The concept of creating movie color palettes has made an internet splash in recent years. Websites like Movies In Color and The Colors of Motion have interpreted many films into correlating color palettes. With this trend in mind, we want to share our own take.
The following 10 examples create simple movie color palettes from classic films that have a color in the movie title. Enjoy!
Blue Desert (1991)
“Blue Desert” offers a cool color palette that rides the line from purple into blue. The neutral sand color is a necessary counterpoint to the more saturated purples. It brings out a side of those tones that is quite unique. This palette could be used for branding projects that aim to capture the idea of “cool” or “night”.
Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)
Technically speaking, gold isn’t actually a color, but rather a specific way of combining various tones of yellow. “Curse of the Golden Flower” shows us how to break it down and offers some sharp neutral colors to balance it all out.
Green Zone (2010)
Despite the military theme, “Green Zone” offers a calming palette of pastel orange and green. With the help of several light neutral tones, this palette would lend itself well to design jobs aiming to capture a mild, healing or grounded look.
La Belle Verte (1996)
The french film “La Belle Verte”, which directly translates to “The Beautiful Green”, features a slightly less-than-lush landscape. We see cool purple colors coming from the water and the sky juxtaposed to dry and desaturated yellows and greens. This palette would likely fit best with more serious and nuanced subject matter.
Pink Cadillac (1989)
“Pink Cadillac” brings a wonderfully refreshing pastel color palette that makes you think of nice weather and classic cars (especially pink ones). It borders on an Easter sensibility while still retaining it’s own feel. This palette could speak to tropical branding, Florida styling, or youthful feminine energy.
The Color Purple (1985)
“The Color Purple” is a perfect film to look to for palettes hovering around blue and purple. The colors chosen above outline a two sided palette: One side displays two blue tones while the other shows two purple tones. This relationship has a cool temperature that lends itself perfectly to a seasonal field of flowers.
The Big Blue (1988)
“The Big Blue” is a good film to look to for nuanced combinations of blue tones. The screenshot above provides many faces of the color blue; a saturated medium blue, a desaturated light blue, a deep and dark blue and finally an almost-grey blue. This palette is dimensional and represents one of the more analogous palettes in this article!
Yellow Submarine (1968)
One color pairing that works like magic in the film “Yellow Submarine” is magenta and green. It is an unusual and unexpected pairing that is simply intriguing. This screenshot also offers a nice counterpoint to that pairing with a bold yellow and a neutral grey.
The Pink Panther (1963)
“The Pink Panther” is a film that can teach us how to make colors “pop”. In the screenshot above, the pink sweater is vibrant. This is exaggerated by the contrary background of neutral grey tones and orange. This is great technique to use anytime a “pop” is needed – be it fluorescent blue, green, or even bright red!
Blue Velvet (1986)
There is no film that says “neon” louder than “Blue Velvet”. This palette features three excellent neon colors juxtaposed to a deep purple, which gives the neon colors an extra boost!
Conclusion
Movies can be a great source of inspiration in choosing colors. As you can see we have created 10 excellent and functional color palettes from simple screenshots. You can do the same!
