PLACEHOLDER
The Importance of Colour.
The interesting thing about colour is that depending on how you define existence, colour may or may not exist. That is to say colour itself does not exist in the traditional sense but is created in our minds and what does exist are wavelengths of light. It is our observation and processing of these differing frequencies of light that create colours as a way to distinguish between them. A red object is not inherently red but absorbs most of the spectrum of white light and reflects a specific frequency. That reflected wavelength is viewed and interpreted as appearing red.
IMAGE HERE colour wavelength diagram
How is this important for colour theory? It’s not really but understanding the origins and how colour is processed / created may help explain the emotional and behavioural modification affects colours can have on a person. It also helps you understand that things are a bit more complex than just that “object A is red.”
Colour has a strong affect on us as humans; often deeper than most people realize. Almost everyone gets a chance daily to make some type of choice involving colour. Whether it’s what clothes to wear or which colours to use in an email, that choice says something, intended or not. The goal of this guide is to give people a better understanding of colour so they can make more appropriate choices with what they are trying to express.
IMAGE HERE colour communication/message
We have not always had the ability to see the spectrum of colour that we can see today. Colour is created by wavelengths of light that objects reflect or emit and if there is not an advantage to being able to distinguish between wavelengths it is less likely the animal will have that ability. Human’s trichromatic colour vision began in our primate ancestors when they switched from being mainly nocturnal to being out in the daytime for longer periods and began to consume more fruits and leaves from flowering plants. Those ancestors that had better colour vision and were able to find and consume the right flowering plants had an advantage over those that did not. This new broader spectrum colour vision also may have helped humans socially in instances that allowed them to better distinguish the health and emotional state of other human beings (think blushing, and looking pale when sick.) The bottom line being that trichomatic vision gave human ancestors an advantage over those that did not have it and connected the colours to emotional states.
Walk into any fast food restaurant and you’ll will be met with splashes of high saturation reds, oranges, and yellows. Now contrast that to the blues, greens, and grays you see when at your doctor’s office or at your place of work. They are much different environments using different colours to help meet different habit and emotional modification goals. The restaurant wants your attention and for you to be excited and hungry. Reds, oranges, and yellows are perfect for this since they draw the most attention, red can even have the effect of elevating your metabolism and blood pressure. So why don’t non-fast food restaurants use this same technique? Some do to a degree but the problem with a high attention stimulating colours is if exposed to for a longer period of time it can have a negative effect, making the person nervous and over-stimulated, something a restaurant wanting to provide a longer calmer dining experience would want to avoid. This is the same reason why most offices, hospitals, and prisons are not wall to wall bright saturated colours, they do not want to make people over-stimulated, nervous, or excited.
IMAGE HERE bright fast food restaurant colours, put it above paragraph maybe?
Aspects of colour theory.
A basic understanding of the terminology used to describe the aspects of colour helps us communicate on the subject. It is not critical to memorize the definitions but more to understand concepts behind the terms. For example after reading this you should have some understanding of what it means to hue shift, increase saturation, or find a complementary colour. This will help when creating good colour schemes.
the colour wheel, primary, secondary, tertiary
Most everyone has seen a colour wheel before and may have even created one in school. To give you a refresher we will quickly build one, starting with:
IMAGE HERE primary colours, colour wheel
Keep in mind that this is a subtractive colour wheel model that describes how most real world objects absorb and reflect light without adding the complications of sub surface scattering or iridescence. This model describes how things like pigments suspended in paint react to white light and is a bit different than the RGB model of additive colour mixing.
Red, yellow, and blue are primary colours. They are called this because using various part combinations of 2 primaries you are able to create all other hues of the colour wheel.
IMAGE HERE secondary colours, added colour wheel
Purple, green, and Orange are the secondary colours. They are called secondary colours because they can be made with equal parts of primary colours. Purple is 1 part red mixed with 1 part blue. Green is one part blue with one part yellow and orange is 1 part yellow and 1 part red.
IMAGE HERE Complimentary colours
With the introduction of secondary colours to our colour wheel we also introduce complementary colours. Complementary colours are colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel. This is important because when complementary colours are paired together they make each other appear brighter and often are attributed to being more aesthetically pleasing. Complementary colours are used very often in colour schemes and it is important to understand the effect they can have. When complementary colours are mixed with paint they produce black or a neutral gray depending on the opacity of the pigments involved.
Also of note is that complementary colours vary by colour model and that the traditional colour wheel and HSV model of colour is technically incorrect. For example using the RBG model red’s complementary colour is cyan, green’s is actually magenta, but blue is still complementary to yellow.
IMAGE HERE tertiary colour, colour wheel
Tertiary colours can be created by mixing equal parts secondary colours with adjacent primary colours. Tertiary colours include: vermilion (red-orange), amber (yellow-orange), chartreuse (yellow-green), viridian (blue-green), violet (blue-purple), and maroon (sometimes called magenta or fushia, red-purple.) Tertiary colours can also be made by mixing just primary colours since secondary colours are equal parts primary. To get tertiary colours from primaries you would mix 3 parts of the primary the tertiary was closer to and 1 part of the primary the tertiary was further away from. For the previously mentioned tertiary colours that would be: vermilion (3 red 1 yellow), amber (3 yellow 1 red), chartreuse (3 yellow 1 blue), viridian (3 blue 1 yellow), violet (3 blue 1 red), and maroon (3 red 1 blue.)
