Tips for colour combination

Back to the roots

How long ago was your last art lesson in third grade? Painting colourful pictures with classical music in the background. Chatting with the person sitting next to you. Happy to be able to go back home soon with a growl in your stomach.

For me it meant working hard not to get the worst grade (fine art was never my strength) and putting up with my teacher, the Maestra Marilina (I think by now you can guess who the Italian of the gang is).

Eventually it was over with finger painting and toe-drawing and then came the theory. One subject that has taken up residence in my head is the science of combining colours. Admit it, that's more or less the only thing you still remember from that time too! At the latest when I say primary, secondary, complementary colours and colour wheels, you know what I'm talking about.

Who would have thought that something we learned at school would actually be useful!

When do two colours fit together?

Three terms:

• Primary colours: Cyan, Magenta and Yellow. Only these colours could exist and all other colours could be derived and produced from them.
• Secondary colours: Red, Green and Blue. Each composed of two primary colours.
• Complementary colours: You take a primary colour (e.g. yellow) and make the complementary colour by mixing the other two primary colours (cyan and magenta). The result is violet. Violet and yellow are complementary colours.

Tadaa, the theory from above presented as a colour wheel.

Colour wheel according to Itten, 1961

Now only two sentences.

"Opposites attract"

— Physics

"Equals do NOT attract each other"

— Me

Physics itself proves that opposites attract. The + and − of magnets, protons and electrons, Homer and Marge Simpson.

It's no different with colours: complementary colours fit together well.

Now imagine wearing a lemon yellow shirt, ochre-coloured jacket, khaki trousers and a sand-coloured tie. If you're a giraffe, that's PERFECT. Otherwise you should let it go. Similar shades are very difficult to combine.

Black and white are the jokers. They neutralise the war of colours and make your work more pleasant for the eyes. Think of penguins: they can carry off an orange beak because otherwise they only wear white and black.

If you're smart (I strongly assume that because you're on our website) you'll put together a colour palette with two quiet ones (including black, white and grey) and one or two brighter tones. This can be purely mental, but it makes it easier for you to choose your daily outfit, for example.

Not everyone necessarily has to do it like Steve Jobs.

How to design a colourful leather bag?

Now we're specifically looking at bags. With the colours available to you at sty.ma, you can create countless bags (I've heard of 50,000 possibilities...). Here you will find the team's favourite combinations.

But you don't have to copy, do your own thing. You can do it.

Or just take our template, we don't really care.

With the following steps, you can easily design a successful bag.

A leather bag as you like

1. Occasion: When will you carry the bag?
2. Palette: Which colour definitely has to be in there?
3. Pattern:
   • Mono colour – just one colour
   • Accent – mono colour + an extra colour in few or small areas
   • Colourful
4. Goal: What do you want to represent? How do you want to feel?

Now give it a go, have the courage to make a decision and wear your own design. Share your ordered bag with us e.g. on Instagram #stymabags! We are also happy to copy you.

Here you can start designing your own bag.

Have fun!