Colour Schemes

I order for my magazine to maintain a constant house theme, I will employ a colour scheme that will run throughout the magazine. This will enhance the professionalism of my magazine, allowing my product to emulate a real magazine and creating an element of verisimilitude.

To explore a range of colour schemes, I have used a website called www.coolors.co. This website offers an online colour scheme generator, in which you can simply press the space bar and view random schemes of 5 colours. You are also given the ability to lock in any colour(s) you like within the random scheme and continue to press the space bar to explore other colours in relation to your locked colours. This provides you with the perfect way to find your desired colour scheme.

I used this website to produce 3 colour schemes which I particularly liked. I will paste these themes below.

Colour Scheme 1: 

I love the colours in this scheme. I feel like they particularly suit the time of year that my magazine surrounds (autumn/winter/Christmas), appealing to my audience who will be directing their attention to more festive art.
I believe that the use of black is a pertinent colour in my magazine as it enhances the other colours, juxtaposing brighter shades such as yellow/golds and red shades. This allows them to stand out and creates a more eye-catching effect. I believe this would be a very suitable colour scheme for my magazine.


Colour Scheme 2:

This colour scheme is very subtle. It maintains the shade of black that I'd like to enhance lighter shades, creating a more eye-catching effect to gain the audience's best interest. The berry shades towards the centre relate directly in with autumn and the berry tones that are favourite through lipstick and eye shades within make-up artistry. However, one aspect I dislike about this scheme is the stereotypical shades that are used within make-up and how they are directed towards femininity. As my magazine is directed at both genders, I don't want the colour scheme to portray my magazine as solely for females, due to my magazine aiming to encourage all gender to explore makeup artistry.


Colour Scheme 3:

This colour is similar to colour scheme 2 in terms of it being subtle and moderately feminine. This colour scheme does not maintain any black shade, however, it employs a dark purple. I also feel as though despite the attractiveness of the shades, they are of a more pastel tone and therefore may not grab attention in comparison to the other colour schemes.


My Target Audience's Opinion:

I also created a poll for my target audience, in order to gain knowledge on what they would prefer. I then posted this link to social media, appealing to those of my targeted age range, who voted. I will insert the results of this poll below.

It is evident that my target audience prefers the first scheme, and I agree. The colour scheme completely suits the dark and wintery tones that I'd like my magazine to have, channelling the festive spirit and also preventing it from being gender specific. Therefore, I will be using the first colour scheme for my product.