IMAGE HERE colour part mixing
Next would be quaternary colours which are made by mixing tertiary colours with adjacent primary or secondary colours. Most traditional colour wheels stop at the tertiary level and the names for these colours are way less standardized. They include: red-vermilion (scarlet), vermilion-orange, orange-amber, amber-yellow, yellow-chartreuse, chartreuse-green, green-viridian, viridian-blue, blue-violet (indigo), violet-maroon, and maroon-red. These can also be made by mixing 4 parts primary of the closer primary colour with 1 part of the further away primary.
IMAGE HERE colour wheel with quarternary colours
We can continue to mix and mix colours this way until we get to a point at which the human eye can no longer distinguish between the different colours. Something interesting to note is that some people have a mutation that gives them tetrachomatic vision, which means instead of the standard 3 channels of receiving they have 4! This ability appears to be limited to 2 – 3 % of the female population and only let them discern between a few more red hues. Human tetrachomatic study is very much in it’s infancy and at the time of writing this article only 2 have been identified, even this identification still needs to be solidly verified. Tetrachomatics likely have no idea that they are tetrachomatic since most items produced by humans are designed for trichomatics. It would also be very hard to tell if you were seeing a handful of more red hues than someone else since you do not know what they are seeing.
At this point our traditional colour wheel is complete and if we were a painter we would have a nice wheel of all the hues we might be able to use in our paintings.
Visible colour spectrum
IMAGE HERE RGB model, ~move this??~ down maybe
An interesting thing to note is that at the higher end of the visual spectrum we have violet and at the lower end we have red but magenta is no where to be found. That is because technically pink or magenta is not a colour because it does not exist in the visible spectrum of light. But we can see it? How can it not exist?
When we see light with a lower frequency on the visual spectrum we see the colour red and when we see light that has a higher frequency we see the colour violet. Every other colour that we can see is at a frequency between these two ends and includes oranges, yellows, greens, blues, and indigos. When we observe light at more than one frequency the sum of the wavelengths determines what colour we will see. For example if we observe a “green” wavelength and a “violet” wavelength at the same time we will interpret that as teal or aqua colour. This is the basis for all colour monitors and why they can work. You can even experiment with this type of colour mixing in almost any image editing software package by adjusting RGB values (red green blue.)
Something interesting happens when we mix a red wavelength and a violet wavelength though. The resulting sum would be half-way between the two colours which would in fact be green. The problem is that we already have a frequency for the colour green so what our brains instead of giving us green again is invent a new colour. A colour to bridge the gap between violet and red, an invented colour that technically has no wavelength and helps us to distinguished between an actual green wavelength and one that might be “computed” to green. This wraps up our visual spectrum into a neat little package and explains why we can see a wheel of colour.
The HSV model
Now that we understand the traditional colour wheel
Hue describes which colour we are going to use. This would be the outer rim of HSV model and would be similar to a colour wheel.
Value describes the amount of light emitted. As we lower the value we darken our hue to darker shades and approach black. Increasing the value brings us close to our pure hue in the colour wheel.
Saturation describes the intensity of the hue. Decreasing the saturation we create more and more pastel tints until we reach white. Increasing saturation brings us closer to our pure hue.
We can picture the HSV colour model as an extention of the colour wheel that looks like a 3 dimensional cone. We start with the rim of the cone which has our pure RGB hues.
IMAGE HERE HSV model hues
Next we add value into the mix and decrease the brightness for each hue until we get to black with all hues (no light emitted.) This creates the bottom of the cone and comes to a point which is black or the absence of light.
IMAGE HERE HSV model +values
To cap off the cone we decrease saturation on our hues until we reach white.
IMAGE HERE hsv +saturation
Our cone is now finished but since we can decrease value and saturation of our hues at the same time we open up our cone and add these changes to the inside. Our open cone model is now complete and gives us a pretty good idea of what the HSV model looks like.
IMAGE HERE complete HSV model
You should now have a rough understanding of the 3 coordinate HSV colour model and know at least how to get black and white out of it. With a value of 0 you would have black regardless of hue and saturation values. With a saturation of 0 and value of 255 you would have white, regardless of what your hue value was.
Some programs have the HSV model available for you to pick your colour but more often you’ll be presented with the RGB model for choosing colour. Some have both which is nice.
IMAGE HERE RGB and HSV model in programs
title here the RGB model
This is the final colour model we are going to learn about and the most useful. It is useful because the RGB model more accurately represents what we see on screen. The RGB model uses additive colouring mixing because it is actually emitting light. Like the HSV model RGB uses 3 values to determine which colour to display. All modern screens are composed of pixels. These pixel change colour based on instructions sent to them. If you look really close (probably easiest on a tv) you can actually see them.
