Systematic Colour
Chromatic Value= Hue + Tone + Saturation
Contrast of:
Contrast of Tone
Formed by the juxtaposition of light and dark values. This can be monochromatic also.
Contrast of tone can be shown by the simplistic example of monochromatic values, the highest contrast is between black and white. However there are also a variety of all other contrasts depending on their position on the colour wheel.
Both white and black contrast the grey background effectively making the "word" easily read and incredibly legible. This is because they are the same distance from the mid grey on the colour wheel in terms of their values.
This example is slightly harder to read because the grey tone of the "word" is too similar to that of its background tone. Therefore the higher the contrast the easier it is for words to be legible and readable within monochromatic values.
This can also be applied to colours, yellow, blue and red are primary colours and therefore have the greatest contrast, the secondary and tertiary colours follow on from this.
This "word" is a light orange tone which is lighter than the background (red), therefore this is a contrast of tone because the word is lighter, it is also quite readable.
Even though these colours contrast (red and blue as primary colours) they also make the word difficult to read.
Contrast of Hue:
Formed by the juxtaposing of different hues. The greater the distance between hues on a colour wheel, the greater the contrast.
This can be applied to the primary colours, these colours are placed onto a white background, the yellow recedes into the background because yellow and white are quite similar in terms of its hue. (see colour wheel and monochromatic wheel- they are at the same value) This means that red and blue stands out because they have a greater contrast.
This example then works in the opposite way as yellow stands out slightly more than red and blue, this is due to the fact yellow is a different hue to black (value on the colour wheel- similar to that of white and black).
The colour examples above can also be applied to type, and much in the same way the colours on white worked, the yellow blends/ recedes into the background because yellow and white are so similar in terms of their hue.
This example onto black shows the example of the colour swatches exactly the same, yellow stands out more due to the high contrast in hue, and blue/red recede because they are so similar to black.
Within this example, the light red text recedes into the background because it is of a similar hue to the background (darker red) therefore the contrast isn't as visible. The blue is somewhat visible however the yellow seems to stand out the most due to its high contrast in hue.
The blue background is extremely similar to the hue of the blue text therefore the contrast isn't as strong as red, and finally yellow. They are quite far apart in terms of their hue on the colour wheel and therefore yellow stands out the most.
Contrast of Saturation:
Formed by the juxtaposition of light and dark values and their relative saturations. It refers to how pure the colour is and not how light or dark the colour is (how pure is said colour?).
Example:
Low saturation means that the colour seems to be a duller/darker blue initially. The brighter the colours which appear to become "more blue" make the background appear desaturated (duller/darker). As brighter shades of blue are added each time, the colours before it seem to be less blue and more denatured. Finally the last image shows shades of blue which are much lighter and make the centre look "more blue" our eye compares and contrasts the colours which are available to detect which is the most pure.
Contrast of Exstension:
Formed by assigning proportional field sizes in relation to the visual weight of a colour. Also known as the contrast of proportion.
Example:
This example shows how colour can be proportioned to be viewed effectively, purple and yellow are complimentary colours therefore meaning they are the opposites on the colour wheel and oppose themselves in every possible way. Small amounts of yellow on purple works as well as small amounts of purple on yellow, this is because the eye is directed to the smaller amount of colour therefore the colours aren't competing for attention. This is shown within the examples where lots of lines are used- they are difficult to look at and view because of the amount of colour that is used, they both demand attention as strong colours. Therefore smaller amounts of each allows for proportionality and a contrast in exstension.
Contrast of Temperature:
formed by juxtaposing hues that can be considered ‘warm’ or ‘cool’. Also known as the contrast of warm and cool. (blue hues are considered cooler than orange/red hues)
These colours show how warm and cool colours can contrast flowing from blue to red. It also shows how hues can be warmer or cooler. But these hues next to each also show a contrast of how warm or cool a colour is.
Complementary Contrast:
Formed by juxtaposing complementary colours from a colour wheel or perceptual opposites.
Examples: yellow + purple, green + red, orange + blue.
Black and white has the highest contrast in term of hue.
