红 hóng red
Made up of [纟 sī silk radical 120, 工 gōng work; skill radical 48]Similar looking characters : 江 jiāng (river)
Alternative traditional form of character: 紅
Made with 6 strokes.
Combines 'silk' with 'work' giving the concept of extra work needed to dye silk red. 'Gong' also provides the rough phonetic.
Ancient small seal form 

Related characters
Also uses 纟 sī component: 纺 fǎng (fine woven silk fabric) 纷 fēn (numerous) 纲 gāng (guiding principle) 给 gěi (give) 纪 jì (order) 结 jié (knot) 经 jīng (Classic) 累 lèi (tired) 绿 lù (green) 维 wéi (to preserve) 绪 xù (beginnings) 纸 zhǐ (paper) 终 zhōng (end) 组 zǔ (to form)
Also uses 工 gōng component: 功 gōng (accomplishment) 江 jiāng (river) 经 jīng (Classic) 空 kòng (to empty) 左 zuǒ (left)
Sounds same
洪 hóng (flood)Pronunciation
Sound file kindly provided by shtooka.net ➚ under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License

Stroke order for character 红, kindly provided under Wikimedia creative commons license ➚
Phrases
我 有 六 张 红 票 wǒ yǒu liù zhāng hóng piào I have six red tickets红 的 hóng de Red one