The eye is attracted to contrast.  Color is extremely important to take in consideration when dealing with contrast.  Indeed, some colors sit next to one another more easily than others and sometimes a person is turned on or turned off by certain color combinations. Every day we see various different colors and it is worth looking at combinations of colors that work because it is essential to understand color contrast and usage with design.

Simple relationships of color have been established and are a rough system of quantifying complementary pairs.  Purple and yellow, blue and orange, and red and green are three combinations that work well with each other.  We see these colors everyday, and are quite appealing to the eye.  The three color relationships are, by rule of thumb, the basics in creating other colors.

It is easy to find these color pairs used.  Take professional sports teams for example.  Every sports team has their own colors and is used to distinguish themselves on and off their respective playing fields.  Purple and yellow are keen to the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team.  Blue and orange are a staple to The Mets pro baseball team. And blue and orange are native to the Pheonix Coyotes NHL Hockey team.  The colors for these teams are everywhere including on their uniforms, memorabilia, and fans. 

Whether it is on the uniforms of sports teams, people’s houses, billboard advertisements, or websites, colors, as it were, are everywhere and are practically unavoidable.  Therefore, knowing and understanding the three complimentary color pairs are vital to understanding art and creating design.