A Century of Color Trends and Color Combinations
Historic and Modern Color Palettes

More of this Feature • 2: Books on Color Selection  Palettes by Color • Red, Pink • Yellow, Gold • Orange • Blue • Green, Teal • Purple, Lavender • Brown, Tan, Beige • Gray, Silver • Black, White • Patriotic Pantone Palettes  Palettes by Era • Victorian • Art Deco • Atomic Age • Sixties • 90s and Today  More Color Palettes • Limited • Earthy  From Other Guides • Web Design: Color Blindness & Web • Graphic Design: Color Combinations submitted by Designers  Elsewhere on the Web • Color Combinations That Work • Web Safe Color Combinations • Read To Use Color Combinations (Hex Codes)

Each color combo is based on actual historic and modern formulas used in posters, packaging, ads, and other design work over the past century. Pick a palette based on specific colors and its color wheel companions or devise a look that echoes the colors of the Victorian Age, the psychedelic sixties, or shades of mother nature. Although presented in CMYK formulas, you may prefer to pick PMS colors or Web colors that match or nearly match the CMYK combinations for similar effects.

The color combinations presented here come from The Designer's Guide to Color Combinations by Leslie Cabarga. It contains over 500 historic and modern color formulas in CMYK. Instead of only little blocks of color Cabarga shows simple layouts that use varying amounts of each color. These layouts make it easier to visualize how a design will look using the three to seven colors in each palette. Follow his lead or rearrange the colors in any way you please. I've used a similar sample layout to show one color scheme in each of the era palettes.

Some of the books listed on the next page provide not only pleasing palettes but hints and tips on why certain colors and color combinations are appropriate.

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