When it comes to choosing a shade structure color for your venue, the possibilities can seem nearly endless. Your choice of color is one of the selections that also will have the biggest impact on the final look of your project; color and shape are what people tend to notice first, so selecting the right ones can be imperative to the overall look of your shade structure design. However, with a few tips to keep in mind, the task doesn’t have to seem so daunting!
There are several factors you will want to consider when choosing shade sail colors:
1. Your Surrounding Environment
Take a look at shade color in terms of the surrounding landscape or nearby buildings. What colors are already in the environment? What colors would look great in that palette? If your shade structure will be in a green space with lots of trees and natural elements, softer, natural shades might fit in nicely.
2. Your Branding
You may wish to incorporate your company’s colors into your shades to further enhance your branding efforts. This helps to ensure that the most recognizable parts of your brand are visible from a distance. Keep in mind that larger shade structures, in particular, can be seen from quite a distance away, so picking a color of shade structure that matches your company’s brand can catch the eyes of those passing by and help draw in additional foot traffic.
3. Your Goal
What do you want your shade to do, besides just offering protection from the sun? If your shade structure protects bleachers or a pool, for example, an important goal may be not to distract the players or athletes using your facilities. In this instance, you might not want bright colors. If your shade structure is over an area in a park, part of your goal might be to allow the shade to blend in with the natural environment, meaning you want green and brown hues.
If your shade structure protects a parking area, on the other hand, you may want bright colors so motorists can easily find it. A brighter, colorful hue may be very appropriate near a daycare or playground, but for a white-collar business, you may need more muted color. When picking commercial shade structure colors, you may also want to keep color psychology in mind: a shade like red is known to represent excitement, whereas black gives off an aura of sophistication.
4. UV Protection
Different colors have different UV protection factors. For instance, many darker shades block out more UV rays, making them a natural choice for warmer and sunnier areas of the country. Lighter colors, in general, allow more of the sun’s rays to pass through, which may be important if you have grass or plants growing under your shade.
If UV protection is important to you, make sure you check the protection factor of different shades and colors before you make a selection. Here’s an overview of USA SHADE fabric options and corresponding shade factors, which one of our reps would be happy to further discuss with you.
