Hypnotherapy Website Design - Using Colour
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This is the Griffen Mill Design Guide to designing websites for hypnotherapists. This section focusses on the use of colour. Other parts of the guide focus on choosing images, and making appropriate content and copywriting decisions. Click to return to the main guide.
Colour for Hypnotherapists
As with any website and client, individual client preferences are paramount, however in our experience certain colour choices and palettes are more popular with hypnotherapists. These tend to be colours associated with a calm, inviting and neutral outlook, such as blue and turquoise. Rarely would we create a hypnotherapy website with vibrant colours such as pink and red, which may not create the right feel to its visitors. Hypnotherapy websites are better suited to a more "medical" feel. Although, there is always a balance to be met when designing for hypnotherapists, as the website aims to be professional and grounded, yet it is also vital to create a warm and inviting appeal, sensitive to the nature of the client's work.
Another factor that will of course influence colour is the image choice, and hypnotherapy websites are likely to include images that convey a sense of space and freedom, an open landscape or natural scenery. It is key therefore to ensure your palette complements this.
Colour Palettes for Hypnotherapists
There are a number of tools online which are suitable for experimenting with and choosing colour palettes. Here are a few that we have used often for hypnotherapy websites. Different therapists will have a leaning to different styles of palette, depending on whether they wish to present a more individual and vibrant look or something more low key and businesslike.
Option 1: Smart Monochromatic
This scheme is based on a single colour tint, and uses only variations made by changing the saturation and brightness. A hypnotherapist may wish to use this scheme to maintain a consistent design, in-keeping with their logo or existing business literature. The use of lighter shades as a background tone along with darker headings will balance the design well. A more saturated blue used as an accent colour can complement a monochromatic design by highlighting certain elements well.
Option 2: Cool Complement
This colour scheme uses an analogic model, which complements the primary colour with its adjacent colours set at either side on the colour wheel. By using a tone only 20 degrees from the primary colour, a natural and elegant cool complementing scheme is created. These calm and gentle colours are perfect for a hypnotherapy website as they create a safe and inviting appeal, whilst maintaining a professional and grounded outlook.
Option 3: Cool Contrast
This palette is based upon calm and natural turquoise shades that could be used within a monochromatic scheme, of which is a range used often for hypnotherapy websites. This gentle and professional tone is complemented well by use of a contrast colour. In this case a warm shade from the opposite side of the colour wheel will balance the design. These warm shades can be used carefully as an accent colour within the website, for use in subheadings or links. It is important to ensure the contrast shades are used delicately so as not to overpower the design.
Social ColourMAX is the design of choice for Richard Jenkins and his Hypnotherapy and Counselling website. The feature image of a stone path winding through a wood is perfectly complemented by the soft brown and green colour scheme. The natural image and soft colours help to convey a sense of calm and down to earth strength that I perfectly suited for a therapy website. Richard has added an image of himself to his home page which helps to add a feeling of familiarity to potential clients. These observations and comments were made on November 19th, 2015 - the website may have been updated since then. www.counsellingandhypnotherapy.org
Nick is using one of WebHealer’s mobile friendly Bronze designs for his Exeter Hypnotherapy website and he has customised it himself to give some personalisation. The colours he has chosen complement the feature image he has added to the top of his Home page which gives the site a calm and well balanced feel. He has also added a portrait image of himself into the right hand side of the pages which is a great way of giving a sense of familiarity to your potential clients, helping them to feel more at ease in making that first initial contact. The teal colour scheme that he has chosen is also a great choice for a hypnosis website as it is said to instil a sense of balance, trust and integrity. These observations and comments were made on September 12th 2016 – the website may have been updated since then. www.exeterhypnosis.co.uk
Jane Sheehan is using WebHealer’s mobile friendly Social ColourMAX design for her hypnotherapy and reflexology website. The feature image and colour scheme complement each other really well and the soft pink of the petals is gently carried over into the design. Pink is a great colour use a hint of as it is said to convey a sense of nurturing and unconditional love, which is great for a natural therapy site. The image Jane has then added of herself fits perfectly with this as she is wearing a pink top which demonstrates how important a common visual language throughout the website is. These observations and comments were made on December 8th, 2015 - the website may have been updated since then. www.norwichtherapiesforhealth.com
Solihul Holistic Health have chosen a mobile friendly design for their reflexology and hypnotherapy website which they have customised with a lovely colour scheme. The soft and gentle green is complemented by a hint of pink which gives the site a feeling of nurturing balance and growth which suits their therapy field perfectly. The feature image they opted for also incorporates this colour scheme giving the site a sense of stability and harmony which is carried through all of their pages. These observations and comments were made on November 5th 2015 – the website may have been updated since then. www.solihullholistichealth.co.uk