Color
The use of color in a fictional world can be important area for designers to consider. Certain colors may be associated with specific factions, helping to cement a faction identity. Color is often used in game worlds to highlight certain items. Specific colors, by convention, are often associated with certain game elements such as the use of the color red for health-related elements and items. The choice of color is also important in terms of audience, as colorblind individuals may have difficulties visualizing certain colors. Color is often essential for establishing the tone and aesthetic of a fictional setting.

Concepts |

Using Color in Fictional Settings
Tone
Color can be used to help set the tone and aesthetic of a fictional world because color can change how an audience perceives a setting. Darker colors are often used for worlds of a grimmer tone, while warmer ones are often selected for less grim worlds. Colors are imbued with cultural and psychological connotations. For instance, blues and grays often evoke feelings of sadness or loneliness, while reds and oranges can suggest excitement or danger. Cool colors like blues and greens can create a sense of tranquility, while warm colors like yellows and reds can convey energy or foreboding.
This use of color to help establish tone carries over to individual elements within a fictional world. Color choices associated with characters can provide insight into their personalities or motivations. A character clad in all black might be brooding or mysterious, while someone wearing bright, mismatched clothing could be flamboyant or eccentric.



Integration
Worldbuilders may wish to limit their regional color schemes to that which would be world or region appropriate. This may be dependent on the culture of that region as certain colors may be restricted to or favored by religious factions or royalty. Other colors may be culturally taboo or fashionable. And for worlds with limited trade networks such as those that take place within an ancient or medieval era, the availability of dyes may limit what colors are commonly worn.


Convention
By convention, certain elements are associated with certain colors during worldbuilding. No where is this more apparent than in game worlds. Red or green is often the color of health-related items. Poison is frequently green or purple. Explosive items, such as crates and barrels are almost always red.
Science fiction worlds often utilize color coding to differentiate technological functions or allegiances. Blue lasers might signify friendly fire, while red denotes enemy weapons. Buildings or districts could be color-coded based on their purpose, like a neon-lit red light district or sterile white medical zones.
Regions are also color-coded by convention, though they usually take their colors from the surrounding landscape. A desert kingdom could be dominated by warm tones of ochre, red, and sand, while a coastal civilization might favor cool blues, greens, and whites.

Symbolism
Color is often symbolic. This type of symbolism is often used in fictional flags, where the colors can be representative of resources, histories, or cultural elements. The use of symbolism with color is also heavily associated with narratives, with certain characters, story arcs, or themes being linked to specific colors.

Accessibility
8% of the male population and 0.5% of the female population suffers some form of color blindness. This condition causes certain colors to be indistinguishable from one another, with certain colors looking like the same shade of grey. Designers wishing to accommodate these individuals may wish to avoid the colors red and green, as an inability to tell these colors apart is most common. Many designers have switched to using a cyan, magenta, black, color scheme. In addition, designers can insert symbols or other contextual clues in addition to color.

