Patterns and textures in color

I was working in my daughter’s room this weekend, putting up a wallpaper border and some curtains to cover the mirrored closet that scares her at night. I’m not a master seamstress, so I kind of just patch scraps together to make something pretty if not perfect. I was working on a small quilt for her bed when I had the inspiration for this color article. There are a million different ways to get inspiration for color on the web and crafts shouldn’t be excluded just because it’s a “girlie” trade.

I find some of the most beautiful color combinations in fabric, especially quilted pieces. Today I’m going to take you to “Fabric.com](http://fabric.com to browse through some of their collection. I’m on a budget and like to feel the fabric myself, so I get mine at Walmart on the dollar rack, but I do my browsing online first, and I’m not the least bit ashamed of that!

Something we don’t often think about in web design is texture. Beyond just the color of these fabrics there is a texture to the pattern as well which effects the way the eye picks up that color. The right background image or shadowed texture on a website can make your color look even more dramatic. It can also make it look horribly tacky, so be careful with too much texture. But look at the difference between these two reds (above). One is a fantastic rich red while the other, still red, is more subdued because of the use of lighter shades to cut out lines in the solid color. It is still a great red and extremely versatile with some great character.

For example, the purple leaves (above) can work well with either a light or dark shade of purple because of the balance of shades in the pattern. Even more exciting are the bits of orange you see in the yellow plaid pattern. From a distance it would just seem a plain yellow, but adding that slightly different color makes the whole thing much more interesting.

You can do the same thing with your web designs. Instead of using a plain color, try adding some extra shades to the background element of your page. Personally, I prefer to stay away from too many gradients to achieve this. Try to find a unique way of integrating other shades or patterns into your solid colors and spice up a dead site.

Another place I go for inspiration and some really great patterns is to Travis Beckham. He has made some beautiful wallpapers and incredibly, he still isn’t asking for people to pay for them. Spend just a few minutes browsing some of his work and you’ll soon be inspired by something, and you’ll probably recognize a lot of the patterns which have been used in many, many designs around the ‘net.

You can also find a good number of wallpaper patterns at istockphoto.com. They’re hard to find, but here’s a tip: when you go to the site, do a search for “wallpaper” and then narrow the search by typing in “seamless” – that way you’ll get more results for actually wallpapered patterns for use on the computer rather than pictures of wallpaper on walls and pretty desktop images. You might have to pay up to $10 for some of them, but trust me, it’s a deal for that kind of artwork! My favorite wallpapers come from the retro wallpaper portion of desuza.communications portfolio.

Think about patterns and texture and how they change the way color can be used, and do something fun with it! Enjoy color because without it, the world is a pretty dull place.

Links

• Yellow Plaid
• Red Plaid
• Purple Leaves
• Rich Red

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