All the Colors
A review of Color Harmony Compendium by Terry Marks et al.
When I was a little girl not only was I slightly obsessed with Rainbow Brite (the most amazing TV show about a girl who solves the worlds problems via ass-kicking rainbows) but I was also a bit manic with my Crayola crayons. I had them all lined up and would dump them onto the floor to rearrange them with glee. I have a mild infatuation with color and coloring.
But then I sadly grew up, stopped coloring in my coloring books, handed in my Rainbow Brite pillow case for one that matched my “adult” bedspread, and got way too involved with computers. I transferred my love of colors for my love of a PC and my dot matrix printer. Fifteen years and multiple advanced degrees later I knew a whole lot about how to design computer systems and oh so little about how to make them visually appealing.
Given my last post about Introducing Visual Design, I thought I would follow up with some reviews of books that helped me pick up some graphic design skills and rediscover my early love of colors.
One of the earliest books I picked up was the Color Harmony Compendium by Terry Marks, MINE, Origin, and Tina Sutton. (I have the 25th Anniversary Edition.) I opened it and was like, “HECK YES! ALL THE COLORS!” and then bought it.
The best part of this book is that when you open the book it is quite overwhelming. The pages have a white background with pops of color and very little text. This simplified method makes the book very effective. The book can be divided into four sections: an introduction with short descriptions of color theory (boring), the meat of the book, a section on the psychology of color (boring), and a final section showing various shades of different colors (the most boring).
The meat of the book makes up for all those boring sections. What the authors did was take a theme, like “professional” and explore color palettes that could be thought of as meeting those themes. These color palettes are further broken down into palettes that are monochromatic, primary colors, complementary colors, etc. The authors then used multiple design projects like labels or currency, and stepped each example through different color styles. Below is an example from the book.
By showing the same example with multiple color options the book affords individual assessments of “rightness.” This is the true power of the book. The authors take the super fluffy aspects of color theory and actually make it come to life.
The first step in realizing you have a problem is to acknowledge it. I have a few. Wood paneling, hamburger menus, and text in all caps on buttons are all design problems I know I have. Also on the list is jumping straight to colors in my designs. To help deal with this problem I use this book. It helps me pick some colors that “feel” right early on, finding a palette that matches my color choices on ColourLovers.com, and then putting some basic colors in place. Most of the time my initial color choices change as the design evolves, and that is fine. But if I didn’t force myself to pick some colors and stick to them early on, I would stall out picking colors.
The last thing I want to say about the power of this book is that it still overwhelms me. When I’m at the beginning of a design I’m a bit intense. This book pushes me over the edge where I realize I’m acting a bit crazy. I open the Color Harmony Compendium and my brain has a tiny explosion. I hear myself saying, “Oh my god, I’m never going to figure this out.” And then I hear myself say that, and I calm straight down. The sheer number of examples is what pushes me over that edge. It helps me pick something early and allows me to get past my hang-ups. While I’m not sure everyone would use it that way, it is still a go-to resource for me.
So if you are like me, obsessed with colors and a bit freaked out every time you have to start from fresh with a new design, then this is the book for you. While it is light on the theory it is great in the application of color theory.
Book Club Questions
- How do you pick new colors for an interface? What resources do you use to pick a new color palette?
- How do you test your colors and if they are working?
- What books do you turn to when you want to learn about color theory?
