#f42069 and #b4da55 are fantastic colors that go so well with each other
Watermelon candy instinct
Cosmo and Wanda dynamic
Splatoon
We really gonna sleep on the fact that the hex code of the green color literally says “badass”? And f 420 69?
The power of this post is too great
The coincidences of the color codes arehilarious, but in seriousness, I’m unsurprised to see them go well together! To those of us with normal color vision* (see footnote 1), color theory actually works pretty well to explain this!
See, in color theory, there’s something called Complementary Colors; this term refers to placement across the Color Wheel from each other:
If you look at this chart, you might notice something: the Primary Colors are all DIRECTLY across from a Secondary Color, while each Tertiary Color is directly across from another Tertiary Color. Those are your “Complementary Color” combos!
As you can see, Red is across from Green on the color wheel,butRed Violet in specific is also across from Yellow Green, making that combo also “complementary”!
Now, not all “color wheel” images bother to show the Tertiary colors (the in-between colors like Blue-Green, Yellow-Green, Red-Violet etc), but Tertiary colors are actually what we’re dealing with here, because the f42069 is pretty darn close to Magenta or Fuchsia, which are particularly red hues of RED VIOLET, while Badass Green here is a Yellow Green hue!
So what does this mean?
It means that BECAUSE of Complementary Colors being a thing, most hues of red-violet, including magenta, should go pretty darn well with most hues of yellow-green.
Or in the words of that article I got the image from: “ [Complementary] colors, such as red and green, can neutralize each other or provide a perfect contrast.”
What does thatmean?
Well, green has no red in it (being a blend of yellow and blue, in terms of pigments, usually) - thus the contrast of an added red hued thing next to it is striking and visually interesting.Likewise, when you edge the red into Violets, you’re adding blue to that one (yes, really, even if it still Looks Pink; color is weird that way), but if you edge the green into “more yellow than blue”, you’re proportionally REMOVING blue from that color…again, you’re adding in an element of contrast.
That’s why it’s called“complementary”** (see footnote 2) - meaning they supplement each other.
In this case, though, I’d also note that the EXACT colors work pretty well together in part because each of them softens the perceived intensity of the other; if you cover one of them, the still-visible one looks slightly more intense! Which in the case of the magenta, IMO, makes it almost toointense on my screen (though that green I personally like even more on its own, tbh, but that’s just me preferring Strong Colors lol).
So, yeah, the combination of them right next to each otherisvery different from the two colors separately!
This is why when I’m designing picture framing for myself or others, especially when it comes to the mat boards that accent the print or drawing, I pull a LOT of colors that are even remotely related to what’s in the image, because you really can see the same color seem to change like MAGIC depending on EXACTLY what other hues or shades you put it next to. :D It’s a particular challenge of working with color, but it can be very fun!
*1st Footnote: it’s worth noting that some people with a different form of color perception see colors in ways those of us without that difference don’t; for example, red-green color blindness means that something I would read as a bright teal would read to them as something in the violet range (because while the blue component stays the same, the green element in teal or blue-green becomes indistinguishable for them from thered element in violets, you know?), which…this changes a LOT about color dynamics, obviously! However, since people on this post like the combination so far? I’m going to go out on a limb here and assumemostof them have so-called “normal” color vision or close to it, with the ability to distinguish not just color in general but at minimum, reds from greens. Still, it’s worth acknowledging that this difference exists, since the Color Wheel and Color Theory were clearly designed by and for people with “normal” color vision that can distinguish ALL those colors, because someone who sees color completely differently might not react the same way to a combination like this that relies on hues commonly impacted by color perception differences
**2nd Footnote: not to be confused with“complimentary”, which is speaking of something/someone in a positive and praising light. “Complimentary” and “complementary” are often homophones in various dialects of English and are literally ONE vowel letter off from each other to begin with, so they’re commonly confused or conflated - and tbh it doesn’t bother me if someone uses the “wrong” spelling because I can usually tell what they mean from context - but they’re ~officially~ two different words, so it was worth noting I figure, especially since some of you folks out there might need to use that tiny scrap of knowledge on SATs or resumes or something someday, idk.
