Transcript Design and Colour - University of Manchester

Design and Colour
Jacquie Wilson
The colours of the spectrum
violet, blue, cyan, green, yellow, orange, red
Colour range for questionnaire
violet, blue, cyan, green, yellow, orange, red
black, white
Colour range 2 for questionnaire
violet, blue, cyan, green, yellow, orange, red
black, white, silver, gold,
Product colour
• The final colour of a product on sale to
the consumer is the end result of a
complex interaction of knowledge,
guesswork, practical constraint, and
marketing skill.
The importance of colour
• Many researchers around the world are
now recognising the importance of
colour in order to reach increasingly
sophisticated customers on a deeper
level.
Some quotes about colour
• ‘emotions can be stirred by colour’
[Tucker, 1987]
• ‘whoever controls colour, controls the
world’ [Woodhuysen, 1994]
• ‘when
colour
has
a
specific,
predetermined function that acts to
support the overall strategy, your
marketing effort can do all you’ve
designed it to do’ [Sharpe, 1974]
Factors influencing product
choice in textiles and fashion
• Colour is the most important
Then design, then handle, then
price
• Therefore, it is the colour palette that is
produced before anything else each
season. It is colour that dictates the
mood of a season.
What is colour?
• Light is part of the huge range of
vibration energies called the
electromagnetic spectrum. When some
electromagnetic waves bounce off
certain surfaces and hit your eye you
see colour. Seeing different colours is
caused by having light of different
wave-lengths hit your eye. What you
see is red, what causes it is light of a
certain wavelength.
Colour perception
• In the 17th century the philosopher John
Locke distinguished between what he
called primary qualities like distance,
weight and shape which are real and
physical, and secondary qualities such
as colour which are not really physical
qualities.
The Physical Stimulus
• Objects do not have any intrinsic colour
independent of a visual system to
perceive it.
light
observer
object
What do we know light?
• Samuel Johnson said, “we all know what light
is; but it is not easy to tell what it is.”
• Benjamin Franklin said, “about light I am in
the dark”
• How fast is light? Speed of light in a vacuum
– approx 180,000 miles per second or 300,000
km/second
• What is it that travels?
– Energy (we get warm in the sunlight and heat is a
form of energy)
• Light also carries momentum or “push”.
– This momentum is extremely small but the push
from a powerful laser pointed upward can support a
tiny glass ball.
• A wave or a particle?
Objects
Objects are generally coloured if they reflect certain wavelengths that
fall upon them but absorb others.
short
wavelengths
long
A red car, for example, looks red because it reflects
only the longer wavelengths
How we “see” colour
• Colour is caused by physical qualities
(wavelength) but the effects are in the
mind. Red only looks red in your mind.
An apt quote from the artist Wasily
Kandinsky – “Colour is seen by the eye
but perceived by the brain”.
Rods and cones
• In the retina, at the back of the eye,
there are two different kinds of receptor
cells which respond to the light focused
on them by the eye’s lens. These are
rods and cones. The rods are
responsible for colourless vision in dim
illumination while the cones operate at
higher light levels and are responsible
for colour perception.
Colours are wavelengths
• The colours you see correspond to
different wavelengths of visible light.
Violet is the shortest and red the
longest of the visible wavelengths. Light
from the sun contains all these
wavelengths, but looks white to us.
How colour happens
• When a stream of photons (light) falls
on the surface of an object (an apple, a
piece of paper etc) several things may
happen. The photons may
– react with atoms in the object and
disappear - absorption
– pass through to the other side –
transmission
– bounce off in a new direction reflection or scattering
Absorption
• Absorption is what gives the object its
colour. Everything around us absorbs
light, but different things absorb
different wavelengths. You see the
wavelengths that are not absorbed. So
something seen as red absorbs all the
other wavelengths except red.
A multicoloured spectrum
• When a beam of white light is shone
through a glass prism the various
wavelengths are bent (refracted) by
differing amounts. They spread out to
form a multicoloured spectrum. The
order of the colours is always the same
violet, blue, cyan, green, yellow, orange
and red. This was first done by Isaac
Newton in the 1660s.
The colours of the spectrum
White light is split into its
component hues
Colour vision
• Cones are responsible for colour vision,
they are concentrated in the central
part of the retina and work only in
daylight.
Three types of cones
• Normal human colour vision has three
types of cones: Red, green and blue.
Each type of cone is most sensitive to a
specific wavelength of visible light.
However, the sensitivity of the cones
overlap, so a particular wavelength of
light may stimulate two types of cone.
How the brain interprets colour
• When a cone is stimulated, it sends a
signal along the optical nerve to the
brain. Different wavelengths of light
stimulate the cones in different
combinations, and the brain interprets
these signals as colours.
How wavelengths of light send
signals to the brain via cones
Yellow:
Signal from green and red
cones.
Turquoise: Signal from blue and green
cones.
Grey:
Medium size signal from blue,
green and red cones.
Black:
No signal from any cones.
