in Research

colours are (really) great: a continuation

Colour is really important to good design – it can make it or break it. Interesting and cohesive color palettes are indispensable in the development of a successful design, so today we’ll look at some colour theory. Yay!

Hue: the actual colour

Value: intensity, saturation, or purity, of the hue

Chroma: Lightness or darkness of the hue. A hue with high chroma has no black, white or gray in it. Adding white, black or gray reduces its chroma.


The colour wheel

Let’s start with the very basics. The foundation of all colour theory is the colour wheel. It consists of 3 levels of colours: primary, secondary and tertiary. Secondary and tertiary colors are located between the two primary colors that made them.

color-wheel-2

Primary Colours: Red, yellow and blue
  • traditionally, primary colors are the 3 colors that can not be mixed or formed by any combination of other colours
  • all other colours are derived from these 3 hues
  • in modern printing these are replaced with Magenta, Cyan and Yellow – black is thrown in to create darker colours
Secondary Colours: Green, orange and purple
  • formed by mixing the primary colours
Tertiary Colours: Yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green, yellow-green
  • formed by mixing a primary and a secondary colour

Colour harmony

Color harmony is the theory of combining colors in a way that creates a visually harmonious end product. Simply put, it is knowing which colours work well together, and which colours don’t.

A palette is the chosen set of colours used in a composition, usually picked according to the colour harmonies. It determines the colour scheme of the finished piece.

There are 5 types of colour harmony:

 

1) Complementary (direct) harmonyComplementary
  • colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel
  • the high contrast of complementary colours create a vibrant look (especially at full saturation)
  • one warm and one cool colour
  • can be used to help something stand out
  • however, can also be jarring if not done right

 

2) Analogous  harmony Analogous
  • related colours – next to each other on the colour wheel
  • natural flow of colours, matching well and creating a serene and comfortable design that is pleasing to the eye
  • choose one colour to dominate, a second to support, and the third for accents

 

3) Triadic harmony Triad
  • colours that are equally distanced around the colour wheel
  • very vibrant, colours should be carefully balanced to avoid overwhelming the viewer
  • use one colour to dominate and the other two as accents

 

 

4) Split-complementary harmony SplitComplementary
  • variation of the complementary color scheme
  • picks a key colour and two colors adjacent to its complement
  • strong visual contrast, but less tense than complementary harmony

 

 

5) Rectangular (double complementary) &SquareTetrad
     square (tetrad) harmony
  • two sets of complementary colours
  • balance between warm and cool colours

 

 

 6) Monochrome
  • simplest color relationship
  • uses different variations and shades of a single color
  • clean, simple, gives a sense of unity
7) Neutral
  • uses variations of black and white
  • value and saturation without hue
  • accented neutral – addition of a few shades of a single colour to create interest

Examples!!!!!!!!!!!

complementary eg

Complementary harmony

Sandwichs by Bastien Contraire

7c3d7c72c71708001010cd07ceab814a

Neutral

The Arctic Circle by Jun Cen

Analogous eg

Analogous

SplitComplementary eg

Split complementary

Composition Viii by Laurenhille Brandt

Tetrad eg

Tetrad

Otter Card by Camallia Perkins 

Triad eg

Triad

Bananas and Tomatoes by rosesAREgreen


References
  • http://www.tigercolor.com/color-lab/color-theory/color-harmonies.htm
  • http://www.zevendesign.com/color-harmony-hulk-wears-purple-pants/
  • http://www.brandigirlblog.com/2012/11/why-do-some-color-schemes-work-and-others-dont.html