OUGD 404 - Study Task 4

Systematic Colour - Part 1
Introduction to colour principles

• The eye contains two kinds of receptors: rods and cones.

• While the rods convey shades of gray, the cones allow the brain to perceive colours.

• Of the three types of cones, the first is sensitive to red-orange light, the second to green light and the third to blue-violet light.

When a single cone is stimulated, the brain perceives the corresponding colour.

• If our green cones are stimulated, we see "green".

• If our red-orange cones are stimulated, we see "red".

• If both our green and red-orange cones are simultaneously stimulated, our perception is yellow. 

Primary colours - Red, Yellow and Blue. Cannot be made by mixing any other colours

Secondary colours - Orange, Green and Violet. Made from mixing two primary colours together.

Tertiary colours - Can be made from mixing a primary with an associated secondary colour.

Different sets of primary colours for digital and print.

RGB - Digital, on screen

CMYK - Print

Subtractive colour

Subtracted colour - when the primary colours are mixed together, they remove colour from one another.

Additive colour

Televisions, cameras, scanners and computer monitors are based on the additive system of color (RGB), where red, green and blue light projected together yield white. Offset printing, digital printing, paints, plastics, fabric and photographic prints are based on the subtractive system of color (CMY/CMYK) in which cyan, magenta and yellow mix to form black (K).

• CMYK produces RGB as secondary colours

• RGB produces CMYK as secondary colours 

Primary, Secondary and Tertiary colour wheel. Complimentary colours are the direct opposites on the colour wheel.

Studio Task 1 - We were then given a task to collect a set of items all relating to a certain colour. As a group, we put all of our items together and created a colour wheel from them.

Systematic Colour - Part 2

Chromatic value = hue + tone + saturation

The hue is the chromatic value but we have to consider tone and saturation too.

Hue

Different hues

Different colours, same hue

 Tint - Reducing the chromatic value.

Adding white to a pure hue

 Shade - Brightness and dullness of something.

Adding black to a pure hue

 Tone - Desaturating the colour, has very little colour value present. 

Adding grey to a pure hue

 Saturation refers to the dominance of hue in the colour.

This red block looks red because it is on its own. It is the redest red.

Adding a lighter red behind makes that block look darker, but it isn't.

Sat next to an orange it looks lighter, almost a magenta colour, but still red.

Placing a red behind it, results in the original block looking slightly more magenta. Also the orange looks more brown than before.

The small rectangular shape in the middle looks darker than the outside, but it is the same colour.

  

Same principal with other colours.


Pantone is your best friend

 Studio Task 2 -  We then, as a pair, had to select a series of items from our colour and match their colours with the pantone selection.

Pantone DE97-2U

1807C

208M 

DE126-2U

1815C

DE112-1C

DE98-1C

Colour & Contrast - Part 3

The eye contains two kinds of receptors - rods and cones. 

Rods - shades of grey

Cones - colour hues. 

three types of cones - 

1. sensitive to red-orange light
2. green light 
3. blue-violet light. 

The eye can be "fooled" into seeing the full range of visible colours through the proportionate adjustment of just three colours: red, green and blue. Our eyes are fooling the brain into seeing all the different colours.

Itten's 7 contrasts

• Contrast of tone

Formed by the juxtaposition of light and dark values. This could be monochromatic (single colour)

Blue- Darkest contrast

Red- Mid tone

Yellow- Lightest contrast

Even without colour you can see the difference based on tone.

Highest contrast we can see is black and white. Greys - mid tones.

 

Black and white text are both as easy to read on the mid-tone background. But when another mid-tone is used, it is a lot harder to read.

• Contrast of hue

Formed by the juxtaposing of different hues. The greater the distance between hues on a colour wheel, the greater the contrast.

Blue, Yellow and Red all have equal contrast of hue.

Blue stands out the most because the blue has the highest contrast.

However on a black background the blue is closest tonally, meaning the yellow has the highest contrast.

When placed together, you can clearly see a separation in between the blue and yellow as there is a high contrast present. But if you look at the yellow and red line for too long, they start to merge as they are closer tonal values.

• Contrast of saturation

Formed by the juxtaposition of light and dark values and their relative saturations.

Fundamental contrasts - Tone, hue and saturation.

• Contrast of extension

Formed by assigning proportional field sizes in relation to the visual weight of a colour. Also known as the contrast of proportion.

• Contrast of temperature

Formed by juxtaposing hues that can also be considered 'warm' or 'cool'. Also known as the contrast of warm and cool.

Warm colours - associated with heat. Red, orange, yellow.

Cool colours - associated with ice. Blue, purple.

With the black lines above the colours look flat. However when they are removed the eye is tricked into seeing a gradient, even though this is not present. This is due to the contrast from the colour next to it.

• Complementary contrast

Formed by juxtaposing complementary colours from a colour wheel or perceptual opposites.

The red and green have just as high contrast as the black and white.

• Simultaneous contrast

Formed when boundaries between colours perceptually vibrate.

This image makes it seem as though the lines are vibrating and merging together as all of the contrast is happening simultaneously.

Subjective colour - Part 4

This top image is quite easy to read as there is a strong contrast between the yellow and violet because they are complementary colours. However, when this is reversed it become much harder to read. This is because the yellow is much brighter and stands out more than the violet, forcing you to see the yellow counters before the violet letterforms.

It appears as though the two squares are different colours, however this is just a trick and the line going through the middle of the image shows that they are in fact the same colour.

The 'bold' on the green background looks to have a slight violet tint. This is because colours

always want their complementary colours, thus the green is trying to throw out some red 

resulting in a violet tint.