Wednesday, 28 October 2015

Design Principles - Colour Theory 1.1

Dimensions of Colour

COLOUR RELATIVITY

Choosing a colour palette can change the perception of the composition. Josef Albers unites two colours together using basic geometric shapes. When the colours are then separated the association is changed and the tone of colour looks completely different. 

'There are no ugly colours' there are only ugly colour combinations' - Josef Albers

'When I put a green, it it not grass. When I put a blue, it is not the sky.' - Henri Matisse

Brown is my least favourite colour as I find it really hard to find colours that would compliment it. I decided to see which colours work well with brown so that I feel more comfortable using it in the future. I have choose an objective colour scheme to work on a children's book cover. This is the colour (Pantone 732 C) that I don't particularly like to work with, mainly because I find it difficult to find a colour that compliments it. It's a very earthy, dull colour and this particular shade isn't used a lot in design unless it's to resemble an object, rather than typography or shape. 









Used Pantone 2716 C as the brown is a complimentary colour to blue on the colour wheel. I decided to go for a lighter tone of blue, that almost has a hint of purple. 





It's interesting to compare the two colours with text. The blue makes the brown text look darker and stand forward where as the brown looks a lot darker with the blue on top of it. This is due to the contrast. 





I was surprised at how much I liked this colour palette as they were both natural colours and the toned down green helps the brown stand out. 

I couldn't find any other colour schemes that worked with the brown so I decided to change the shade/tone of it to see if I could make better outcomes:




A very mutual palette that I believe to be very balanced. The brown is very dull and flat but the blue makes it look a lot friendlier.


Josef Albers 

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