Color Theory

It discusses how color is perceived by people as well as the visual consequences of how colors blend, complement, or contrast one another.

Perception affects color. Humans decide whether they like a product in 90 seconds or less abs most times that decision is mainly based off on color.

Various wavelength combinations of light are reflected by various objects. These wavelength combinations are detected by our brains, which then convert them into the phenomena known as color.

RGB colour model

CMYK: The subtractive color model

C for cyan, M for magenta, Y for yellow and L for black. It’s subtractive because the light reduces when you add more color. This model is advisable for best results when printing

“Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet.” — Paul Klee

The traditional color wheel was created by Isaac Newton consisting of the primary, secondary and tertiary colors. There are 4 main qualities do the colors on the color wheel;

~ Hue; the position of the color on the wheel and the brightest purest version of the colour

~ Saturation/Intensity/Chroma; the vibrancy is a colour. A desaturated colour is dull

~ Value; how dark or light a color is. Shades are created by adding black, tints are created by adding white and tones are created by adding grey

~ Temperature; there are warm (yellow, red, orange) and cold (blue, purple, green) colors

These qualities when combined together produce a vast range of colours

Color Harmonies

~ Monochromatic colors; taking a colour and creating shades, tones and tints of it

~ Complementary colors; combining two colors from opposite sides of the color wheel to produce a strong contrast

~ Split complementary colors; combining two nearby colors and an opposite color on the color wheel

~ Triad colors; combining three colors that are evenly spaced around the color wheel like a triangle

~ Tetradic colours; combining four colours in a rectangle shape comprising of two complementary colors each. It works best when you focus on one main color using the rest as contrast colors

~ Analogous colors; combining color next to each other on the color wheel. It works best when one dominant colour is chosen and others are used as accents

Tips for colour theory

~ Pick one dominant color and use color harmonies to find the other colors that match

~ Use few colors; simple is best! you don’t want your design coming off chaotic to your viewers

~ Use color palettes for inspiration; you mustn’t always start from scratch when developing a color scheme