OUGD404: Design Principles - Systematic Colour

Systematic Colour (Part one) - Introduction to colour principles

Legibility of type

• Black on White - Legible
• Green on Red - Illegible
• Pale blue on Beige - Completely wrong

• Colours based on information that is interpreted by eyes
• Light -Travels in waves

• Primary Colours - Red, Blue, Yellow; Can't be created using any other colure
• Secondary Colours - Violet, Green, Orange; Created using two of the primary colours
• Tertiary Colours - Intermediate colours

Colour Modes

RGB

• Another set of primary colours - Red, Green and blue
• Screen, TV - Colour projected using light
• Spectral colour - Light

CMYK

• Cyan, Magenta, yellow and black
• Physical colour

Subtractive colour

• Primary Colours - Cyan, Magenta and Yellow
• Secondary Colours - Red, Green, Blue
• Mixed together - Black
• Ink, Film, Print

Additive Colour

• Primary Colours - Red, Green and Blue 
• Secondary Colours - Cyan, Magenta and Yellow
• Mixed Together - White
• Light, CRT Monitors

• Optical Mixing

Complimentary Colours - Opposites on a colour wheel

• Red and Green
• Yellow and Violet
• Blue and Orange

- Complimentary colours cancel each other out

Using the fifteen objects each member of the group collected based on their given colour - Either Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red or Violet - we were asked to arrange the object in a straight line from lightest to darkest to create a colour wheel.

Systematic Colour (Part Two) - Dimensions of Colour

• Chromatic Value = Hue + Tone + Saturation
• Shades, Tones, Tint, Luminance
• Saturation
• Pantone - Each colour has unique and specific code
• Systematic 

TASK: From our pool of Yellow objects we were asked to choose seven; the brightest, the dullest, palest, darkest, most Green, most Orange and one object that was pure Yellow. We then asked to match each of the these objects to one of the Pantone matching system swatches.

• Brightest object : Post-it note - 3945U, 16 PTS Pantone Yellow 347, 1/8 PTS Pro Blue, 30 PTS Pantone trans wt. 65.0 from Formula Guide Solid/Uncoated
• Dullest object : Cloth - 7405 30% from Tints/ Uncoated Vol. Two
• Palest object : Paper - 100U 70 % from Tints/Uncoated Vol. One
• Darkest object : Dish - 100c 80% from Tint/ Coated Vol. One
• Most Green object : Highlighter - 386U 3 3/4 PTS Yellow 11.7, 1/4 Pantone Green, 28 PTS Pantone trans wt. 87.5 from Formula Guide Solid/Uncoated
• Most Orange object : Strawberry Pencils - 130C 80% from Tints/Coated Vol. One 
• Pure Yellow object : Balloon - 803U 80 % from Tints/Uncoated Vol. Two