Colour Concepts. Take a look at the design below now as a black and white design, it is very striking this is a strong design.

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1 Colour Concepts CYDT will learn: Colour wheel (primary, secondary and tertiary colours) Monochromatic colour schemes Complimentary colours Warm vs cold schemes Feng shui colour influences Using colour to provoke emotion, set mood Importance of a strong colour scheme Get thinking about SPARK s colour scheme Colour Concepts Colour is a very important part of design. I have two diplomas in design, Design Fundamentals (1 year diploma) and Graphic Design (2 year diploma). While in college, one of my favourite classes was Colour Concepts. Most of my friends from home used to laugh and make fun of me about the fact that I had an entire course devoted to colour, but I think that really understanding colour is very important to a great design. There is definitely more to it than looking in the crayon box. We are going to cover some of the basics of colour how colour is actually an illusion, how to use colour to provoke emotion and the importance of a strong colour scheme. Take a look at the design below now as a black and white design, it is very striking this is a strong design.

2 Look what happens when I add some colour to it ugghhh! Looks terrible those colours don t suit the design or the subject at all!

3 But, if I change to colours, the design becomes just as strong, if not stronger as the original black and white design seen originally. Amazing what a little colour can do!

4 What is Colour? Colour is really an optical illusion just like the slight of hand when Uncle Vinnie pulls a quarter out of your ear, or the magician pulls a rabbit out of his hat. Colour depends on one thing light. Without light there would be no colour. Remember grade 9 science and the discussion on prisms? A Prism is a glass triangular object, when held up to sunlight, the light passes through the prism and on the other side creates a rainbow. This shows that white light (including sunlight and artificial or indoor light) is made up of every colour. So what does this have to do with anything? Well, for objects that you can t see through (we call them opaque) like clothes, houses, humans, animals, etc. they absorb all of the different colours except the colour that we perceive them to be so for instance, a macintosh apple absorbs all the colours except for red the red light is reflected back to our eyes. Granny smith apples on the other hand, absorb all colours and reflect back green, which is why we see granny smith apples as being green. Different variations of colours means that some of the colour is absorbed while some is not for instance a granny smith is actually a yellow green colour, so some of the yellow light is also being reflected back. Are you confused yet? I think I am! Take a look at the diagrams below, they should help explain it better.

5 For more information on the science end of colour, please refer to Colour Wheels Now that you know where colour comes from, lets explore the colour wheel. I m sure you ve probably all seen one of these before. but you maybe haven t seen the words attached to the blocks of colour before. Different colours are broken down on the colour wheel into three categories: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary colours are colours that can not be made by mixing any colours together you can think of them like primary numbers. The primary colours are: red, blue and yellow. When the primary colours are mixed, we get secondary colours, which are: orange, purple (or violet) and green. Use the colour wheel above to figure out which primary colours are used to make the secondary colours. I ll give you a hint, the two primary colours which are closest on the colour wheel, make the colour in between so for instance, orange is made by mixing red and yellow.

6 If we break things down even farther than that, you will see the tertiary colours, which are created when a primary and secondary colour are mixed together. For instance, redviolet is made by mixing red and purple (or violet). Most of these names are self explanatory. The tertiary colours are: red violet, blue violet, blue green, yellow green, yellow orange, and red green. Monochromatic Colour Schemes The word monochromatic means different shades and values of the same colour. So for instance, here is a monochromatic colour bar, next to a greyscale bar. You will see that the values (the lightness and darkness) of the colour bar reflect that of the greyscale bar, but a value of colour has been added to it. Here is a look at the same design shown earlier, using a monochromatic colour scheme. The colour used is red. Complimentary Colours Complimentary colours are colours that are opposite on the colour wheel. For example, yellow and purple blue are

7 complimentary. Take a look at the colour wheel above and see if you can come up see the most famous complimentary colour scheme used in the world today. Warm and Cool Colours Another way to use a colour wheel, is to separate it into warm and cool colours. How can a colour be warm you ask? Well, this is where emotion comes into play. Visualize in your head right now cartoon character who is really mad maybe he s got an angry look on his face maybe he s even got steam coming out of his ears what colour are you visualizing his face as? Chances are you chose red, the colour most associated with anger, fire, heat. Now what other colours do you associate with heat? Yellow? Orange? These are known as warm colours. How about blue, purple, and green? These are cool colours, they are colours that make you think of snow, cold, water, flowers, calm colours. Feng Shui Influences The practice of Feng Shui, which is part of an ancient philosophy, is based on the idea that we are connected to everything in the universe, and that we are all part of a huge web (Feng Shui in a Weekend, Brown, Simon, 2002). The study of feng shui is usually used in decorating homes and offices, to help create the best atmosphere possible. I think that we can use some of these principles in the overall design and feel of the SPARK website. According to feng shui, colours are broken into the categories of yin and yang. Yin colours are cool pastel colours, while Yang colours are hot bright colours. Feng shui also attaches characteristics to colours that we should keep in mind for the site. For instance: Bright Green is a colour associated with: ambition, confidence, self esteem, energy, enthusiasm. Dark green or blue are colours associated with: creativity, imagination, persistence, sensitivity, new ideas. Purple is associated with: being expressive, passion, being social, greater emotion, quick thinking

8 Yellow is associated with: feeling powerful, centre of attention, attracting opportunity, making changes. SPARK s Colour Challenge The colour challenge we have for the SPARK website is to design a colour scheme that evokes emotion, that is easy enough on the eyes to be looked at for long periods of time, and something that interests youth such as yourself. This is a very tall order, but I m sure we can do it! Please take the knowledge you have just learned to start working on some colour combinations (or schemes) that might be suitable for SPARK. We will then put all our ideas together and see what is best suited for this project.