Scratch:
Given the exciting opportunity to build an agency from scratch, we began our search for a color scheme. A calming combination that matched the theme of the Pacific Northwest was pitched by me, with the idea of bringing natural ideas to a digital world. For this reason light blue was chosen as the primary color, with a darker blue and green as secondary colors. Yellow was chosen as a contrasting accent color.
My business partner suggested using thematic waves to further highlight the "natural meets digital" concept. Such dividers were planned to be used to separate longer page sections, particularly before reaching the footer of each page.
Some Changes:
After a couple of rounds of iterations we made a slight change to the color scheme. Violet replaced dark blue to provide more contrast within designs as a tertiary color. This allowed the green to be the sole secondary color with light blue remaining primary. The yellow also stayed as an accent color. Note that this also gave us three variations of mixed colors between each base.
With that selected as the final color scheme, my business partner took on the logo design. I suggested a thin typeface, giving off a clean modern aesthetic. A subtle wave effect was brought into the logo colors. Green symbolized hills below the light blue the sky. Over this a yellow line marked the sun, below the violet line showcasing deep water. With this logo and color scheme, our goal of bringing a natural look to the digital landscape was realized.
The wave was also changed in an effort to simplify page design while keeping our basic theme present. A subtle yet pleasing wave was introduced, each blending one base color into another. This one blends the light blue into green.
The Final Product:
The final hero image featured a digital artwork created in Figma. It is of Mt. Baker, a prominent feature of the local Bellingham horizon. In front of the mountain are several green hills. Blue and violet waves are shown at the bottom of the image, representing Bellingham Bay. With this a unique hero image had been created, featuring all of the primary colors and a representation of their meaning. Furthermore, these colors could be used in conjunction with a dark grey background to create a fully WCAG accessible website. The live website can be found here.