If you looked really close you’d have seen that each pixel is actually made up of 3 different smaller lights. There is a red, green, and a blue light, hence why the term RGB (Red, Green, Blue.) Each of these 3 lights inside a pixel can have a value from 0 to 255. This describes the brightness of the light with 0 being off and 255 being the brightest it can be.
IMAGE HERE pixel lights
When all 3 lights are at 0 no light is emitted and we see a black pixel. When all at at 255 they are the brightest they can be and we would see a white pixel. This is because with additive colour mixing a red light + a green light + a blue light will appear white.
IMAGE HERE additive colour mixing result white light
When all three lights are at 125 we would see a mid tone grey pixel. These 3 lights however, do not need to be at the same intensity at once and when they are not that is how a coloured pixel is produced. If we wanted a pure red pixel we would change the value for the red light to 255 while the other two were at 0. For a pure green pixel we would set the green light’s value to 255 and the others to 0. Obviously if we wanted a pure blue we would set that light’s value to 255 and the other to 0.
IMAGE HERE rgb colours primary
But what if we wanted different colours than those three? Just like with our traditional colour wheel we can mix our three primary RGB lights to create more colours. With the red light at 255, the green light at 255, and the blue light at 0 we would get a pure yellow colour. Full red and blue produced magenta. Full green and blue and green create cyan.
IMAGE HERE rgb colours secondary
Like with the traditional colour wheel the RGB colour wheel has secondary colours, tertiary colours, quarternary colours and numerous shades in between.
This is what the RGB colour wheel would look like:
IMAGE HERE rgb colour wheel
If we wanted darker shades of a colour, lets say yellow, we would start to equally step back on the values for the red and green lights. Each step from 255, 255, 0 to 125, 125, 0 to 0, 0, 0 would give use a darker shade of yellow until we reached black (0, 0, 0.)
IMAGE HERE making yellow darker
How then would we get a less saturated yellow? Remember how 255, 255, 255 was white? We simple add to the blue value to get avless and less saturated yellow. From the intense 255, 255, 0 to the neutral 255, 255, 125 to the pastel 255, 255, 185 and finally arriving back at white with 255, 255, 255.
We can visualize the RGB model as a 3 dimensional cube where one colour approaches white and when flipped over the other corner approaches black.
Move this up to the traditional colour wheel/ model?
colour harmony, analogous, complementary, colour relations
Now that we have a through understanding of the origins of colour, how it is processed, the traditional colour wheel, the HSV model, and the RGB model we can start to look at the relationships between different colours and different ways about choosing colour schemes.
Warm and cool colours TITLE HERE
Warm and cool colours are an important thing to consider when choosing your colour scheme. Cool colours in the traditional colour wheel are usually from violet to blue to green. Warm colours would be from charteurese to orange to red.
Warm colours generally reflect a higher energy, appear to expand, and convey enthusiasm. In contrast to this cool colours are lower energy, appear to contract, and are calming. Putting a warm colour next to a cool one will intensify this effect. Even at the same size and saturation the cool colour will appear to be smaller and in the background while the warm will appear to expand and be in the foreground.
Image here example warm cool
It is a generally accepted rule that you should limit the amount of warm and cool colour mixing you do when choosing a colour scheme because if you don’t your project may appear busy and unprofessional. (The viewer will not know where to look since there is contrast everywhere.)
Colour harmonies are methods of building aesthetic colour schemes that work well together. Before we can begin to choose which colours we will be using, we must first decide on the direction and feelings we are trying to convey with where we will be applying colour theory. This can be as simple as writing down a few word during a brain storming session to a full design document, the choice is yours.
Complementary colours are colours that are opposite one another on the colour wheel. These colours often work well together and have a very dynamic feel. This effect is not always desirded.
Choosing analogous colours means to pick colours that are next to each other on the color wheel. Chose a dominant colour either a primary or secondary colour, the colours on either side of that colour in your colour wheel will complete your colour scheme.
IMAGE HERE analogous scheme
Triad 3 colours that are evening spaced on colour wheel, such as the primaries.
To get split complementary colours fist you would choose one colour, look to what its complementary colour was, and then look to each side of that complementary colour. With your original and the two adjacent to your complementary colour you would have a split complementary colour set.
rectangle tetradic
square
Choosing your colours.
intro
Before choosing which colours you will use for a project you must have some concept of what message and emotion you are trying to convey. This concept can be as simple as a few brainstormed word written down on a piece of paper up to a complex design document. The choice is yours and it wouldn’t make sense to go so deep for something as simple as what colours to use in an email.
Once you have this concept determined it should give you an idea of where to start. Choose a dominate colour to use that best relays the message you are trying to get across. Trouble even with this first step? try to narrow down your choices at first and determine if a warm or a cool colour would be better at communicating your message. Once you have your main colour chosen, try out that colour with different colour harmonies and see how it works. Try it with analogous colours, complementary, tertiary, split complementary, triad. do any of these say what you want to say? Don’t be afraid to start from the beginning again if nothing is working. It is better to have a good colour scheme than to work around an unsatisfactory one.
General rules to colour choice-
Where you can employ colour theory.
final paragraph
