Boxes and Arrows: Natural Selections: Colors Found in Nature and Interface Design:

“From complex web applications to informative “brochure-ware” sites, naturally occurring color combinations have the potential to distinguish (by helping create a more memorable website), guide (by allowing users to focus on interactions), engage (by making page layouts comfortable and more inviting), and inspire (by offering new ideas for color selection).”

The article offers some great ideas on getting out of the “techno-color” rut. I particularly liked that the author used compelling photography as the foundation for a naturalistic color scheme. To a certain extent, this is cribbing colors from photographers instead of graphic artists because the photographer is still deciding on what is photographed and how. Still, this technique should be very useful.