Enhancing design using color 337

application techniques are impacted by the context in which our design will
be seen, which is known as context color. When used in combination, it is
more difficult to determine which aspect impacts a design in what manner;
however, by isolating each one, we can establish comparative characteristics
and their associated responses. Once these responses are established based
on our collective experience and observation, we are able to use each color
condition to elicit the desired reactions in our own work. The goal of this
chapter is to establish methods for effective interaction of color in design
by identifying the known responses in ways that may be replicated.

13.2 Importance of context

Like other aspects of design, our perception of an individual color is deter-
mined in large part by the context in which it is seen. Context color estab-
lishes a spectral base against which all other colors are compared.
Context is meaningful because the eye involuntarily compares colors
along the edges where they meet, highlighting the key differences between
them. The eye tends to favor, and may even exaggerate slightly, perceived
differences in hue, value, and saturation. (For the purposes of this chapter,
hue refers to the chromatic character of a color, such as its redness or blue-
ness: value describes relative lightness or darkness; and saturation is a
measure of the amount of chromatic intensity.) The overwhelming nature
of context color is what determines which object colors will draw the eye
by their very differences. Simply put, the more an object’s color varies from
its contextual color, the greater is its capacity to draw attention to itself.
Therefore, the strength of the object’s color is derived in part from its rela-
tionship with context color.

13.2.1 Color characteristics

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What is context color to a designer? This, of course, depends on the designer’s

line of work. For an environmental designer, the neighborhood is the
context, where the neighborhood could be a suburban cul-de-sac in the
United States, an open Scottish landscape, or an urban retail block in a
growing Asian city, each of which has its own color character. Context for an
artist’s work is the specific location where it will be shown, if commissioned,
or the presumed white, gray, or other solid wall color of a changing exhibition
space. For an interior designer, it’s the building exterior, the existing interior
architectural environment, or the view from outside a glass enclosure.
Graphic and product designers often deal with variable color context. For
example, the color of an Apple iPod may be seen in someone’s pocket or
handbag of virtually any context color. A recognizable graphic logo depends
on the white of the page, or a carefully chosen alternate paper color.

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 338 Colour design

The three basic characteristics of context color, namely value, saturation,

and hue, impact our perception of object colors correspondingly. An object
color which is relatively consistent with its context color according to all
three characteristics will appear to blend into the overall view. As we
change the object color according to one or more characteristics, it gains
clarity in the viewer’s eye. The more extreme the difference is between
object color and context color, the greater is the tendency of the object to
draw the viewer’s eye. This ability of the color to draw the viewer is called
its strength. (Recommendations for enhancing individual color strength are
discussed later in this chapter.) This means that a very light background will
make a comparatively darker object stand out, while the same dark object
has less strength within a darker context. Consider the illustrations of the
green ‘moon’ in space shown in Fig 13.1 and 13.2. In the context of the

13.1 The green circle looks darker in the context of light colors,
compared to those of similar value (Fig. 13.2).
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13.2 In this illustration, the green circle is closer in value to its

surroundings, uninfluenced by context color.

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 Enhancing design using color 339

13.3 In the context of darker color, the green circle appears lighter.

13.4 Neutral background color makes the green circle seem more
saturated.
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lighter background (13.1), the medium toned moon is far more prominent
than when it appears in the context of colors that are similar in value (13.2).
The reverse is also true. The same moon has greater strength in the context
of much darker colors (see Fig. 13.3).
Similar effects can be created by altering the saturation and hue. A very
neutral colored background (low saturation) will make a brightly colored
object stand out (see Fig. 13.4); while a brightly colored background serves
to make the bright colored object less prominent (Fig. 13.5). In this manner,
adjustments in the saturation level have an effect on object prominence.
Changes in hue character are effective relative to the hue temperature. A
very cool, blue background will draw a blue–green toward itself (Fig. 13.6),
while the same background makes the warmer object look quite pro-
nounced (Fig. 13.7). This occurs because the eye has a tendency to group

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 340 Colour design

13.5 The same green circle from Fig. 13.4 seems neutralized in the
context of higher saturated colors.

13.6 Using the same green circle from previous illustrations, this
context color is cool, which makes the circle look warmer than it does
in the warm context shown in Fig. 13.7.
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13.7 The green circle looks cooler in the context of this warm
background.

