Mike 17/03/2012

LEARNING ACTIVITY 04 Colour Research

This research assignment will develop your understanding of colour use and allow you

to explore online resources that will help you in your study / work.

Save it somewhere safe, and then submit it for feedback via the Assessment Tool.

Answer these short questions to demonstrate your understanding of colour. Use MS Word. Name, date and save into your account, then submit via the Assessment Tool for feedback.

1. Colour Scheme Your client whose Brisbane-based business is supplying OH&S resources to Civil & Mechanical engineering fields needs a new business identity/ brand. What could you suggest would be the colour scheme for this client for their logo and corporate identity package?

Fill the swatches below with your choices (see screenshot below on how to do this in MS Word). Note: you don’t need to use all the swatches.

Explain why you chose these colours.

I would suggest a Complement colour schemes making it contrast. The colour and its complement would convey energy, vigor and excitement which would be ideal for Occupational Health and Safety resources.

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2. Colour Scheme Your client whose business is producing rugged outdoor footwear for the domestic (Australian) market has developed a new range for teenage girls. What could you suggest would be the colour scheme for this new brand? Fill the swatches below with your choices. Explain why you chose these colours.

I would suggest an Analogous colour scheme which share strong undertones which create pleasing low contrast harmony. The Analogous palettes are rich and easy to work with.

3. Colour SchemeA client who represents an Australian Govt. agency to support drug rehabilitation services needs a new corporate identity for them. What could you suggest would be the colour scheme for this agency? Fill the swatches below with your choices.

Explain why you chose these colours.

A room with lots of dark colours and little contrast might also promote isolation and/or depression. Of course fluorescent tie-die isn’t the way to go either, but white, off-white, sky blue, and other soft colours provide a better atmosphere for a healthy mind. Lighting is also important. Closed shades and low light levels sometimes make drug rehabilitation more difficult.http://www.health-guide-online.com/drug-rehab.html

I would suggest a Secondary colour scheme as it would have more pleasing depth and dimension that are hard to get in other ways.

4. List 3 free-to-use online software tools to help you develop colour schemes. List their URLs and describe the one you like best and why you like it.

http://www.smashingapps.com/2009/12/17/50-best-free-tools-to-create-perfect-color-combinations.html

Color Scheme Designer

Color Scheme Designer is a brand new interface, as well as the engine, all rewritten from the scratch. Rapidly increased precision and colour space conversions, better preview, enhanced scheme creation system; unique scheme IDs and permanent URL of the scheme.http://colorschemedesigner.com/

Hex Color Scheme Generator

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This is a great tool to use if you want to develop a matching colour scheme for your site. Say you want your nav colour to be #000066 (navy blue) and you want to know what colours would go best with it, this tool will help you.http://www.2createawebsite.com/build/hex-color-scheme-generator.html

Check My Color

It is a tool for checking foreground and background colour combinations of all DOM elements and determining if they provide sufficient contrast when viewed by someone having colour deficits.http://www.checkmycolours.com/

I liked the Check My Colour online software tool as it let me check my URL http://resumejourney.blogspot.com/ providing these interesting results:

Testing done on 826 elementsLuminosity Contrast Ratio: 592 failuresBrightness difference: 691 failuresColour difference: 696 failures

5. Using the BAM (Before & after Magazine) colour wheel.

Primary colours. Use the swatches below to represent Primary colours:

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Secondary colours. Use the swatches below to represent Secondary colours:

Tertiary colours. Use the swatches below to represent Tertiary colours:

Warm colours. Fill the 3 swatches below with examples.

Cool colours.

6. Colour Emotions / Colour Associations According to “Western” perception of colours, describe the emotion associated with the following colours and provide an example of its use in contemporary culture.

Colour emotion example

Red

Energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love.

Valentine heart

BlueTrust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.

Police Officer

WhiteLight, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity.

Dove Religion

Black Power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery.

Funeral

Yellow Joy, happiness, intellect, and energy.

Sunshine

Dark Green Ambition, greed, and jealousy.

Money

Lime-green Growth, harmony, Nature

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freshness, and fertility.

ChromeBoldness, dignity, self- control, wisdom, responsibility, organisation and insight.

Harleys and Choppers.

Orange

Enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation.

Oxygen, autumn and harvest.

