Chip It! is an online color tool that allows you to upload an image and then provides you with the color palette from over 1,500 Sherwin-Williams paint colors.

No, I haven’t lost my web designing mind! Honestly, there’s a reason I’m talking about Sherwin-Williams paint. Just bear with me and you’ll see.

When a client already has a company logo, Marilyn and I need to come up with a color scheme (palette if you want to stick with the paint theme!). Some colors needs to be harmonious so they create a flow from the logo to the website. Other colors need to contrast so they will be noticed such as linking text or page/section titles.

We have our own set of super secret techniques and tools to help us do this. But, sometimes, every once in a while, we run into a client who doesn’t have a starting point, no existing logo or company colors, or simply cannot decide on a color. When this happens, we try to help them find their inspiration.

With the free Chip It! tool by Sherwin-Williams, they can play around with any images they like. They can find inspiration in photos of the kids in their Sunday best, a bouquet of flowers they received, or the lobby of the hotel from their last vacation. Or, they can find it online from a photo of a sunset at the beach, a reef, the desert, or their favorite desktop wallpaper provider’s latest creation.

And, once they find that inspiration, they can share it with Marilyn and I at High Aspirations, Inc. simply by creating a login and getting the URL for the ChipCard(s) they created and we’ll take it from there.

Here’s a Chip It! ChipCard I created using the High Aspirations, Inc. logo which you can also see by visiting http://letschipit.com/Chip/6jmOsu?ow=1.

It’s a very neat little tool, it is totally free, and it’s fun to play with. You don’t need to create a login to use it, only to share your creations (ChipCards). When you share, you can do so via Facebook, Pinterest, or by copying the URL (like I did above). You can even print your ChipCard and the tool will create a PDF which you can save or print.

And, it’s not just a tool for finding the perfect color for your website, you can even use it to figure out the paint palette for your next room makeover!