Colour and Colour Combinations

Second draft:

TITLE / QUESTION

Colours and Colour Combinations

–       -When you want your design to communicate through colour.

or:

Communicating Through Colour

-        -What do we associate with certain colour combinations?

 

What do you think?

 

ABSTRACT

Regardless of whether we understand the physics involved when light-waves bounce from the surface of an object and into the eye and mind of the beholder, we are all persuaded, moved, aroused, challenged, inspired, repulsed, warned and informed by colour and combinations of colours. And though each of us perceives colours uniquely, there is an amazing amount of commonality in our reactions to colour across time and culture. Colour selection must therefore be made in consideration of the cultural norms and associations of the intended target audience, particularly if a design is to be seen internationally. (Krause, 2002)

This report will provide a brief introduction to colours and colour combinations and it will be investigating the emotions/associations/meanings that various colour combinations are charged with in the western society. The report will be directed to first year design students who wants to get a better understanding of how you can let your design communicate through colour. Many texts about colour are hard to understand since they are quite science orientated and designers might get lost in all the complicated words.

This report will be based upon many experiments and interviews carried out with people from various age groups and with different interests to provide a more substantial base of knowledge. The answers and thoughts provided by people participating will be very useful for a student when they are contemplating use of certain colour combinations within their designs, no matter if it is designing an advertisement campaign or a magazine cover. This report will also investigate if designers always have to think of these hidden meanings or if sometimes you can choose colour combinations purely based upon your own taste and if you do how will they be looked upon? Are there some rules that have to be followed if you don’t want to send out a complete wrong message?

POSSIBLE CHAPTER HEADINGS

Introduction

The introduction will present the chosen topic to the reader and what they can aspect fro the reading. It will highlight what key points will be investigated. The introduction has to grab the reader’s interest so short interesting facts and starting points should be briefly stated. I want people to keep this question in mind throughout the report “Can you ignore what people think about colour and still make good design that communicates the desired message?”

Introduction to the use of colour in design

Colours are categorised into Additive colours = RGB and Subtractive colours = CMY but then there is also artist primaries Red, Yellow and Blue which is used as the basis of most colour theories. A designer use all three, first when starting a project on a sketch basis they probably use RYB then when working on screen with the design they work in RGB, finally when they might send it off to a printer they have to change it into CMYK. (Stone et al, 2006)

The colour wheel and how it can help you when combining colours

The colour wheel is a tool that can be used to select harmonious combinations of colour for design. Selecting a colour combination that works will depend largely on the message that is to be conveyed. Colours tend to generate a specific response or association from the viewer, and so an understanding of these reactions will help a designer to create effective colour combinations that will enforce their intended message. (Ambrose et al, 2005).

This section will look at the relation between different colours. Two colours can whisper, speak or shout at each other, all depending on their place and relation to each other in the colour wheel. There are many ways to use the colour wheel when choosing colour combinations and wanting to achieve a certain effect.

How strong are the messages hidden in various colour combinations?

In this section a lot of the research gathered through experiments and interviews will be brought in to make the reader gain a better understanding of the impact and associations connected with different colour combinations.

What message do you want to send out with your designs?

Colour can be used in many different ways within a design. It can highlight specific information that might otherwise have been lost: it can draw attention; it can make the viewer feel compassion; love or hate; it can suggest femininity or masculinity and it can provide a cultural key to interpret and receive information, this is written by Ambrose and Harris in the book Colour (2005, pg. 49) In order to succeed in sending out the right message with your design you have to be aware of the various messages different colour combinations are charged with.

Conclusion

Conclusions made from my reading and the experiments and interviews conducted. Summarising the report and connecting the end to the beginning. Possibly answering the question “Can you ignore what people think about colour and still make good design that communicates the desired message?“

ACTIONPLAN

The first stage of this report and the extensive research that has to be done prior to the writing is a lot of reading. When a better understanding of the chosen subject is achieved the next step would be to conduct a series of interviews and experiments. To be able to gather useful data from these surveys and tests there has to be a substantial understanding of various techniques and methods suitable for that. Alongside with the reading, interviews and experiments a broad visual research will carried and documented mainly with a camera, images taken here can be of good use when doing the experiments but also in the final report. Personal observations and thoughts will be well documented during the process. 

Design aspects

My research can easily be linked in with my studio work and I want to make a series of booklets where all the information gathered is presented. The final report itself is also going to be designed as a small booklet and where the information should be well structured and easy to read. The more technical facts that have to be included and little points of interests shall be put in small textboxes to highlight them and make them more readable. A good use of colour, images and graphic diagrams are obviously vital for the report.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AT THE MOMENT

 Ambrose, Gavin and Harris, Paul. (2005) Colour.  Singapore. AVA Book Production Pte.

 Krause, Jim. (2002) Colur Index. China. Regent Publishing Services Ltd.

 Albers, Josef. (2006) Interaction of Color. Singapore. Yale University Press.

 Munari, Bruno. (2008) Design as Art. Great Britain. Clays Ltd, St Ives plc.

 Feisner Anderson, Edith. (2001) Colour. Hong Kong. Laurence King Publishing Ltd

 Wong, Wucious. (1997) Principles of Color Design. United States of America. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

 Bergström, Bo. (2008) Essentials of Visual Communication. China. Laurence King Publishing.

 Otto & Olaf, Marti, Nacho. (2008) Colour and layout. China. Harpers Collins Publishers.

 Stone, Terry Lee, Adams, Sean, Morioka, Noreen. (2006)Colour Design Workbook.

 This list will grow a lot longer and will also include sources from the Internet and sources relating to interviewing techniques and methods to use when carrying out experiments.