PinkRomance, love, and friendship. It denotes feminine qualities and passiveness.

Forgive and nurture.

Grey

Conservative, security, maturity, reliability, cool, composed, intelligence, staid, modesty, dignity,solid, practical, old age,Sadness and boring.  

Loneliness

Purple Power, nobility, luxury, and ambition.

Royalty

Brown Stability and denotes masculine qualities.

Earth

Note: To do the following activity you’ll need to determine the RGB value for a colour using MS Word. You can find this out by using the Shape Fill palette / more fill colours/ Custom (see below):

7. Demonstrate your understanding of the following colour terms:

Hue. Show an example of “hue” in the swatch below and name it. Indicate its RGB value.

Purple can balance the mind and transform obsessions and fears.RGB

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Red=128 Green=55 Blue=183

Lightness. Make the hue you chose lighter and represent it in this swatch. Indicate its RGB value. Hint: Use the vertical slider in the colours dialog box to “lighten” a hue.

RGBRed=220 Green=197 Blue=237

Saturation. Pick a new hue and in the swatches below represent it at 3 levels of saturation:

Hint: In MS Word, use HSL instead of RGB Colour model to easily change the saturation value, see below left:

Define Tint

1. a shade of a colour, especially a pale or delicate variation.2. A gradation of a colour made by adding white to it to lessen its saturation.3. A slight coloration; a tingedhttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/tint

Define Shade

A shade is a hue or colour with black (or any other dark colour) mixed into it. This creates a darker version or a darker tone of it. You can have more than one shade of a colour, depending on how much has been mixed into it http://taspolytechnic.blogspot.com.au/search?q=colours&search=Search.

The opposite of a shade is a tint.

Define Tone

In art, tone refers to the degree of lightness or darkness of an area. Tone varies from the bright white of a light source through shades of grey to the deepest black shadows. How we perceive the tone of an object depends on its actual surface lightness or darkness, colour and texture, the background and lighting. Tone is may be

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used broadly ('global tone') to denote the major planes of an object; realist artists use 'local tone' to accurately denote subtle changes within the plane.Dictionary entries sometimes use define tone or as referring to colour, but artists use hue or Chroma to refer to this quality, preferring to use tone, tonal value, or value to describe lightness or darkness.http://drawsketch.about.com/od/drawingglossary/g/tone.htm

Define Gamut

In colour reproduction, including computer graphics and photography, the gamut, or colour gamut (pronounced /ˈɡæmət/), is a certain complete subset of colours. The most common usage refers to the subset of colours which can be accurately represented in a given circumstance, such as within a given colour space or by a certain output device. Another sense, less frequently used but not less correct, refers to the complete set of colours found within an image at a given time. In this context, digitizing a photograph, converting a digitized image to a different colour space, or outputting it to a given medium using a certain output device generally alters its gamut, in the sense that some of the colours in the original are lost in the process.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamut

Define Gradient

In computer graphics, a colour gradient (sometimes called a colour ramp or colour progression) specifies a range of position-dependent colours, usually used to fill a region. For example, many window managers allow the screen background to be specified as a gradient. The colours produced by a gradient vary continuously with position, producing smooth colour transitions.

A linear colour gradient is specified by two points, and a colour at each point. The colours along the line through those points are calculated using linear interpolation, and then extended perpendicular to that line. In digital imaging systems, colours are typically interpolated in an RGB colour space, often using gamma compressed RGB colour values, as opposed to linear.

A circular gradient is specified as a circle that has one colour and a focus (the centre of the circle) that has another. Colours are calculated by linear interpolation based on distance from the focus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_gradient

Properties of Colour:  - Each colour has a name = hue  - It is either light or dark = value  - Colours are either warm or cool = temperature  - Either bright or dull = intensity

The difference between tint, tone and shade:  - Colour plus black added = shade - Colour plus grey added = tone  - Colour plus white added = tint

http://coloredpencilpoints.com/defining-tints-tones-and-shades-apart-from-the-other-aspects-of-color

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Contrast & HarmonyDesigners employ colour contrasts, scale contrasts and style contrasts to direct flow, establish focus, and control overall layout hierarchy.

In terms of colour, represent the different types of contrast using the pairs of swatches below:

Contrast of Value

Contrast of Hue

Complementary Contrast

Contrast of Saturation

Cool / Hot Contrast

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