Describing color is hard.
It's even more difficult when I explain something with a term and the other person uses a different one.
So let's clarify the terms we use and what they mean.
As I mentioned earlier, color is subjective.
That makes common terminology important.
You
want to make sure you and your client or collaborator mean the same thing when you talk about the value, hue,
or tone.
Now, these are nitty-gritty facts about color.
You may already know these,
but it never hurts to have a refresher.
Hue is the overall appearance of a set of colors.
Several colors, such as these yellow variations,
can have the same hue relating to a dominant color.
For
example, the photograph by Marion Post Walcott has a sepia hue.
This poster for the London Underground by Abram Games has several colors,
but the dominant hue is mustard yellow.
Saturation is the intensity and brilliance of a color.
The
colors become more extreme and neon when one pushes the saturation tool higher in Photoshop.
The posters on the left have low saturation,
while the right side is brighter and has high saturation.
Intense saturation works best on screen-based media or with fluorescent inks.
The value defines the darkness or lightness of a color.
For
example, this extraordinary wall painting by Andrea del Sardo in Florence has a range of green values.
The
Vasarely Cubism Blue Book is a perfect example of color values of blue.
Tone refers to the amount of gray added to a color.
Add
gray to the yellow,
and you create a muted version.
Less gray, and the tone is more saturated or brilliant.
Subtle tones, like this mustard, are often considered more sophisticated and mature.
The
wallpaper on the left has a darker tone.
The one on the right has a lighter tone.
This
set of Tupperware food storage bowls has a dark tone,
with brick red and avocado green.
Here is a color wheel highlighting warm colors,
and they convey warmth.
We
associate warm colors with energy, passion, and excitement.
They
stand out in a crowded environment like a street,
wall of posters, or bookstore shelves.
They
work on stop signs and warning posters as a signal to pay attention to something that may be bad for you.
And
they can be dynamic and aggressive.
The red here signifies the Red Bolshevik Army battling the White Russian Army.
Here is a cool color wheel,
and yep, they convey cool.
Cool
colors can add a sense of stability and loyalty, or at times,
mystery.
They
are refreshing and connect to the environment and health.
And
cool colors will feel sturdy and honest,
rather than passionate and fiery.
Neutral colors appear to have no color,
or minimal connection to a specific color.
Neutral colors may work well in furniture or fashion,
but unless managed skillfully,
like this amazing poster by
Ludwig Holwein, can be bland in graphic design.
Here,
the red vest is the most important element of the piece.
And
of course, the worst sin in design is to bore the audience.
In the 1950s, Sloane Wilson's book, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, used
the neutral gray to signify bland,
conformist, corporate, and suburban ideals.
Neutral
colors might be recessive at times,
but like most colors, they are commanding when applied grammatically,
like this postcard by Lou Danziger.
Now
let's explore how color works.
Color
theory is the science and art of color.
Designers in the 1920s used scientific techniques with empirical experiments to study color design principles.
These are the tenets we use today.
Like
learning to be a writer and understanding grammar,
color theory is our language.
And why not be fluent?
We're
so used to seeing big swatches of every possible color.
The
process can be more about picking from a huge assortment than creating the color yourself.
When I was in school,
I spent one semester painting little swatches of color repeatedly to create a perfect color wheel.
The
goal wasn't to make me a great painter.
If it was, it failed.
But to open my eyes to see color.
It helped me understand the foundations of color theory.
Isaac
Newton based the first color wheel on the light seen through a prism.
This
is the color wheel based on his theory.
These colors are the basis for any other colors within the spectrum.
The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue.
Now
a little history.
After
World War I and throughout the 1920s,
a group of designers and architects founded and taught at the Bauhaus,
a school in Germany.
They
believed design could be the way to a future with no war,
equality for everyone, and good design for the masses.
Their
goal was to create universal design without political,
national, or economic boundaries.
Primary
colors were the basis for all other colors and the equivalent of basic math.
Perfect
geometry was mathematical,
not subjective.
Primary
colors were not unique to one person's creative vision,
like a shade of violet or pink might be.
Everyone
in the world would have the same primary red, blue, and yellow.
Not
a slightly orange-red or moss-green or ochre,
but plain red, blue, or yellow.
Fights broke out over the use of color and even using a 45-degree angle,
not just 90 degrees.
Red,
yellow, and blue became the most basic and simple color palette learned by most people as children.
Because
the primary colors are universal,
it's
easier to reproduce them more consistently.
Primary
red is the same in California or Morocco.
This
leads to their dominance in corporate identity
and the ability to create a more complex and more diverse design.
Primary colors are the most common color options.
The
secondary colors are purple, orange, and green.
Blue
and yellow make green.
Red and yellow create orange.
And blue and red make purple.
Together,
they create secondary colors.
Secondary
colors are more distinctive than primary colors.
They are less generic,
and as such, secondary colors are more likely to be tied to a specific time and place.
Such as purple, green, and orange feeling very 1960s.
Or
they may seem more unique and convey a more specific tone.
And
they're certainly more proprietary for a brand than a widely used primary color.
Tertiary
colors are combinations of primary and secondary colors.
Sorry, I know this sounds like math.
For example, yellow and orange make coral.
Blue and green make turquoise.
And so on.
There
are six tertiary colors,
which create a wider palette.
But these colors are more subjective and depend on the percentages of the mixing.
Here,
Lance Wyman's palette for the Mexico City Olympics show the range of tones possible with the primary,
secondary, and tertiary colors.
If one adds more yellow than green,
the color changes from lime to chartreuse.
A
little less purple with red,
and we get violet.
Or is that lilac?
You can see that this is where the names of colors get confusing.
Don't worry, I'll cover that in the next lesson.
Complementary colors don't flatter the other colors with kind words.
They're the colors opposite each other on the color wheel.
Colors can be dynamic,
but easily feel jarring or create vibrating relationships.
Or,
when used with a lighter value,
create a sense of nature.
Analogous colors are technically
three colors next to each other on the color wheel.
They
can create harmony and a sense of consistency.
Typically,
in use, one color is dominant,
and the others support that color.
They get along just fine because they're all related.
Or maybe despite being related.
Here,
Mary Cassatt weaves green and a darker blue to the dominant blue color of the chairs.
In
use, an analogous group can help disparate information that might be complex seem cohesive
while creating hierarchy.
To
understand triadic colors, let's look at the color wheel.
These are any three colors evenly spaced apart.
The
resulting palettes can be playful and dynamic rather than calm and conservative.
Monochromatic colors are a group of colors based on one color only.
For example,
several shades of green or a range of blue colors.
While
analogous colors relate but are unique,
monochromatic colors may be tone variations or
values of blue, but are all related to the same blue.
This
works to convey a sense of unity,
as a great option with limited budgets with one or two color printing.
Or a way to make a piece dynamic with the bold use of one color.
Color
theory exists as a guide for color mixing and a way to explain how we see light on the visual spectrum.
It's a great guide,
but think of this as basic math,
not a set of rules.
And
finally, I created a document for your reference that covers the content here on hue, saturation,
value, and warm, cool, and neutral colors.
I've been working with color for a long time,
and even I need some help remembering the differences.
What's value and what's tone?
As I said, knowing the right term and communicating it can prevent many misunderstandings.
And feel free to share this with your clients or people you work with.