today we were introduced to a new section of the design principles; visual literacy module. i really enjoyed this lesson as it was an engaging and educational insight into how we perceive colour, how it exists and its properties.
fred began with a lecture and powerpoint about colour and colour theory. we talked about how legibility and readability can be affected by changes in colouration drastically.
COLOUR PRINCIPLES.
COLOUR PRINCIPLES.
the way we perceive colour is dependant on the rods and cones withtin our eyes.
colour, then, does not really exist but it is just light and the absence of light and a combination of the two.
the way we see colour is because our eyes are 'fooled' by the proportionate adjustment of red, green, and blue. these are the only colours the eye can actually see. every other colour is just a mix of these three.
red, green, and blue are used as the colour format for screen because a screen is made of light.
the cmy (cyan, magenta, yellow) of the cmyk colour format, used for physical print, is seen in the eye through the cones.
the k (black) makes up tonal information and is seen through the rods.
say violet not purple.
the subtractive colour wheel.
In subtractive colour mixing, each substance in a mixture absorbs or subtracts wavelengths from the incident light.
Additive color is color created by mixing together light of two or more different colors. Red, green, and blue are the additive primary colors normally used in additive color system. Additive color is in contrast to subtractive color, in which colors are created by subtracting (absorbing) parts of the spectrum of light present in ordinary white light, by means of colored pigments or dyes, such as those in paints, inks, and the three dye layers in typical color photographs on film.
complementary colours are the exact opposite of each other on the colour wheel and when mixed will cancel each other out to create an absence of colour ending up with a neutral grey.
colour does not just exist as it is but has dimensions that make it up.
the aspects that make up colour are collectively referred to as CHROMATIC VALUE.
Hue, tone (value) and chroma are the most important aspects of colour and feature prominently in the planning and decision-making process when it comes to design and the built environment.
Think about when you shop for food, clothing, homewares, bedlinen, accessories, technology etc the question of colour arises once you’ve decided that a particular type of product or model matches your requirements.
We use ‘hue’ (the family a colour belongs to e.g. red) to determine how fresh or ripe food may be.
The dimension of ‘tone’, or ‘value’ as it may sometimes be known, is the lightness or darkness of a colour. It helps designers describe a hue. A colour can be compared to the 9 step black and white grey scale to help determine the tone of a colour and group a set of colours by tone.
The 3rd dimension used is ‘chroma’ which refers to the intensity or saturation of a colour. Highly chromatic colours are those that are rich and vibrant.
fred also explained how the comparison of colours can completely change the way we perceive them even though no colours actually change and our eye is just confused.
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in preperation for the session we were asked, each, to bring in 15 objects that were just one colour and we were each assigned a colour.
mine was blue.
fred asked us all to get into groups with the people with the same colour objects and we then had to but all the coloured objects in linear order around tables so that our objects showed a spectrum of that colour and in conjunction with the other coloured objects that other groups were organising.
i really enjoyed this task as it taught me a lot about colour and the difficulties in recognising and comparing different colours. the hue of a colour, how pure a colour is, can be drastically different and a very red bottle may seem overly red and almost violety in comparison to a more orangey red. the tone affects the hue and determines the lightness of a colour on the greyscale. the saturation of a colour refers to its vibrance and may affect how shiny or matte it looks.
from this we were asked to get into smaller groups and were then introduced to the Pantone Matching System.
pantone enables printing and recognition of exact colours on a global scale. the numerical referencing allows for one to make a colour they see to a code that can be related to anyone anywhere, despite language barriers, and they can then select the exact same colour.
DIMENSIONS OF COLOUR.
in line with our introduction to chromatic value we were asked to look into the different aspects. chromatic value = hue + tone + saturation.
hue relates to the colour itself and which colour it is. it could be a greeny blue or a violety blue but its still a blue.
DIMENSIONS OF COLOUR.
in line with our introduction to chromatic value we were asked to look into the different aspects. chromatic value = hue + tone + saturation.
hue relates to the colour itself and which colour it is. it could be a greeny blue or a violety blue but its still a blue.
saturation regards the increase or reduction of the colour itself. how much of a colour it is - how yellow a yellow is. this affects the hue as well - a greyey yellow is desaturated from its purest hue.
tone (also known as value or lightness) is the increase or decrease of the saturation of a colour.
luminance concerns how light hits an object, and so a colour, and the colours ability to reflect or absorb it. shade - light being absorbed - decreased luminance. tint - light being reflected - increased luminance.
comparison of colours completely changes the perception of a colour.
we were then asked to egt into pairs and i was with joe leadbeater and asked to categorise coloured objects using the pantone matching system.
greenest blue - 3262U
purplest blue - 294U
lightest blue - 2975U
darkest blue - 2955U
bluest blue - 286C
dullest blue - 294U
brightest blue - Pantone Process Blue.
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