An unscientific observation of the headers of top online news sites reveals that most of their logos incorporate some form of the colors or red or blue. Coincidence or intentional?

According to a number of articles on color psychology, it may be the latter. RED is associated with energy, danger, strength, power, danger, action and adventure. It also has very high visibility compared to other colors. BLUE is associated with trustworthiness, seriousness, power and professionalism.




The above collection of headers, stripped down to basic colors.

But the world isn't just red and blue. Picking the right color for online graphics means creating the appropriate emotion from readers. Black may indicate somberness or seriousness while yellow evokes happiness and joy.

Truth be told there are so many colors to choose from that just naming them all can be daunting. Do you know the difference between lavender and mauve? How about turquoise and cyan? With this nifty chart, in addition to the useful and inspiring site ColourLovers, you'll be able to tell that the Los Angeles Times uses Prussian blue for its links and that the trademark Bloomberg orange is also known as golden eye.

For help in choosing the perfect colors to complement your site's existing scheme, visit Vandelay Website Design for an exhaustive list of color-related resources.