White:
A strong signal from all
three cones.
Metamerism
• Because we need light to see colour, the
colour of an item will change depending
on the light source. This effect is called
metamerism.
Colour Communication
• How can we adequately describe colour?
• How can a colour be defined unambiguously?
• Approximately how many colours are discernable to
the human visual system?
• Can we impose some sort of systematic order to the
naming of colours?
• How can the idea of a colour be communicated?
• Can we specify colours precisely?
• Which colour am I?
– Daybreak, Desert Glass, Sophisticated Lady,
Surrender, Whimsical, Hepatica, Mignon, Nuncio,
Nymphea, Pomp and Power
Verbal descriptions of colour Precision
• Everyday use
– 20-100 colour description terms cover most
possible needs.
• Professional/artistic use
– At this level there is a need to define the colour
specified.
– Physical samples of the colour are often used to
define the colour precisely.
• Scientific Colour Management
– All colours are given a precise NUMERIC colour
definition. Samples can be measured to provide
a precise specification.
Describing Colour
• The Desert Island Experiment (Judd, 1975)
– Suppose a person with normal colour
vision and no experience of dealing with
colours is idling away their time on a
desert island, surrounded by a large
number of pebbles of similar texture but
having a wide variety of colours. Suppose
they wanted to organise these pebbles in
some orderly way, according to their
colour. How can we describe colour in
terms of what they might do?
Desert Island Experiment
• One possible way would be for out
experimenter to think about colour in terms
of the common names red, blue green etc
and separate those out without hue – that is
those that are white, grey or black. Thus
they separate the chromatic pebbles from the
achromatic ones.
• The observer may find that the achromatic
pebbles could arranged in a logical order in a
series going from white to light grey to dark
grey to black. This arrangement in terms of
lightness, provides a place for every
achromatic pebble. (value, whiteness or
blackness)
Desert Island Experiment
• The chromatic pebbles differ from one another
in several ways not just by differences in
lightness.
• Our experimenter could separate them by hue,
into different piles they call red, yellow, green,
and blue. Each pile may be subdivided as finely
as they want, for example, yellow-green, green
and blue-green piles.
• Each group of pebbles of a given hue could be
separated by lightness just as the achromatic
pebbles were. The red pebbles could be
separated into a series staring with the lightest
pinks and becoming gradually darker, ending
with the dark cherry reds. Each red pebble
would be equivalent in lightness to one of the
grey pebbles in the achromatic series.
Red
Blue
Yellow
Green
YellowGreen
Green
BlueGreen
Pinks
Light red
Medium red
Dark red
Very dark red
Desert Island Experiment
• But the pebbles also differ in another way other than
lightness and hue. For example, a brick red could
be compared to a tomato-red colour. They are the
same hue (neither is yellower or bluer red than the
other). They also have the same lightness. (being
equivalent in lightness to the same medium-grey
stone taken from the achromatic pebbles)
• This third kind of difference relates to how much the
stones differ from grey – in crude terms how much
colour they contain. The stones with a single hue
and a single lightness that vary in their hue are said
to have varying chroma.
Colour in language
• In 1969 research by Berlin and Kay led
tem to claim that there were no more
than eleven basic colour terms found in
any human language, those colours
being: white, black, red, green, yellow,
blue, brown, purple, pink, orange, and
grey.
Berlin and Kay’s paradigm for
the order in which colours are
learned
• Berlin and Kay suggested that the order
in which colour terms enter language is
not arbitrary, but runs in a specific
sequence.
Berlin and Kay’s paradigm
• If a language has only two colours they
are always white and black; if three
colours, the one added is red; if a
fourth is added, it will be either green
or yellow; when a fifth is added, it will
then include both green and yellow; the
sixth added is blue; the seventh added
is brown; and if an eighth or more
terms are added, it or they will be
purple, pink, orange, or grey.
Colour naming
• Describing colour is difficult. Just what
colours do the following names refer to
- vanilla, camel, beige and maroon?
• Given that the human eye (and brain)
can distinguish between ten million
colours, it becomes obvious that to
describe colour experiences by name is
imprecise.
Colour Order Systems
• In order to accurately describe or pin
point colours a reference or colour
system needs to be devised.
• Having discovered how to create a
spectrum by directing a narrow beam of
white light through a prism the first
colour wheel was formed by Isaac
Newton who took the two ends of his
colour spectrum and bent it into a
circle.
Newton’s colour wheel
Otto Runge’s colour sphere
• Newton's colour wheel evolved and
changed over the centuries. In 1810
Otto Runge created a spherical model,
with white at the north pole and black
at the south pole and with Newton's
colour circle forming its equator.
Ostwald and Munsell
• In 1915 Williem Ostwald devised his
double cone colour solid. In the same
year another system of colour notation
was developed by Albert Munsell. This
added steps to the constituent hues of
Newton’s colour circle.
