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Color Theory 01 | Mastering Color Theory: An Interior Designer’s Guide to Color Language and Attributes
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BY GLORIA STAFFORD, PhD, CID-MN

Interior designers often have a natural eye for color, which can make the importance of ‘color theory’ feel debatable. Concepts like analogous, complementary, and triadic schemes or the color wheel are essential for artists and painters, but they may not seem as relevant for designers working with pre-made materials.
 
Teaching color theory can sometimes feel too rigid and disconnected from the real world, especially since great design often involves breaking the rules and thinking creatively. That said, understanding the basics of color and how it works is a valuable tool—it helps designers communicate more effectively with clients and approach projects with greater intention.
 
Learn more about how color theory fits into modern design in this week’s edition of The Design Brief™.
 
 
 

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ABOUT THE DESIGN BRIEF™
 
You currently subscribe to The Weekly InstallÂŽ, our Friday morning email for interior designers who want to run more streamlined, profitable businesses. Many designers in our audience either didn't go to design school, could use a refresher on what's being taught in design school, or would love for their team to know a bit more about the technical side of design (aka free training!).
 
So, we created The Design Brief™ in 2024, our twice-monthly complimentary publication, to give you bite-sized lessons on all the technical interior design topics you didn’t learn (or forgot) from design school—straight from Gloria, our resident tenured interior design professor & certified interior designer.
 

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