Using the Color Wheel to Create Eye-Catching Book Ads With Book Brush

We all want our book ads to stand out from the crowd, but what makes one ad work more effectively than another? While images, font, text, video or animations will make a difference, don’t overlook the power of color.

Using Book Brush, we can make our book ad ‘pop’ using awesome color combinations. Let’s look at the color wheel to understand why certain colors look great when combined with other colors. You can use this information when designing all graphics, including your book covers.

There are two types of color wheels. Each has slight variations, especially when looking at complimentary colors. Today, we’ll use the RGB color wheel because it’s designed for online use.

There are five main color combinations you can choose when looking at different options for your ads.

Complementary Colors:

This is where two colors on opposite sides of the color wheel are used to provide a high contrast and high impact color combination. (Background is in the images section, search ‘blue’ of Custom Creator).

Monochromatic Colors:

This is where you use different shades of the same color to give a subtle look to your book ads. It’s a more soothing color combination than the complimentary colors. (Background image is in the Instant Mockups tool). To add text to a monochromatic image, choose complimentary colors from the color wheel. In the second image, I have contrasted the golden tones of the background and image with blue, the color on the opposite side of the color wheel.

Analogous Colors:

This is where you use three colors that are side-by-side on the color wheel. In this example, I used one of the images in Instant Mockups as a background. Then uploaded that to the Custom Creator and added a bigger ebook than in the original image. Colors: Pink and two blues on the color wheel.

Triadic Colors:

This is where you use three colors directly opposite each other on the color wheel. Here I used original image of the cover as a background in Cover Creator, then added an ebook of the full cover. The orange tones in the heroine’s hair, the hero’s blue shirt, and the hot pink button make the book ad ‘pop’. The green of the plant also draws your eye to the ‘free today’ button.

Tetradic Colors:

This is where you use four colors that are evenly spaced on the color wheel. To make the ad ‘pop’ choose one color to be dominant and the others as accents. In the image below, the four colors are pink, green, orange, and blue. (This image is in the Instant Mockups section of Book Brush. Save the image, then add it as a background in the Custom Creator. Then add text, button, animations etc.)

Where Do I Find Images in a Specific Color to Use in My Ads?

Whether you’re using the Custom Creator or Cover Creator, you can find images of any color in the Background tab. In these examples, I searched for red, blue, and green background images. Or if you have your own licensed image, upload it to Book Brush.

Add buttons, text, video, animations or any of the other amazing tools in Book Brush to make your ad come alive! Remember the color chart. The principles of choosing text color, button choices, and filters is the same as we used for background or cover images. The images below can all be found in the background images in Custom Creator.

And remember Book Brush is a fantastic way to create a simple 3D promotional graphic for any platform or your website!

Join Book Brush today to create beautiful, professional looking book ads in minutes!

Article by Leeanna Morgan

Leeanna Morgan is a USA Today bestselling author of 38 novels. She lives in New Zealand surrounded by green hills on one side and the ocean on the other. Her books contain all the things that are important to her; good friends, family, a strong sense of community, and a happy ending.

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