Back to Basics – Understanding Color (part I)

We are surrounded by color at our every step. Wherever there is light, there is also color and  without any doubt,color  represents one of the key element of every design . It can carry out a message of itself and a good color sense is what separates the good designer from all the rest.

The Science of Color

Color is the perceptual characteristic of light described by a color name. Specifically, color is light, and light is composed of many colors—those we see are the colors of the visual spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet.

As simple as it might seem ,color is actually  very complex  and a good knowledge of how color works and its properties is very important for an efficient using of color in your every day design.

The Color Wheel is a perfect instrument for understanding color.It shows the primary , secondary and tertiary colors.

Blue, red and yellow are primary colors.They are pure colors and can’t  be made from any other color.

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Secondary colors are orange, green and violet which are made from equal amounts of any two primary colors.For example green is made of equal amount of blue and yellow.

Tertiary colors are made by mixing a primary color with the secondary color nearest to it.On our color wheel yellow orange,red-orange,red-violet,blue-violet,blue-green and yellow-green are tertiary colors.

Complementary colors such as red and green lie opposite each other the color wheel create a strong contrast bringing energy, vigor and excitement to any design.

Meanwhile analogous colors like green and blue for example lie adjacent to each other and create a pleasant, low-contrast harmony.

A pure color such as yellow or blue is known as the HUE.A single hue may have many variations of its pure color ranging from light to dark. The term describing this is TONE (or value).A color with added white is called a tint while a color with added black is called a shade.

And a hue will vary according to its brightness. This is known as the saturation. The saturation of the hue ranges from full intensity to low intensity. From bright to grey.
Temperature of the color is yet another important characteristic of color. Colors containing red are warmer while colors containing blue are considered to be colder.

Ok, so class dismissed for now :).We look forward seeing you next week for part two when we will learn some more exciting features of color and we will also look into some aspects related to the psychology of color. See you then!