foundations of color

Welcome to your color theory crash course. You may be a business owner, a consumer, or both. You might just simply have an interest in design and what makes us choose one thing over another, aesthetics play a role in lots of our choices especially when it comes to the things we spend our money on. Marketing and design are huge industries for a reason, there are lots of things that impact our choices as consumers, so it could help your business goals to have a deeper understanding of how design concepts influence consumer behavior. There are many design concepts that can alter the course of your customer’s journey, but today we’re going to break down just one, color. Before we can talk about the psychology behind color perception, we have to first learn more about color as a concept and how it works. 

We all learn about color in our visual art classes in grade school, but for those who need a refresher or looking to go beyond the fundamentals, you’re in the right place. 

The human eye has photoreceptors that receive wavelengths of light that are emitted and reflected from objects in our environment. The wavelengths at which light travels creates the appearance of different colors that are subjectively perceived. Our ability to perceive colors is based on our own biological abilities, though color is based on light’s physical properties, our brain simply interprets the wavelengths of light and creates meaning from them. The spectrum of colors is infinite and everyone interprets them differently. 

Color Theory:

• Primary Colors – Red, Yellow, Blue

Primary colors can’t be created by mixing other colors. They are the foundation of all other colors and all colors are derived from at least one primary color. Scientifically, our eye’s photoreceptors are the most sensitive to colors similar to red, yellow, and blue. That’s why these colors are the basis for all other colors in the spectrum.

• Secondary Colors – Orange, Green, Purple

Secondary colors are simply a mix between any two primary colors. 

• Tertiary Colors

Tertiary colors are a mix between a primary color and a secondary color, they are yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green, and yellow-green.

Color Relationships:

Every visual experience needs to have balance and harmony, colors can play a huge role in that element of a design. The relationships between colors are one of the ways that we can create contrast and a unique visual appeal. 

• Analogous Colors

Analogous colors appear often in nature and can be created by joining three colors that sit next to each other on the color wheel. This can add a cohesive and simple aspect to a design if you want to create something minimal.

• Monochromatic Colors

Monochromatic color relationships involve the same color displayed in different shades, with lighter and darker versions of the same colors. This is great if you want to produce a calming and minimal design.

• Triadic Colors

Triadic color schemes can be very striking as they are formed with three colors all equally spaced apart from one another on the color wheel, creating a very high contrast color story.

• Complementary Colors

Complementary color relationships consist of two colors opposite one another on the color wheel, one cool and one warm. These color schemes are also very high contrast and can inspire an engaging story.

• Split-Complementary Colors

A split-complementary color scheme pairs two analogous colors with one complementary color, creating a visually striking relationship that makes a dynamic statement.

Properties of Color:

There are many ways to perceive, describe, and feel color. The following are characteristics that articulate the three different elements that make each color unique.

• Hue

This term is used to describe the actual color on the wheel. It is a pure and unmixed color determined by the way our eyes perceive the wavelengths of light it’s associated with.

• Value

Value represents the lightness or darkness of a color, and where the color is positioned on a greyscale. On the greyscale, white is the highest value while black is the lowest. A tint is what happens when white is added to a hue. Tones are created by adding grey to a hue, while shades are a version of a hue that has black added to it. 

• Saturation 

Sometimes referred to as chroma, saturation indicates the intensity and strength of a color. Naturally, desaturation is the absence of that vibrance, creating a milder, soft color.

Color Systems:

Color theory and color relationships are both ways that we can interpret colors in a way that informs art and science, but what about the way that we organize colors for use digitally? Each color system represents a scheme by which we can categorize colors based on how we plan to use them. There are two main systems, each with subsystems that are based off of the way colors are created. Additive color systems create colors by adding different wavelengths of light together to form new colors, while subtractive colors systems create new colors by removing certain wavelengths to create different colors in their absence. 

Additive Color Systems:

• RYB

Red/Yellow/Blue is the most commonly recognizable color system as this is what the aforementioned concepts of color are based upon. As stated before, this is because these are the colors our photoreceptors are the most sensitive to. This system, however, is not the most suitable for digital purposes, that’s why it is often referred to as the painting system.

• RGB

RGB, Red/Green/Blue, is the most important system for color in digital media. RGB is a light additive color model, so every color starts with black and variations of red, green, and blue light are added to create all other colors in this visual spectrum. This is the system that you’re probably looking at right now to read this blog. When every color in the system is combined, that’s when you will see the color white. In web design, these colors are often described using hex codes, which are a series of 16,777,216 six character numbers and letters that represent every color in the RGB system.

Subtractive Color Systems:

• CMYK

CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black) and is most commonly used for printing. As this is a subtractive system, that means that all colors combined form the color black instead of white, and colors are removed from the black ink to create all of the other colors in the spectrum. This system is used for printing as most of the time images and text are being printed on white colored paper. The colors often appear less vibrant because they aren’t being created from light, they’re being created from ink, or the absence of it. 

• PMS

The pantone matching system was created to standardize printing with color to avoid inconsistencies and make printing colors that exist on additive color systems more efficient and accurate. The system is extremely time consuming as every color is based on a set of 13 base pigments that are combined together to form individual, unique colors rather than a combination of cyan, magenta, yellow, blue and black. The pantone system revolutionized reproduction of colors by providing a unique code for each one, creating a universal language of color that can be utilized by many industries and in many applications regardless of the medium. 

Color is not inherently a unique and moving thing on its own, it’s the subjective relationship we have with colors and the way we feel when we perceive them. It’s the way that we use color with intentionality and purpose that creates beautiful art and impactful designs. There is no special color, it’s us that makes colors special. To learn more about color psychology, stay tuned, that’s for another blog post.