comments on color workshop

After taking the Color Workshop course, I have become much more aware of color schemes than I was before. I can choose color more systematically and can create more interesting palettes too. Before taking this class, the concept of color harmony confused me greatly and I didn’t understand what it meant when colors were harmonious among many other points on color, which I understand better now. Because we explored color through various mediums outside of digital and managing our color choices digitally, I can certainly apply the knowledge I gained in my future work, and in general, I see myself being much more deliberate in working with the range of color in the future.

How I approach color has changed over the past 15 weeks because I am more aware of working with color in groups. I look at other designers work and can better see why they might have chosen to work with the colors they did. When I notice something that isn’t designed, particularly groups of objects within my field of vision, I think about ways that color relationships might be improved. In general, working with color has not only benefited my understanding of it but also my awareness of other design elements as well and I can see much better.

color palette graveyard

this post is in memory of the color palettes that died before they were born…

and those which were named but also died prematurely…

and these whose homes were destroyed and they went too…

new pattern applications

marionette-inspired patterns

prism studies

i took some photos of CDs and loved the colorful shapes that resulted!

so i extracted them

and experimented with a couple of compositions

colored triangle light studies

these triangles are from way back when we were working on color wheels. i took photographs from slightly different angles, with and without a flash and with incandescent light turned on/off. it was dark outside at the time.

For each photo, I selected a pixel in an area of each triangle that i thought best represented the overall color in the photo. The three on top are relatively the same, with just a slight difference in angle with light and a flash. The fourth is with light and no flash; the fifth image is no light and the flash on.

I copied the swatches at the bottom from the sets next to each case.

So it’s sort of a light-based color study with the ColorAid triangles.

This photo reminds me of a graphic design trend from the 80s

car palette

black, white, a neutral, a metallic and (nearly) complementary colors!

themed patterns

marionette head

gum balls

circus lighting

red textures

applications

on some clothing accessories like a scarf, pocket square/handkerchief, or a tie

plus color

so here are a couple of variations on color applied to the same pattern

and a slightly different, scaled down version plus color

the 6 color palette from which i selected at least 2 for each of the above patterns

patterns

if there is one thing i learned from experimenting with patterns it is the critical need to keep them simple. I started with 1 motif, black and white, ogee grid. I then reversed the colors, experimented with 1 glide and then a rotation and then another glide. next was 50% decrease in scale, and then a couple of random layers. and the pattern variations kept multiplying the are sooo many possibilities, and i could probably use a mathematical equation to figure out exactly how many patterns i could come up with given the number of variables i was working with (but i won’t!!!) unfortunately i had to stop somewhere…in pure black and white alone (excluding percentages of black!) i could have also experimented with the reverse of the large and small motif on the same pattern and maybe layered it a couple of times. maybe transparency, or a 45 degree angle rotation, or more negative space, or more overlapping, and on and on… but as this is a color blog, i’m going to have to move on (very sad!). look out for color next!

some interesting points from PANTONE

In the past 10 years, particularly in metropolitan areas, people have become more open to color. For instance, 10 years ago Kitchen Aid mixers came in 2 colors and they now come in 26!

Orange, not red, is the warmest color in the spectrum

Infants see primary colors first and then secondary colors. It’s one red, a primary color, is the favorite color of many young children.

Some examples of color use in branding: Prada & Armani deep black, UPS brown, Tiffany’s blue, Apple white, Coca Cola red, and Absolut branded a clear colorless liquid with a range of colors!

Every year, PANTONE puts together a palette of 80 colors with a few core colors that become (often accurate) trend predictions. For example, 2 years ago Michelle Obama wore yellow to the president’s inauguration, PANTONE predicted the yellow color trend, which we can now see.

Some of the factors that go into predicting color trends and developing annual palettes:

– who are the industry drivers? (Fashion is still the defining market for color trends, so industry drivers are usually fashion designers)

– what are economic trends?

– what are social and cultural trends?

– what do retailers want to sell in their stores?

– what was last season’s palette? (there is usually not a huge jump from year to year. A couple of core colors carry over, particularly if they are used in more expensive goods that the consumer is unlikely to replace each year).

For the past 5-6 years, purple has become quite prominent in men’s fashion and it started with purple fleeces.

Purple (and then pink) is the most common color for wedding dresses in 2010.

Pink is one of PANTONE’s 2011 core color trend predictions.

The Starbucks phenomenon: before 15 years ago when Starbucks began to spread everywhere, people had moved away from brown but because of the chain’s use of brown in their decor, and of course brown being the color of the coffee, people took a greater interest in it and consumers are now open to buying, decorating with, and even wearing it.

If a color trend lasts long enough, it’s incorporated into the PANTONE color family, as was the case with metallics several years ago.

patterns and references

5-petal flower patterns:

dense wildflower pattern:

car pattern:

woven (plaid) pattern:

frog pattern:

textile pattern:

woody plant pattern:

mood

Red demands attention.

It dominates other colors and jumps out at the viewer and even when seen in tiny bits. It is the most dynamic color, and is extremely adaptable.

The color “playtime” represents timeless childhood past times and amusements.

It’s bright, energized, fun, delightful, and amusing…

playtime is the color of fire engines and toy cars, the clown’s nose, (especially on the “operation” board game!)…and the brightest balls in the ball pit…

It’s the yummiest color too…every kid wants the red lollipop, licorice, gummi bear…and of course the red cherry on top…

And characters like madeline, clifford, chuck e. cheese, elmo, and curious george all wear playtime.

red ladybug in green carpet

red/green color mixing chart

R-Hue/ G-Hue

the paint got a bit chunky in the middle!

… the paintbrushes i used got stained

color proportion study

starting with a theme-appropriate photo, i used the eyedropper tool to select colors that stood out, and then estimated the relative proportions in the photo. The stripes don’t necessarily represent the area each color takes up in the photo, more the visual weight of the color in the photo

photo-based palettes

based on the colorbook theme of classic childhood toys and past-times, a couple of photo-based palettes…

the focus is on red, and in particular, a warm high-intensity red

breaking the image down in a couple of different ways, here’s what i came up with…

the palette for this was kind of fun- (there are some patches, like the light green in the back, from an unfinished project )

red & green pastel swatches

color formulas

the process…

cool red & tints

warm red & tints

red & tints

red shades

modular sofa

http://www.colorassociation.com/?p=157

a quick demo of M.E. Chevreul’s theories

M.E. Chevreul Demo

mixing complementary colors

split complementary color schemes

Here I tried to experiment with tints, shades and tones that I wouldn’t normally work with in combination. I think the first set is successful but I don’t think it’s a good idea in most cases to work with the bottom two sets in the proportions shown. The pure red hue for instance would need to be a very small accent and one of the colors from the middle set would need to be dominant with the other two working as accents.