9 March Understanding the Meaning of Color Within Design March 9, 2020 Accessibility, Case Studies, General, Graphic Design, Trends, Web Design design, Primary Colors, Secondary Colors, Tertiary Colors, Understanding Color Color is the perceivable characteristic of light; light is energy, so color is a form of energy. In 1666 Sir Isaac Newton discovered that sunlight is a mixture of colors by noticing that when a ray of light passes through a prism, it is dispersed into its seven constituent colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. We see different colors because some objects reflect/absorb specific wavelengths. Human eyes perceive these wavelengths as colors. Understanding Color In web design colors are very subjective; take black for example, for some it is the color of elegance, and it sometimes gives the idea of prosperity (you may immediately imagine a black and elegant limousine), but for others it can be a reminder of something unpleasant (death, hopelessness, evil, mourning). You can’t use only a single color in your work even if it is a site, logo or a business card. It needs to be a combination of two or more colors to be effective. Unfortunately making a wise mixture poses a tough choice; the modern monitor displays can render more than 16 million (16,000,000) colors. Therefore it’s very easy to make a wrong choice. To combat these situations, designers and in particular web designers, have an important and useful guide to color theory. This is a set of principles that help create harmonious color combinations. Primary Colors In traditional color theory, there are only three colors which can’t be formed by combining others, to be more specific there are only three colors from which all the rest are created. These colors are: red, yellow and blue – primary colors. Secondary Colors Mixing the primary colors we will get the secondary colors – green, orange and purple. Tertiary Colors Tertiary colors are combinations between primary and secondary colors (yellow-orange or marigold, red-orange or vermilion, red-purple or magenta, blue-purple or violet, blue-green or aquamarine and yellow-green or chartreuse). Cool & Warm Colors As in life, harmony consists of a well balanced arrangement of the parts. To establish some relationships between colors in color theory we distinguish two categories: Warm Colors are the colors from red to yellow including brown, orange, pink. These colors evoke warmth because they remind us of things like the sun or fire. These tend to advance in space. 2. Cool Colors are from green to blue, but also include some shades of violet. Cool colors are better for backgrounds and will give the impression of calm and reduce tension. White, black and gray are considered to be neutral. Useful Color Theory Terms These terms are very useful in color theory too: Color Value measures lightness or darkness of a color. Saturation or intensity is the brightness or dullness of a color. Chroma is how pure a hue is in relation to gray. Shade: a hue produced by the addition of black. Tint: a hue produced by the addition of white. We use different sets of primary colors, the widest used being: RGB color: this is based upon light. “RGB” stands for Red, Green and Blue (are the primary colors with green replacing yellow). Computer monitors and TV sets use RGB, but not used in printing. CMYK color: this is based upon pigments. “CYMK” stands for Cyan, Yellow, Magenta and Black (K stands for black).Using these four colors most of the others can be achieved. CMYK can produce less colors than RGB (yellow-greens sometimes doesn’t have the best quality).This system is used in printing. Pantone (PMS) Color: this is another system used in printing; PMS stands for Pantone Matching System and is a very large list of color mixtures made by the Pantone Corporation. Unfortunately they are very expensive. Hexachrome: more recently Pantone developed another system, based on the regular cyan, yellow, magenta, black and in addition Pantone Hexacrome Orange and Pantone Hexacrome Green. It will be used and it is used in printing, being a step further than PMS or CMYK. The Meaning of Color Have you ever asked yourself why Las Vegas is the city of red neon? This is because red makes people take riskier actions than blue, that calms down the spirit. Scientists demonstrated that colors have an impact on the human brain. Thus a human being exposed to a certain color can have different reactions, some are excitant, and others increase appetite or give the feeling of warmth or coolness. Like we mentioned previously, colors are subjective and for each of us a color has an individual impact, but generally accepted meaning of these are as follows: black: mystery, elegance, death, evil, power, mourning. blue: sadness, calm, loyalty. green: abundance, nature, freshness. yellow: happiness, concentration, hope. red: passion, anger, danger, love. white: purity, cleanness, innocence. purple: royalty, luxury, wealth, sophistication. cream: elegance, purity. gray: conservative, formality. But there are some specific interpretations in certain countries or regions: Black is the mark of high quality and trust in China. Blue in Iran has the meaning of immortality. Green means high-tech in Japan, luck in the Middle East, death in South America. Yellow is the color of mourning in Mexico and gives the feeling of strength in Saudi Arabia. Red has multiple meanings, from good luck in China, danger in Europe to mourning on the Ivory Coast and death in Turkey. White means mourning in Japan. Is Color our Friend or Foe? Colors can be a great friend within, but they can also be a very powerful and strange enemy. Strange…? Look at the pictures below, how many colors you see? You will probably believe that there are four. The correct answer is only three. Don’t forget that color is light, light is energy, so color is energy. Related Posts 2019 UI and UX Design Trends It feels like we’re getting somewhere with all the tools, advancements in technology, and growth of our understanding of how user-facing products really have to work. Sooner than later, we’ll develop the mindset for universal design that encompasses everything we produce, and not just sell. The way we do things for ourselves needs better design choices. The way we even sound as nations can be designed in a better way. Still, a far cry from where we could be in the future, let’s get into the interface and experience design trends of 2019. Web Accessibility 101: Designing for All People, Not Most Web design is about accessibility. Most web designers aim to create products for the largest swath of people within their audience, casting their designs out like gaping nets to yield them the greatest influx of users. And while there’s logic to that design principle, it overshadows a somewhat simpler and more inclusive principle: Design for all people, not most. The Five Inconvenient Truths of Web Design Being a web designer isn't easy. Depending on your niche, it requires a combination of finely-tuned technical and visual skills. And it takes a major commitment in order to keep those skills relevant in an ever-changing industry. What's more, the proverbial rug can be pulled out from under us at any moment. Tried-and-true methods can turn to dust and great tools can disappear without a trace. Even industry-related legislation can throw everything into a tizzy. Taken together, it can all be very difficult to deal with - let alone thrive in such an environment. But it's not impossible. Part of the path to maintaining both success and sanity comes from embracing the things we learn from experience: the inconvenient truths. Over my 11+ years as a designer, I'd like to think that I've experienced quite a wild ride. In that spirit, I've put together a list of “truths” that, once understood, can help to make for a smoother journey. The Ups and Downs of Being a Self-Taught Web Designer Not so long ago, web design was a brand-new industry. Because it was so new, there weren’t many opportunities to get a formal education on its fundamentals. Thus, the most direct path to becoming a professional was to teach yourself the necessary skills. That’s how my career started. I studied the source code of different websites and figured out how things worked. I experimented with Photoshop, CSS and eventually other, more challenging languages. Over the years, most of what I know has come from the process of trial and error. Can the Visually Impaired Access Your Site? When designing a website, it’s important to take all potential visitors into consideration. This includes the visually impaired – those afflicted with color blindness, low vision and even total blindness. The first thing to think about when improving the accessibility of your site for the visually impaired is the level of the impairment. Is your site suitable for users with color blindness, low vision, partial blindness and even total blindness? Fortunately, there are several online tools and software available that can help make your site more accessible. The Biggest Designer Debates It seems like every industry has their own set of fiercely debated topics. They pit tool against tool, theory against theory and can be great fun (or infuriating, depending upon your perspective). But since web designers spend an inordinate amount of their lives online, our debates tend to stir a whole lot of both participation and passion. Today, we’re going to look at some of the subjects of debate that have taken on a life of their own. Some are completely organic to the industry, while others have been adapted from society at large. Regardless, they have resulted in some epic arguments.