However in terms of complementary colours red and green are total opposites, therefore they compete against each other, having many lines of these colours makes it highly difficult to view as our eyes tend to see a purple tint.
This is also the reason why green text onto a red background is incredibly difficult to read and why complementary colours are not often used within Graphic Design.
Simultaneous Contrast:
Formed when boundaries between colours perceptually vibrate.
Hard to distinguish which colour is which. This means that the colours seem to "vibrate" merging into each other. The colours battle with each other based on their contrasts and therefore battle for attention.
Within this example, the text is easier to read through looking at the negative space in the counters (looking from far away) however the type is still incredibly difficult to read in terms of legibility and readability because of the amount of yellow and purple.
This example is much easier to read but using the same amount of colour- this is because it is in proportion. Smaller amounts of yellow stand out from the purple because they do contrast.
Through adding background colours this makes the text appear different: Green makes grey look blue and purple makes grey look slightly yellow. This is because neutrals impose colours onto them through the colours around it (often the opposites of that colour).
In this example the grey neutral tones seem to change to the opposites (blue and orange).
A few notes which I have learnt through looking at colour theory:
Coloured background affect how the contrasts are viewed.
White stock/ backgrounds does not allow for colour to be completely controlled (examples of yellow and white).
Colour must be considered in every form of design otherwise there will be no control.
Session:
From looking at all the different types of colours we found that by comparing these colours to a pure form the pieces of card appeared to be quite dull and desaturated (not pure).
I took one object and started to look how it compared with some of the different backgrounds:
The blue pen when places onto the card makes the background seem more desaturated and the pen seem much more pure, therefore displaying an example of contrast in saturation.
The yellow card and pen shows a slight contrast of hue because the pen is a darker hue than the yellow therefore making the background appear more pale than before.
Green shows a slight contrast in saturation because it is not the same colour and there is a slight difference it makes the blue pen appear to be more pure as a form of blue.
Through being given linen testers I found and understood the difference between solid and processed colours.
Solid colours are one area of solid colour.
Whilst processed colours are any mix and combination of CMYK- these appear in dots when looked closely at.
Task:
Pantone match 4 different objects and a selection of backgrounds.
Show and explain how the different forms of contrasts work.
Finally, recreate these in photoshop.
Pantone swatches:
Background papers: used pantone swatches- solid formula guide solid uncoated
Blue: 7458U
Green: 367U
Yellow: 603U
Orange: 7413U
Red: 193U
Objects: Used a mixture of coated and uncoated guides.
Red Cap: 186C (coated- shiny surface to cap)
Yellow Sandpaper: 602U
Green Highlighter: 7481C (coated, slight shine in pen)
Blue pen lid: 662C (coated because of slight shine in plastic)
Examples:
The yellow sandpaper placed onto the blue card shows a contrast of hue. Blue and yellow are quite far apart in terms of their hue on the colour wheel and therefore yellow stands out.
Photoshop:
Green and yellow are of a quite similar value and placed quite close together on the colour wheel however I think that they show a contrast of tone because the yellow is much lighter than the green card. To show this further I have removed the colour to show how the tone differs:
Photoshop:
The yellow sandpaper and background are so incredibly similar in their colour value that they somewhat seem to blend into one another. Therefore I think this example shows a slight difference in tone because the paper is slightly lighter than its background. Changed to black and white to check:
The sandpaper is on the sample (left) and the background sample (right) which shows only a slight difference in their colour value which I also found when using pantone swatches.
Photoshop:
The orange background and yellow sandpaper show a contrast in tone as they are quite close together on the colour wheel, they show a larger difference in contrast than the yellow's because of the greater distance in their values. They are also connected because orange is a secondary colour of yellow and red.
Photoshop:
The red and yellow contrast each other incredibly much and are an example of contrast in hue, this is because the red is much darker and the yellow is much lighter. The red is a much darker hue which allows for the yellow to contrast it.
Photoshop:
Example two:
The red and blue show a clear contrast in temperature as blue is considered an incredibly cool colour and the red stands out and contrasts by being quite a bright red and is considered a warm colour, therefore the small object of red stands out.