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 Enhancing design using color 341

colors together according to their color temperature. Context colors that

are similar in temperature will read like parts of the same element, while
the context visually breaks down into its components if the temperature
varies. The degree to which an object stands out from its background is due
in part to how inconsistent it is with the surrounding temperature.
As designers, we may choose to adjust the object color, the context color,
or both, based on the amount of attention we want that object to receive.
The object does not need to change in scale or form. We simply use the
relationship of the color to its background to enhance its presence, to
minimize attention to it, or to impact its visual sense of belonging.

13.2.2 Context color management

If the context color is not something we can control, we must work harder
to make our design effective within that context. We use what we know
about color behavior in the selection of the object color. This means that
not knowing the context of our designs can be a tremendous handicap in
the selection of color, just as it is for form.
Consider the residential architect who designs a narrow, two-storey resi-
dence, and decides to paint this residential form red. If her form were to
appear along a suburban cul-de-sac, the house may stand out, offending the
neighbors, whose adjacent houses are primarily white. However, it will be
less dramatic within a group of ‘Painted Ladies’, the popular multicolored
paint style applied to many renovated Victorian homes. (There are some
excellent examples of San Francisco’s Painted Ladies in one of the Color
Buzz blog articles by Michèle Coppin, 2010). This same red form will stand
out dramatically if it is located in a green field in Scotland, even if it is the
scale of a small outhouse. Alternatively, the red residence is likely to blend
with its context in a busy urban street if red is also the color of many retail
establishments nearby.
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Successful designers often contrast a single element with its context to

emphasize it. I have seen several installations where an interior designer
contrasted an object in the room with the color of the room itself to estab-
lish the object as a strong focal point. By placing the strong color on a far
wall, the designer draws us into the room. Or by using small amounts of a
color in contrast with the context, a series of forms is given greater clarity,
creating engaging pattern through their repetition.
Context color effect is limited by our physical range of view. When we
look straight ahead, our ability to perceive subtle distinctions of color is
strongest directly in front of our eyes. Color that sits beyond a 45° range of
view is within our peripheral vision, but our eyes’ ability to distinguish it is
greatly reduced. The context of the color immediately to our right will influ-
ence our color perception only when we turn our head in that direction.

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 342 Colour design

Designers who do environmental work can take advantage of context

color to establish a sequence of color experience as people move through
a space. Theatrical designers and other illusionists such as the creators of
Disney Parks manipulate color as it moves around us. The effect of using
movement or the passage of time to effect color change is known as suc-
cession or successive contrast. (This method is illustrated in more detail in
my own text, Color in Three-Dimensional Design–Kopacz, 2004.)

13.2.3 Color complexity

One additional aspect of context color that deserves consideration during
design is that of its complexity. By complexity, I refer to the number of
colors, the number of contrasts, and the degree of those contrasts.
Increases in any or all three add to the complexity of context color. To be
specific, contrasts are the many ways that colors are distinguished from
each other, such as a contrast of value, a contrast of temperature, etc.
There are seven contrasts available for two-dimensional design; and eight
for three-dimensional design (Kopacz, 2004). A color palette can involve
both a contrast in the value of the colors as well as a contrast of the tem-
perature of those colors. Each contrast may be subtle, such as a tone on
tone relationship, or more dramatic, such as the pairing of white with
black.
The more homogeneous the context color, the more influence it will have
along the edges of the imbedded object color. For instance, a pearl gray
object will be influenced more by a large area of red than by a pattern of
red, pink, white, and mauve tones. A more complex pattern of background
color establishes context color as the average of the characteristics of the
colors in the pattern based on their proportions. Through patterning,
the amount of consistent edge contrast will be reduced along the edge of
the object color, thereby reducing the context ‘extent’ and its consequential
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contrast effect. The stronger the contrast between object and background
along the edges where they meet, and the more continuously the edge is
established, the more pronounced the object becomes.
An environment that incorporates a large number of distinct colors, such
as the ‘Strip’ in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, makes any one color less apparent
than a more homogenous environment such as a white-walled gallery space.
(If you are not familiar with the Las Vegas ‘Strip’, several photographic
images can be found on the internet using your favourite search engine.)
The more varied the context colors, the more they serve as a form of cam-
ouflage, reducing any color strength an object might have. The eye does
have a tendency to see the context as the average of all these, but the work
that our eyes do comparing the colors we see is ongoing. In a complex
environment, the contrast between the designated object and the context

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Best, J. (Ed.). (2012). Colour design : Theories and applications. Elsevier Science & Technology.
Created from arteiasiro on 2021-11-09 13:16:10.