Color and Information Design (Due 09/27/2016
Color Readings: Stone, T.L., Adams, S., Morioka, N., Color Design Workbook, Rockport, Beverly, Mass., 2006,
p 8–15 (What is Color?), 16–24 (Color Theory), 52–57 (Context is Everything), 58–63 (Experimentation), 64–69 (People See Color Differently).
Itten, J., The Elements of Color, Wiley, 1970: The Twelve Part Color Circle (29–31), The Seven Color Contrasts (32–62), The Color Sphere (66–71).
Information Design Reading: Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information Chesire, CT: Graphics Press, 1990.
Chapter 2, Micro / Macro Readings,
Chapter 3, Layering and Separation,
Chapter 4, Small Multiples.
Color is how we perceive the richness in the world around us. Animals did not evolve with the ability to perceive color, but the mutation to discern color gave species such a huge advantage over others that animals that are able to perceive color moved to the top of the food chain.
The first chapter provides details about how the different attributes of color help us to perceive its difference and the book moves on to elucidate the theory of color on how this can be used to evoke different emotions. Warm colors were assigned positive attributes by Goethe and cold ones were negative. The theory of color has grown more complex since then and elucidated more deeply on my Dr. Itten from the legendary Bauhaus school from germany.
The theory by Dr. Itten throws the complimentary color palette on the face of a clock and showing the distribution of how this can be utilized to create beautiful and contrasting images to showcase the information. This Palette has been worked on and has be modified to create the modern palette used in devices such as the Android Material design Palette shown below. My favorite word ‘Context’ comes into play here as well when we talk about how the context of which colors are used can showcase a particular effect.
The London Underground Map for me is the holy grail of information design. First of all, It allows for both macro and micro reading. It reads like a map, thus I can immediately locate both my boarding and destination points easily in a spatial structure. but I can also drill down and go into the details, where should I change my stations, which tube line should I take? Color is used to wonderful effect here, Only contrasting colors are use together so that we don’t lose track of what we are seeing. Bright hues on a white field also enables a particular color to pop out more easily
The information is further layered with information on the zones of the city, and other necessary details a traveller needs to know. You can also easily spot the lines that have a higher charge in effect because they are colored in a darker field and it is labelled for easier understanding.
This version of the map is also an example of small multiples in that, it has added more information on top of the original based on inputs by multiple designers. the layering of information is a function of this specific function of small multiples.