Color Exercises

Color exercises inspired by my environment. Ongoing, Fall 2016 — present. Contents: The Used Book Store, Post-It Triads

The Used Book Store

Monday, December 6, 2016

the colors of rare and used books.

Colors take on a muted tone, reflecting its age and older style when there exist hints of its compliment. Sometimes, it’s made to look more mature by making the color more low key.

Going hue by hue to investigate nuances between yellow-X diads.

bottom left shows that simply changing the master hues of the diads doesn’t always produce pleasing results. Perhaps the hue contrast of yellow-blue/greens works better because the yellow is not as startling as the cyan?

After coming up with some diads I’m interested in exploring, I went back to the yellow to see how I could adjust it.

In an attempt to match the HSL of the leaves to that of the shop front, I learned that not only is the yellow a different hue, but its also more saturated and brighter. That is why earlier when I changed the master hue, the leaves changed into an unsightly cyan.

Even though I’d previously thought the yellow/purple diad (left) worked well, after trying to add some red into the yellow, I noticed a more harmonious relationship through the softer contrast (right)

The same applies to these two, with (left) having softer contrast and the leaves receding more into the background. Meanwhile, the (right) has more value contrast so the leaves pop more.

quickly looking at saturation/value contrasts as opposed to hue constrasts

starting to bring in a third color for triadic relationship

After this exercise, I plan on doing more optical studies with my squares/transparencies to look at nuanced variations between my triads. Those colors will come back to this context to create a composition amongst the grid-like structure of the windows, boxes, and shelves.

To create a more harmonious balance, there must exist colors that tie the two farthest end of the spectrum together whether through hue or value. (IMO when the only similarity is saturation and the hue is almost complimentary thats when you get childish, poppy colors such as the iteration above)

adobe illustrator time, ft. color adjusted kai pictures because I like the texture (you can just make out the original yellows in the left studies from this past weekend)

interesting how the the edges of the blue-green block differ drastically when placed next to the yellow leaves and the blue storefront.

yay color squares.

I’m pushing myself to notice nuances within colors as opposed to relying on strong hue contrasts. I was inspired by the middle painted color study to consider changes in value and saturation of analogous diads. Thus, I did so for my main diad in the bookstore: yellow and blue. Ultimately, I hope to transition between the two colors, with nuanced rhythm between those transitional states.

Now I will try contextualizing the colors again~ In playing with amount and position, I will see if certain arrangements causes the person’s color to blend in or pop out from the background. (Think back to the tree/storefront comparisons from earlier).

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

There’s mostly hue and warm/cool contrast right now. It’d be nice to have some value and saturation contrast.

When setting type, you build up from the smallest components, so where do you start with colors? I remember with painting and pastels, you usually start with the midtones and build each way, so perhaps that would be most effective in building a palette? That way, I can ensure sufficient contrast in either direction.

Since color editting and drawing is easier for me on illustrator, I decided to move back to illustrator to map out colors before going back to photoshop to work on the image.

In this image the person and the tree stand out the most and are both the foreground.

attempts at subtle attach/detach

(left) definitely recedes; green-yellow windows pop out instead, as if they’re illuminated. (right) not quite working; bright background flattens the image

cropping shows better amount of colors in top right image

(far right) again with background amount looking better with cropping.

attach/detach and assimilate/differentiate

exercises exploring diadic and triadic relations.

Post-It Note Triads

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Long time no post! I was tackling a group exercise in Learner Experience Design when I noticed my classmate’s watch face had a similar hue as her shirt! Then, as I pointed it out, I made the connection that it was also a similar hue as the salmon post it notes we always see in the Master’s design studio. My excitement grew as I found the split complimentary contrast of the existing blue and salmon post it notes mimicked my classmate’s outfit. Finally, my enthusiasm peaked upon noticing the magenta post it notes also matched the chairs in the studio. I think it’s interesting considering the Master’s design studio always has the same three colored post it notes lying around! Soon after, my “color filter” (as Mark would put it) was turned on “high” and I started noticing everything in the room that were the post its’ hues.

sorry for poor android phone camera quality!

this is starting to remind me of the pantone colors of 2016.