Finding the right look for your graphic design is vital, and one of the biggest things you need to decide on is whether to go for a black-and-white or a colour design. The impact of your design will be significantly different depending on your choice, so take your time choosing, because you will get a lot more mileage out of the design if you can get it right. The following is a look at some of the main considerations when choosing between black-and-white or colour for your graphic design.

Set the mood

Whether you choose black-and-white or colour, your choice will have a significant impact on the mood of your design, as while some colours can be used to convey a number of different moods and feelings, others are far more particular. If you don’t understand colours very well, start experimenting to discover what colours set what mood, and make sure that, whether it is a black-and-white or colour design, that is suits your business and brand perfectly.

It’s all about the tone

The tone of your design will have a huge impact on the overall effect, and whether it is black-and-white or colour, a sharp tone and a soft tone will create completely different looks. By playing around with the tone, you can get just as creative with black-and-white designs as you can with colour, so don’t be afraid to experiment and find that perfect look for your graphic design.

Printing expense

Depending on your financial situation, as well as how many copies of your design you want to have printed out, to save some money, it may be a wise move to go for a black-and-white design instead of colour. After all, if you plan on having it printed on thousands of posters or leaflets, the difference in printing costs will be significant.

The best-case scenario is if the black-and-white design looks best, but if the colour option looks far better and you can afford to spend the money, colour printing is well worth the investment for the extra impact your design will make. If you can find a design that looks great in both black-and-white and colour, you can save your colour versions for special places and occasions, while saving money by using the black-and-white version for those mass productions.

Modern vs. classic

If you are trying to create a modern look with your graphic design, you can definitely do just as well with black-and-white as you can with colour, and even though colour is used far more often these days, black-and-white designs are easily considered just as modern. However, when it comes to creating a classic look in your graphic design, black-and-white is the only way to go, because colour printing is a relatively new phenomenon, and simply wasn’t used in classic design.