The Flavour of Colour continued...

Since colour is so deeply rooted in our history, culture and memory, using colour can elicit an internal and/or emotional response from the viewing audience. To understand colour as an integral part of a designer's toolbox, think of how you feel when you hear that a friend has the "blues," or a colleague looks at life through "rose-coloured glasses," or someone was "born to the purple." The emotions activated by colour provide a powerful design tool for creating effective visual pieces.

Certain colours have also become associated with design periods. For example, a period piece in the Rococo style would feature golds and reds. The Art Deco is denoted by stark black, white and turquoise. A designer could use this historical framework of colour to define a scene or set a mood.

Designing with colour also means considering space and relationship with regards to typography, photography, illustration and other graphic elements. The use of values or shadows of the colour blue to suggest an airy and open atmosphere is a case in point. To further clarify colour it is necessary to understand the basic Colour Wheel.

In its simplest form, the Colour Wheel is made up of three primary colours: red, yellow and blue, and three secondary colours which are mixes of the primary colours: green, purple and orange. These colours can be further mixed to produce millions of colour gradations.

Colour can be understood in four ways: Chroma: the intensity of colour; Value: how light or dark the colour appears; Hue: the actual colour (i.e. orange, blue, red, etc.); Temperature: warm or cold (purple, blue and green are cold colours, while red, yellow and orange are warm)

A study of the colour wheel helps us to observe the commonality and contrast involved in colour use. The more colours have in common, the less contrast can be used; however, opposite colours can work together by contrasting warm and cool colours and thereby creating harmonies.

An interesting aspect to colour in the graphic world is market demand. For example, the recent ecological movement uses earth colours to deliver its message. Similarly, ethnic influences and economic concerns influence the choice of colour in design. As you can see, the use of colour in design is a complex issue. In the end, the message and the audience remain the determining factors in a designer's choice of colour.