Photoshop:
The green and red show a complementary contrast because they are opposite each other on the colour wheel in terms of their values. Because each of them do battle for attention, the red seems to appear much duller when placed onto the green even though the object stands out from its background.
Photoshop:
Within this example the red and yellow tones show a contrast of hue because there is a distance in their value on the colour wheel. The yellow also seems to become desaturated and makes the red stand out and appear more of a pure form of its colour which could show a contrast of saturation.
Photoshop:
This example shows a contrast in tone because orange and red are quite close in their values on the colour wheel, the red doesn't stand out or contrast as much as the other examples because their values are so similar and seem to blend more.
Black and white edit to show tonal change:
Photoshop:
The red card and red object show clearly a contrast of saturation, the object seems be a more "pure" red therefore making the red card appear to be slightly pink. The object also seems to recede into the background because it is so similar in terms of its hue, there is only a small difference in its hue.
Photoshop:
Example three:
The blue and green shows a contrast in tone because the green is darker than the blue background and that therefore makes it seem to stand out. This also could be due to the difference in finish of the objects, the background is uncoated and the pen is coated and therefore does reflect light which draws attention to it. Green is a similar hue to blue as it partly created by blue (blue + yellow= green (secondary colour) This therefore means that they will not stand out from each other much because they are so similar and the contrast isn't strong enough.
Photoshop:
The two green objects show a contrast in saturation which especially shows within the photoshop example. The background is much lighter than the object and that therefore means that the pen appears to be more of a "pure" green, making the background also appear highly desaturated. It could be argued that the pen does slightly recede into the background, however it seems to create a larger contrast than it does when placed onto blue.
Photoshop:
The yellow and green show a contrast in tone, as the green is much darker than the yellow (also secondary) they are similar yet have a contrast to allow for green to stand out. This example shows how the green stands out the most in terms of contrast with the yellow and green backgrounds. The contrast of tone can also be shown by removing the colour:
Photoshop:
This example shows a larger contrast between hues as they are further apart on the colour wheel (orange is near red). This therefore means that the green will stand out because it hue is rather different, but this also links to the fact that the tone is very different too, the orange is much darker than the green.
Photoshop:
The red and green show complementary contrast as they opposite on the colour wheel, because they are the complete opposite it would be considered that the green stands out the most. However because they compete for attention it doesn't seem to stand out well. Through the smaller use of green it does also show a contrast of proportion, this happens when smaller amounts of colour are used (when in terms of complementary colours).
Photoshop:
Example four:
This example shows a clear contrast in saturation as the pen lid appears more as a "pure" blue and the background seems to appear desaturated. It can also show a contrast of tone because the pen is much darker than the background, therefore forming a higher contrast, this can be seen more clearly by looking at the image in black and white:
Photoshop:
The green and blue show a contrast in hue, even though this difference is only small due to green being a secondary to blue, however there is still a contrast therefore making the blue stand out. This could also be because of the contrast in tone because the blue is much darker.
Photoshop:
The yellow and blue shows a contrast in tone because the yellow is incredibly pale (much like white/ light grey) and the blue pen lid is incredibly dark therefore showing a high contrast in tone. Yellow and blue also contrast because they are different primary colours and are different in their hue with a distance on the colour wheel.
Photoshop:
Orange and blue are complementary colours and also show contrast through this, the amount of blue is also proportionally smaller and therefore it stands out from the orange. The blue is also a much cooler colour than orange and shows a contrast in temperature as well as tone because the blue is much darker than the orange. Due to the contrast in temperature and the fact they are complementary colours this therefore means that they are far apart on the colour wheel, which shows a strong contrast in hue because they are completely opposite.
Photoshop:
The red and blue also show a contrast in temperature because the red is much warmer and the blue an extremely cool colour. They are also primary colours and this means that they have a high contrast in hue because they are distant on the colour wheel however they are similar in their tone because they are both dark however there is a contrast because the blue is slightly darker.
Photoshop:
No comments:
Post a Comment