Colors
Color plays a key role in shaping emotional perception, ensuring readability, creating information hierarchy, and strengthening brand identity.
A systematic approach to color management is critical for achieving visual consistency, accessibility, and effective communication.
Principles
Brand Identity
The color palette directly reflects the brand identity and company values. Primary and secondary brand colors are used to create a recognizable visual image.
Functionality
Colors serve functional purposes, such as indicating states (success, error, warning), highlighting interactive elements, and structuring content.
Accessibility
All color combinations must comply with accessibility standards, specifically the text and interactive element contrast requirements according to WCAG, to ensure readability for visually impaired users.
Hierarchy
Colors are used to create visual hierarchy, directing the user's attention to the most important elements and easing the perception of complex information.
Flexibility and Scalability
The palette must be flexible enough to support various use cases, including dark themes, high-contrast modes, and future product extensions, as well as scalable for new products or features.
Brand
The initial stage involves extracting the primary accent colors defined in the official brand book. These colors are frequently featured in the logo and key marketing materials. They serve as a starting point for the entire design system palette.
Secondary and accent colors that are either already in use or can be harmoniously integrated. Their function is to support the primary colors, provide visual variety, and differentiate functional areas without compromising the core brand identity. This process takes into account the emotional and semantic meanings associated with the brand (e.g., reliability, innovation, user-centricity, exclusivity). Color solutions are chosen specifically to resonate with these values.
Digital Environment
A standard brand book typically contains a limited number of base colors. To ensure functionality and flexibility in a digital interface, it is necessary to generate an extended spectrum of shades for each key color (from light to dark). This process is implemented using methodologies that take into account perceptual brightness, which ensures an even visual distribution and applicability across various UI states (e.g., for background elements, interactive states).
Color status indicators (success, error, warning, info) are selected based on their traditional intuitive interpretation (e.g., green for success, red for error). At the same time, their maximum harmonization with the overall brand palette is ensured, minimizing visual dissonance. In some cases, traditional semantic colors can be adapted to a unique brand palette, provided that their functional clarity is maintained.
Design tokens
Before diving into color tokens, it is important to understand what design tokens are in general. Color design tokens are named variables that represent specific colors within a design system. They do not just store color values but assign semantic or functional meaning to them. Instead of thinking of a color as “light blue,” we think of it as the “background color for the primary CTA element” or the “error text color.”
There are several approaches to forming colors within a design system, each offering distinct advantages and unique application scenarios:
Palette-Based Approach
A traditional approach where a set of base colors is selected manually or using tools (e.g., Adobe Color, Coolors, or the Material Design color tool), followed by creating their tints and shades (generating light and dark variations for each color).
Advantages
Full Control
You maintain complete control over each color and can fine-tune its visual perception.
Emotion and Brand
It is easy to create a unique palette that precisely matches the brand and evokes the desired emotions.
Predictability
Once the palette is chosen, all shades will look exactly as intended.
Design Expertise
Designers can leverage their experience and visual taste to create harmonious combinations.
Disadvantages
Labor-Intensive
Manually selecting numerous shades can be a time-consuming and tedious process.
Inconsistency
Without clear rules, illogical transitions between shades may emerge.
Algorithmic/Mathematical Approach
This approach utilizes algorithms to generate shades and tones from specified base colors. It is based on modifying color parameters such as lightness, saturation, or hue within color models (HSL, HSB, Lab).
Advantages
Efficiency and Automation
Rapid generation of extensive palettes containing numerous shades.
Consistency
Guarantees logical and predictable transitions between color shades.
Scalability
Easy to introduce new colors or modify base ones, automatically updating the entire palette.
Ease of Maintenance
Adjusting a single parameter can cascade across the entire system.
Theming
Highly convenient for generating light/dark themes by modifying global generation rules.
Disadvantages
Less Direct Control
Algorithms may occasionally yield unexpected or less visually pleasing results for certain colors.
Artificial Feel
May not always account for the nuances of human color perception, potentially leading to a less “vibrant” palette.
Configuration Complexity
Requires a solid understanding of color models and algorithmic workflows.