It is easy to assume that because our lives are surrounded by colour that we understand how to use it. This project will introduce you to some of the science of colour, its terminology, different systems of thinking about colour and how this relates to graphic design.
How colour works
Before you can see colour, you need light. Light is electro-magnetic radiation whose
wavelengths include gamma-rays, x-rays, ultra-violet rays, visible light, infra-red rays, microwaves, radio waves, TV frequencies and long waves. Visible light takes up a very small
section of this spectrum and is broken up by what we recognise as the colours of the rainbow or the optical spectrum. Visible light or simply light, is made up of all these colours, as Sir Isaac Newton discovered when experimenting with a prism.
Light
Light hits an object and depending on the object’s reflective qualities the light is reflected,
absorbed and/or scattered. Photosensitive cells in our eyes detect this reflected light,
transmitting it to the brain where we perceive the colour. The surface of objects can be
reflective, translucent (see-through) or opaque (not see-through) which will change how light is reflected. For designers this means thinking about the materials on which we print, should they be gloss (reflective) or matt (opaque). Natural daylight contains a balance of all the colours in the optical spectrum, and can be said to have a neutral colour temperature. It is the best light to work in when drawing or photographing, providing it is not too cloudy. Artificial light by comparison is not neutral and can be either cool (contains more green –
blue) or warm (contains more yellow – red). For a designer this means that you may need to
correct the colour balance of an image in Photoshop.
Colour blindness
Colour blindness is an issue with perceiving colours, it often means people cannot distinguish between greens and reds and it is a condition affecting men more than women. While colour blindness will not be a barrier to becoming a professional designer, it is worth knowing whether you are colour blind or not. It is also worth remembering that you are designing for other people who are colour blind. An online colour blindness test is available at: http://www.archimedes-lab.org/colorblindnesstest.html
Colour models
There are lots of ways of attempting to describe colour systematically, but the two models
that you need to understand are additive and subtractive colour.
Additive colour deals with colour as light. It is important in understanding lens-based media such as photography, video or stage lighting. Additive colour uses red, green and blue light to reproduce the full spectrum of colours and is often described as RGB (red, green, blue) though there are other additive colour models. If you were to hold a red object in a room illuminated by a green light, what colour would the object appear to be? The answer is black, because green light has no red in it, so there are no red electromagnetic waves to bounce off the object and be picked up by your eyes.
Subtractive colour, which is the colour model we will be working with, deals with colour as physical pigment such as paint or ink and is particularly important to understand as a paperbased graphic designer. Subtractive colour uses red, blue and yellow as the main hues or colours from which all the other hues are mixed, these are known as primary colours. It is useful to see these colours within a circle or colour wheel. Mixing two primary colours together on the colour wheel will give the secondary colours of orange, green and violet. Mixing primaries and secondary colours together will give the tertiary colours.
Complementary colours are those diagonally opposite one another on the colour wheel, for example red and green, blue and orange or yellow and purple. Complementary colours give
you the maximum contrast when placed next to each other, so green will make red look more intense.
Tints and shades
Subtractive colour utilises black and white (usually working with white paper and black pigment) to give colour different tints and shades.
A tint is a hue mixed with white to give a lighter appearance and a shade is the use of black to make a hue darker.
Mixing any colour with a neutral colour such as white or black reduces its colourfulness, making it more light or dark but the hue itself remains unchanged.
Exercise: Understanding colour
Johannes Itten was an artist, designer and educator who spent much of his life exploring
how colour works, especially the dynamic relationship between colours. This is one of his
exercises.
Draw two grids of squares, filling one with colours that you like and the other with
colours you dislike. Then put the two grids side by side and ask the question ‘which on
looks better?’
The usual result is the grid full of colours you dislike. This is because we tend to pick
bright colours as the colours we like, which when placed side-by-side look garish and
jarring. By contrast the colours we think we don’t like as much are often the more subtle
and muddier mixed colours, tertiary colours and occasional bright hues. When placed
side by side the effect is more balanced.
This is an important lesson for designers when picking a colour palette to work with: use
bright colours but balance them against more subtle colours. It will also help you become
better acquainted with your image manipulation or DTP software – identifying where
your colour swatches are, how to select them and how you blend colours by changing
their opacity.
Next try experimenting with placing colours together as Itten did.
Try and find different combinations of two colours to illustrate each of these ideas:
- Angry
- Hopeful
- Open
- Vital
- Brave
- Independent
- Precious
- Wonderful
- Creative
- Jumpy
- Extra Special
- Quiet
- Dangerous
- Reasonable
- Kinetic
- Energetic
- Luxurious
- Sociable
- Youthful
- Familiar
- Masculine
- Tasteful
- Zany
- Gregarious
- New
- Unhappy
Exercise response
Colours I like
Colours I dislike
Side by side
Johannes Ittton-style colour combinations
I already feel fairly confident in the colour department, and have focused a lot on colour meanings throughout this course. I used this website as a refresher, which I found was useful piece of research, which led to a lot of the below outcomes: https://graf1x.com/color-psychology-emotion-meaning-poster/
1. Angry
2. Hope
3. Open
4. Vital
5. Brave
6. Independant
7. Precious
8. Wonderful
9. Creative
10. Jumpy
11. Extra Special
12. Quiet
13. Dangerous
14. Reasonable
15. Kinetic
16. Energetic
17. Luxurious
18. Sociable
19. Youthful
20. Familiar
21. Masculine
22. Tasteful
23. Zany
24. Gregarious
25. New
26. Unhappy
Self Critique
I found the exercise to be experimental and limitless, which made it quite fun, as well as interesting and eye-opening. It was great to challenge my own comfort zones and play with colours that normally I would have said I didn’t like at all.
Overall I feel the majority of colour combinations I created imply the intended mood.
Graphic Design - Core Concepts: A log by Jade Wylie 