BASICS ELLEN LUPTON AND JENNIFER COLE PHILLIPSColor All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites. morc crss0i Opposite Attract Strong color contrasts ‘dd visual energy to this danse physical ‘montage made from flowers. Blve and purple stand out against pink, orange, and fed: Nency Frochih and Zvesdena Rogie Colorcan convey a mood, describe Our perception of color depends reality, or codify information. not solely on the pigmentation of loomy,” “drab,” and physical surfaces, but also on the chbringtornind’s brightness and cherecter of ambient pI looks lighter against a dark ground things disappeap(camouflage). Color than against a pale one. serves to differentiate and connect, Likewise, color changes meaning from culture to culture. Color ie design was once seen carry different connotations 4s a fundamentally black-and-white _ in different societies. White signals enterprise. This is no longer the virginity and purity in the West, case. Color has become integral to but itis the color of death in Eastern cultures. Red, worn by brides in Japan, is considered racy and erotic ‘once a luxury, has become routin An infinite range of hues and in Europe and the United Stat intensities bring modern media to Colors go in and out of fashion, and life, energizing the page, the screen, an entire industry has emerged to and the built environment with Guide and predict its course. sensuality and significance. Graphics To say, however, that color is and color have converged. hifting phenomenon—both According to the classical physically and culturally—is not tradition, the essence of design _to say that it can’t be described or lies in linear structures and tonal __ understood. A precise vocabulary relationships (drawing and shading), has been established over time ‘ot in fleeting optical effects (hue, that makes it possible for designers, intensity, luminosity). Design used software systems, printers, and to be understood as an abstract ‘manufacturers to communicate to armature that underli ‘one another with some degree Color, in contrast, was seen as Of clarity. This chapter outlines the subjective and unst basic terms of color theory and ‘And, ind ‘shows ways to build purposeful literally, relationships among colors. We cannot perceive color until light bounces off an object or is emitted from a source and enters the eyéBasie Color Theory In 1665 Sir Isaac Newton discovered that a prism separates light into r | the spectrum of colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. He organized the colors i around a wheel very much like the i lone artists use today to describe the | relationships among colors." e Why is the color wheel a useful 5 design tool? Colors that sit near each other on the spectrum or close together on the color wheel are analogous. Using them together provides minimal color contrast and an innate harmony, because each color has some element in common with others in the sequence. Analogous colors also have a related color temperature. Two colors sitting opposite each other on the wheel are complements. Each color contains no element of the other, and they have opposing temperatures (warm versus cool. Deciding to use analogous or contrasting colors affects the visual energy and mood of any composition, a Complementary and Analogous Colors : . ‘This diagram shows combinations of 2 ; primary scondary, and tertiary colors. "| hs, 200The Color Whee! This basic map shows bats Uae for ‘working eth pigments {oit paint watercolor, ‘Secondary Colors (range, purple, and (green wach consist of fo primaros mixed together Complements [Link], and yellow purpi sit opposite each sther on the color ‘whol. For more subtle Combinations, choose “naar opposites,” such ‘sed plusa terary ‘teen, ora tertary blue Primary Colors Red, yellow, ond blue bbe mised from othor colors. All ofthe other a crested by mixing ‘primary colors Tertiary Colors Color ch as red and one secondary -@. * : a bolt rom hues that other on the color whee (analogous color) have ‘siferonces sojen eufore MON ous 800 anUdOID #2 Hue isthe plac of Intansity isthe brightness or duliness the color within the of acolo. A color spectrum. A red hue ‘ding block or whit an 102k brown at ‘eutralzing it toward gray lowering its ‘low saturation, or Saturation) Bink a a pate valve. Value isthe ight or dark charactor of the color, ls called ite luminance, brightness, tess, or tone. Value i independent of the hue or intensity ofthe cole When you You eliminate its hue but preserve its tonal Telatonshipe. Aspects of Color Shade is variation | Tint sa variation of | Saturation (aso ve ean sibed In of shue produced by | a hue produced by | calod chrom) isthe Every eororcan be esaibee the addition of back. | the adtion ofwhita, | relative purty ofthe relation to a range of attributes. Soro nopealtod: Understanding these characteristics, togrey. can help you make color choices and build color combinations. Using colors with contrasting values tends to bring forms into sharp focus, while combining colors that are close in value softens the distinction between elements. close in value and cose in hue and louenaty, and just ‘aloe but diferent In intensity78 Colo Uf SYu Color Models Surfeces absorb certain light waves and reflect back others onto the color receptors (cones) in our eyes. The light reflected back is the light we see. The true primaries of visible light are red, green, and blue. The light system is called “additive” because the three primaries together create all the hues in the spectrum. In theory, combining red and. green paint should produce yellow. In practice, however, these pigments ‘combine into a blackish brown, This is because pigments absorb more light than they reflect, making any mix of pigments darker than its source colors. As more colors are mixed, lass light is reflected. Thus pigment-based color systems are called “subtractive.” Offset and desktop printing methods use CMYK, a subtractive system. Nonstandard colors are Used because the light reflected off cyan and magenta pigments mixes ‘more purely into new hues than the light reflected off of blue and red pigments, B+8-8 g+8-8 S+m-8 B+8+0-8 CCYNIK is used in the printing process, White aiters sete bas coo whl as gue Df color found in color photographs [Link], and K are known asthe “process Colors,” and full-color printing called four-color proces,” Inkjet and color laser printers use CMYK, as does the commercial Bist printing equipment used 9 print books Fich enough to reproduce color images with ‘ful tonal range, Thus blacks needed to ‘complete the four-color process, ‘Transparent nk Printer’ inks are transprent brokon down into ty dots a varying The rsulting colors are mined bythe eye a+m-68 a+8-8 a+m-8 a+a+8 GB isthe additive system usod for designing on screen, Diferent percentages ‘generate the colors of the spectrum, White Strength Black occurs when zero light and ‘Any given color can be described with bth CMYK and RGB valuns, as well as wth ‘other color models, Each mode called Calor information uniformly around the globe lard across media. Different monitors, painting Colors look different under fluorescent. Incandescent, and natura ight Colors rarely Transparent Light The medium of tight isoped aN al Sbrony ree SE ‘One Color, Different Effects The neutral one: passing through these three squares of color fethe same in each instance, iiakes on 8 slighty diferent hue or value depending on its conte. ‘Bezold Effect Johann Friedtich Wilhelm von Bezold was a German physiciat working ‘with rg maker. He changing @ Color that terwove with othe elors in 1 ug, he could create entirely ai ‘one yielded a lighter carpet. ‘This etfectis known as optical mixing. Vibration and Value When two coors ‘seen on te right the green appears darker Interaction of Color Josef Albers, a painter and designer who worked at the Bauhaus before ‘emigrating the United States, studied color in a rigorous manner that influenced generations of art educators.’ Giving his students preprinted sheets of colored paper with which to work, he led them, to analyze and experience how the perception of color changes in relation to how any given color is, juxtaposed with others. Colors are mixed in the eye as well as directly on the painter's palette or the printing press. This fact affects how designers create patterns and textures, and it is exploited in digital ‘and mechanical printing methods, which use small flecks of pure hue to build up countless color variations. Designers juxtapose colors to create specific climates and qualities, using one color to diminish or intensify another. Understanding how colors interact helps designers control the power of color and systematically test variations of an ide 2, See Jose Albers, Imeracion of Color (1963 apr. New Haven: Yale Univerty Press, 2006).0@0ee0@