Excerpts from Design Fundamentals for new Media, James Bennet,2ed Color concepts Excerpts from Design Fundamentals for new Media, James Bennet,2ed

contrast Contrast can be thought of as the difference in values within an image. An illustration that has mostly light and dark areas is said to have high contrast . If an image has a large number of different values in about the same range, the image does not have very much contrast. Like many of the other attributes of value in design, contrast is relative. Text is read by the eye clearly distinguishing the shape of the character called glyphs, against a background. A single bright area in an otherwise dark image will have a high contrast even though the rest of the image might contain values that are very close in range

Don’t over do it Several squares with different arrangements of contrasting colors are shown below.(dark background, light text). Although the background of each square is darker than the text, the color combinations produce completely different results.

Complementary colors The compliment hue of each color is opposite with regard warm, cool Compliment of orange (warm)” is blue(cool)…same for all hues

Hue Hue refers to the major color that makes up the specific color being discussed. For example, the color pink has a red hue

Color temperature Humans perceive certain colors as being warm or cool. Red, orange, yellow = warm Coo:l blues, violets, greens

Tint and shade The term tint is used when more white has been added to a color, and the term shade is used to refer to the addition of black to a color.

Colors are Tone, tint or shade

tone tone is used when black and white are used together to mix with another color. In essence, the original color's value is changed by adding gray.

temperature Cool colors: soothing, peaceful, relaxing quality Warm colors: exciting, active….reds, yellows, orange, they grab viewers attention

Simbolic color Certain colors have symbolic meaning Know your audience: If making a site for Finance site, red…bad choice…why White=purity, virtue in western society In India, white means for mourning, not appropriate for a wedding. In Turkey, violet for mourning, Burma –yellow and portions of Africa-brown

Additive vs subtractive methods How computers work It’s the way we see color Red.green, blue light are mixed(primary colors) Intersections are secondary colors. They are also the same as primary (cmyk) model

Subtractive colors How used for paint, print CMYK colors are removed from white

mIxing RGB colors

example Assume you have been hired to create a children’s brochure. The customer should like a teddy bear on the front. The customer is in Great Britain, What color would you use and why