color

“Color, unlike any other subject in visual communications—interactive, print-based, environmental, and motion graphics-- is very complex and frequently misunderstood.  Color, which has physical, psychological, and/or learn behavioral attributes, can shape effective visual communication.  As a physical form of communication—lightwaves-- color is both absorbed and reflected by the objects we look at, and meaning is transformed and translated through its use. As designers, we no longer need to know how to physically mix paint pigment in order to create a certain hue. Most of us have not touched a Prismacolor pencil, magic marker, Color-aid paper, or paintbrush for nearly a decade. However, we do need to know how to work with Pantone hues, subtractive, additive, and three-dimensional color theories.” Simply put, Color is the most powerful tool a designer has, and ultimately it sells product.

Classic Color Meter
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/classic-color-meter/id451640037?mt=12
At $2.99 the Classic Color Meter is the best tool on the market for predicting color legibility.

Over the years I have seen students struggle with understanding the color contrast needed for something to be legible. It looks good on the screen, but once printed out the design is illegible. Most do not understand the ramifications of the source, object, observer, and how each plays a significant role in how humans see color. The best way to predict color legibility is to use the Classic Color Meter. If there is not a 20% CVD between hues it will probably be illegible when it is printed out, no matter the quality of the printer or printing press.
 
“Create color schemes with the color wheel or browse thousands of color combinations from the Kuler community.” From this site you can load your color combinations by RGB or Hexadecimal numbers. Also, you can take a screenshot of the color combinations you create, and drop them into your Adobe documents. In this way you can work fast and efficiently.
 
Swatches—On the App store free

Just like Shazam recognizes the name of a song, Swatches will reveal each hue’s color name in whatever system you want—Benjamin Moore paint number? Check. RGB value? Oui. Hex code? Hell yes. Pantone number so that you’re finally able to tell which Zara shirt is on-trend with the Color of the Year? You betcha.
 
How to use photos to create swatches in Illustrator for design work. This is a step by step video that is 4:33 minutes long.
 
Adobe Capture App—Free to download on the App store.

“Use your mobile device to turn photos into color themes, patterns, type, materials, brushes, and shapes. Then bring those assets into your favorite desktop and mobile apps — including Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Dimension, XD, and Photoshop Sketch — to use them in all your creative projects.”
This is an awesome tool that you will spend hours using. The shapes that you capture using this tool can be loaded into the shapes pallet in Photoshop. You can go to this link https://www.cliffcramp.com/videos to learn how to use shapes for blocking in illustrations—fourth one down on the right.
 
How Colors Impact Moods, Feelings, and Behaviors
https://www.verywellmind.com/color-psychology-2795824
This is a blog site that goes over the psychological and learned behavioral effects of color.
 
On this website six aspects of color in relationship to the psychological and/or behavioral effects of color. They are as follows: What is color psychology, psychological effects of cool colors, psychological effects of warm colors, the psychology of color for marketing & advertising, and the common psychological effects of colors.