Munsell’s colour steps
• Munsell added colour steps to Newton’s
seven spectrum colours
ruby, magenta, purple, violet, blue, cyan, turquoise, green, lime, yellow, orange, red
Munsell’s colour wheel
Munsell’s colour solid
• Munsell's second innovation was to
allow his three-dimensional colour solid
to respond in shape to the different
potential strengths between hues.
Munsell’s colour solid
Munsell’s colour solid
• This created an asymmetrical colour
solid. Munsell's colour solid when
stripped back to basics becomes a
colour tree. This can be explained in
three dimensions. In Munsell terms
these are hue, value and chroma.
Munsell’s colour tree
Hue, value and chroma
• Hue is the colour of a colour i.e. its
redness, greenness or yellowness
(round the solid).
• Value refers to the amount of lightness
or darkness (running up and down).
• Chroma refers to the saturation of a
colour or its colour strength (from the
middle out).
Hue
• Hue is the name of the colour family to
which a colour belongs. An orange-red
which would have more red than
orange, would belong to the family of
reds, and so its hue would be
considered red.
Value
• The value (also known as brightness)
of a colour is how dark or light a colour
is. The value of any colour can be
altered by adding white (which raises
the value), or black (which lowers the
value). Tint – colour lightened by the
addition of white. Shade – colour
darkened by the addition of black.
Chroma
• Chroma (also known as intensity or
saturation) refers to a colour's purity.
The stronger or brighter a colour is, the
higher its chroma. The weaker or more
mixed a colour is, the lower is it's
chroma. You can alter the chroma of a
colour by adding white, grey, another
colour or black.
• Pastel colours are heavily tinted colours
which all have low chroma.
Colour reference systems
• In a colour reference system each
colour in a colour model has a
numerical colour code, which can be
used to reproduce exactly the colour
intended. With colour codes instructions
can be passed to computers and other
machines. Colour models make modern
colour printing, computer graphics and
image processing possible.
A colour model for colour
referencing
Additive colour mixing
• Thomas Young (1773-1829) discovered
that combining lights of just three of
the seven colours found in the
spectrum; red, indigo and green
produced white light. These three
colours are primary colours and by
mixing these three additive primaries in
differing amounts of coloured light any
colour in the rainbow can be created.
Additive colour mixing
• Young also realised that by combining
any two of the three additive primaries
gave one of the other colours seen in
the prism. These were called secondary
colours. Additive colour mixing is the
mixing of coloured light.
Additive colour mixing
Subtractive colour mixing
• In subtractive colour mixing the
principle is exactly the opposite. The
subtractive primary colours are cyan,
yellow and magenta. When mixed
together they subtract from the light to
produce black. When different pairs of
the subtractive primaries are mixed the
colours red, green and blue are
produced.
Subtractive colour mixing
Partitive colour
• Tiny dots of pure colour produce a
visual colour as shown below at left. A
close-up view shows you what you are
actually looking at. A distanced view
shows the effect of a visual colour that
isn't really there. The human eye mixes
these colours together visually to
produce the effect.
Partitive colour mixing
Screen printing - paper
• Modern screen printing is another
example of a partitive system. Angled
screens of pure transparent colour ink
produce the illusion of colour hues in
printing.
Screen printing on paper
Using colour - colour wheels
• A colour circle, based on red, yellow
and blue, is traditional in the field of
art.
PRIMARY COLOURS
red, yellow and blue
• In traditional colour theory, these are
the 3 pigment colours that cannot be
mixed or formed by any combination of
other colours. All other colours are
derived from these 3 hues.
SECONDARY COLOURS
green, orange and purple
• These are the colours formed by mixing
the primary colours.
TERTIARY COLOURS
yellow-orange, red-orange, redpurple, blue-purple, blue-green
and yellow-green.
• These are the colours formed by mixing
primary and secondary colours.
Using colour - colour harmony
• Harmony can be defined as a pleasing
arrangement of parts, whether it be
music, poetry, colour, or even an ice
cream sundae.
Harmony
• When something is not harmonious,
it's either boring or chaotic. At one
extreme is a visual experience that is so
bland that the viewer is not engaged.
The human brain will reject understimulating information. At the other
extreme is a visual experience that is so
overdone, so chaotic that the viewer
can't stand to look at it.
Colour harmony
• Colour harmony delivers visual interest
and a sense of order.
• In summary, extreme unity leads to
under-stimulation, extreme complexity
leads to over-stimulation. Harmony is a
dynamic equilibrium.
A colour scheme based on
analogous colours
A colour scheme based on
complementary colours
Complementary colours
• Complementary colours are any two
colours which are directly opposite each
other, such as red and green and redpurple and yellow-green. In the
previous illustration, there are several
variations of yellow-green in the leaves
and several variations of red-purple in
the orchid. These opposing colours
create maximum contrast and
maximum stability.
A colour scheme based on
nature
• Nature provides a perfect base for
colour combinations. In the previous
illustration red, yellow and green create
a harmonious design, regardless of
whether this combination fits into a
technical formula for colour harmony.