Color TheoryKIMBERLY CATES-MERAZ

Choosing the Right Color

the most effective color choices go beyond just personal preference

colors have an extraordinary ability to influence mood, emotions, and perceptions;

take on cultural and personal meaning;

and attract attention, both consciously and subconsciously.

The Color Wheel Traditional color theory can help you understand which colors

might work well together (or not) The color wheel is all about mixing colors.

Primary Colors RED

YELLOW

BLUE

Secondary Colors Mix the primary colors to get secondary colors

ORANGE -----(red mixed with yellow)

GREEN -----(blue mixed with yellow)

VIOLET -----(red mixed with blue)

Tertiary Colors Mix a primary color with a secondary color---third level of the color wheel --- tertiary colors.

red-orange

yellow-orange

yellow-green

blue-green

blue-violet

red-violet

Visible Spectrum

The primary and secondary colors (with the addition of indigo) are also part of the visible spectrum of light, or the “colors of the rainbow.”

You many have memorized the acronym “Roy. G. Biv” to remember these colors:

red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

TWO COLOR MODELS

SUBTRACTIVE MODEL

involves mixing colored pigments like paints or inks

both the traditional color wheel and

the CMYK color system (that printing equipment uses) fall into this category.

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black

ADDITIVE MODEL

involves mixing colored light (like the colors you see on your computer screen or TV)

and uses a different set of primary colors: red, green, and blue

abbreviated RGB.

Red, Green, Blue

Hexadecimal color system used by design programs to identify specific colors when designing for the web

Any color you choose will be identified by a hexadecimal value (or hex code)

a six-digit combination of numbers and/or letters (often preceded by #)

Color Terms Hue: synonymous with “color” or the name of a specific color;

traditionally refers to one of the 12 colors on the color wheel

Shade: a hue darkened with black

Tone: a hue dulled with gray

Tint: a hue lightened with white

Saturation: refers to the intensity or purity of a color (the closer a hue

approaches to gray, the more desaturated it is)

Value: refers to the lightness or darkness of a color

Tint – Tone - Shade

Saturation & Brightness

• Desaturated colors tend to feel dreamier, more muted, calmer.

• Conversely, saturated colors are typically higher-energy in feeling.

• Similarly, colors that are brighter often feel younger, more playful, and sometimes are even lifting or lightening in the way they make us feel.

Saturation vs Desaturation

Color Harmony

Color Harmony

Monochromatic: various shades, tones, or tints of one color; for instance, a range of blues varying from light to dark; this type of scheme is more subtle and conservative

In fashion design…

Color Harmony Analogous: hues that are side by side on the color wheel;

Color Harmony

Complementary: opposites on the color wheel

◦ such as red/green or blue/orange; ◦ complementary colors are high-

contrast and high-intensity◦ can be difficult to apply in a

balanced, harmonious way (especially in their purest form, when they can easily clash in a design)

Color Harmony

Split-Complementary: any color on the color wheel plus the two that flank its complement; this scheme still has strong visual contrast, but is less jarring than a complementary color combination

Color Harmony

Triadic: any three colors that are evenly spaced on the color wheel

Color Harmony Tetradic/Double-Complementary: two complementary pairs; this scheme is very eye-catching, but may be even harder to apply than one pair of complementary colors, since more colors are more difficult to balance.

If you use this type of scheme, you’ll want to choose one of the four to be the dominant color and adjust the saturation/value/etc. of some or all the colors so they work well in different parts of your design like the text and background.