Unit 14 Use of Colour

Explore the use of Colour in a creative environment

Colour theory takes on a variety of definitions, concepts and design applications. Although, there are three basic areas of colour theory that are logical as well as being useful these are the colour wheel, colour harmony, and the context of how we use colours.

The colour wheel is based on the primary colours red, yellow & blue and was first developed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666 the colour wheel can also have as many colour gradients as you want on it. 

colours affect us in countless ways, mentally, physically, consciously and subconsciously. Good colour choices are important in design and a bad colour combination can have a negative effect.

The colour circle can be divided into warm and cool colours. it is a general rule in design to not use an excessive combination of warm and cool as it can confuse the audience. it can make design too busy and over powering.

warm colours reflect passion, happiness, enthusiasm and energy, cool colours reflect a sense of calm or professionalism.

complementary colours are the colours which are directly opposite each other on the colour wheel. these colours are mainly used on the web as designers can use the contrast to their advantage. they can choose a dominant colour and use them as background and a highlight colour.

Analogue colours are those which are on either side of any colour, these are more often used for nature and are harmonious colours. these colours match well and can be used to create comfortable and pleasing designs.

overall colour is a powerful design element and can be used effectively. cooridnating colour between elements is a good way to create unity.

some good links to colour schemes are colourschemedesigner.com and kuler.adobe.com

Understanding the meaning of colour as well as the cultural use of different colours and how colours interact with one an other is important in the print and media design industries. They must be able to convey the right tone, message, and also to evoke the expected response to the designers task at that time with in the media they are working. Colours are non-verbal communication; they are used to create a physical and emotional reaction with the target audience.

Many cultures have different meanings for colours so whilst designing you need to look at the target audience and the target culture to make sure you don’t use colours that will offend. EG the colour red:

•    China: Good luck, celebration, summoning

•    Cherokees: Success, triumph

•    India: Purity

•    South Africa: Colour of mourning

•    Russia: Bolsheviks and Communism

•    Eastern: Worn by brides

•    Western: Excitement, danger, love, passion, stop, Christmas (with green)

there is a wide variety of difference between the meaning of the colour red so if you were making a poster for a company in south Africa you would try and keep away from using the colour red unless it was the company logo.

The way that designers distinguish there work with colours is that they will use the certain combinations to produce a feeling and theme for the work they are doing like if it is a winter piece they would either use cool colours to show the season or warm colours to make people feel happy and be drawn towards something. Also they will use different colours and styles of colours like in pop art they use primary and secondary colours as they are the bolder colours compared to pastel colours used by more traditional artist or designers.

Many logos are developed using colour. colour is the most important thing for some logos as it conveys the meaning and feelings needed to relate to the logo and the target audience.

multicoloured logos represent larger scale companies, blue logos connote social media which is engaging and connotes communication. blue also gives an impression of importance and seriousness. blues can also show dominance and be bold eg. fox news. 

red logos draw attention and are used to accent and focus attention e.g CNN they are also bold and eye catching. red can also be used to connote information.

orange is a playful, active, childlike colour and so is often used on logos such as nickelodeon. it is a communicative colour and can be portrayed as inspiring. 

yellow logos show information and warning for example IMDB and Yell.com use yellows and is memorable.

greys and silvers connote a  sleek, refined and classic look. it is a perfect neutral colour. it is also used on big well known companies to show superiority such as apple.

Ma

Artists who are known for their use of bold colours are peter grundy and noma bar. both artists use bold blocked colours with no outlines to make the purpose stand out more. noma uses  a limited pallet he subtlety and precisely manipulates shape and form where familiar symbols and pictograms evolve to form new meaning. Colour is very important in conveying these meanings. 
peter grundys use of colour is vital to his designs as they are bright and bold and show each meaning. the audience would not be able to tell what the meaning is without the use of colour and the well known connotations.

Designers also have to be aware of the colour blind when designing. Color blindness may be described as total or partial. Total color blindness is much less common than partial color blindness.There are two major types of color blindness: those who have difficulty distinguishing between red and green, and who have difficulty distinguishing between blue and yellow.

• Total color blindness
• Partial color blindness

• Red–green

• Dichromacy (protanopia and deuteranopia)
• Anomalous trichromacy (protanomaly and deuteranomaly)

• Blue–yellow
• Dichromacy (tritanopia)
• Anomalous trichromacy (tritanomaly

normal Rainbow seen by a person with full colour sight

seen by a person with deuteranopia

seen by a person with protanopia

        
                         

seen by a person with tritanopia   

Designers will have to be careful of using such colours schemes which could look too busy or aggressive to a colour blind person. 

Designers also have to be aware of print colours and how they look different on different screen resolutions to how they print out.
Some printers have software which chooses the hues it thinks is best and therefore the design does not stay true to what is on the screen. 

Prints change colour and density as they dry so sometimes a wait time is needed before assessing work.                                         
LCD and flat screen generic models can have poor resolution so colours can look different or dull.
some software has settings which can control the colours. especially Photoshop and using the colour management settings. 
Screens emit light and paper reflects light, These very different processes can never produce identical results.

My Colour tests

these are the swatch palettes from adobe illustrator they show the colours needed for different projects. these all have to be taken into consideration when designing. 

overall i think that colours from the same spectrum work well better than those from opposite sides. using brighter and bolder colours from opposite sides of the wheel could make designing harder with all the considerations of the audience.colour is one of the most important elements of design and it should be used as a tool well. 

Unit 11 Design Industry

Design Industry

The Design Industry is very important and greatly affects the visual world. It communicates, helps digest information and influences everyday decisions.

The design industry does a variety of things and is a vibrant, varied and dynamic creative sector. There are many different areas within the design industry, and covers everything including Brand Design, interior design,packaging design, product design, furniture design, Fashion and textiles and Copywriting to Graphic Design. These many areas enable a range of related job roles such as management, account handling, teaching, researching and public relations.

The Brand design sector brings together all processes and information from an organisation. This could be house style of colour, logos, fonts or even images. This creates a distinct identity and gives a personality to an organisation.this enables it to communicate with its target audience to promote a product, person or service.

The Design Industry is mostly in the south east of England and is in high demand in London.

The way that it links into other businesses is that with out design or design departments companies wouldn’t be able to reach their customers or future clients. Also all the areas of design link in together as a lot of them are needed to prepare new technology so that designers can work on their products and designs. Designers now need to be multi skilled and able to work across many different disciplines. The customer now requires a package rather than going to many different places for each part of design. 

As technology develops the design industry thrives. All different systems can evolve together and converge to deliver text, audio and video. This helps designers in many different areas to communicate ideas and advertise through social networking sites. It also means designers have to cater their designs for the new platforms. It also enables designers a wide range of research and design materials.

Globalisation impacts the design industry by creating a larger niche which will be more flexible and accessible to many different sectors of design and cultures. This means more and more designs are produced on mass and will decrease in quality. This will isolate independent design companies and decrease their work load but also create a new niche as people always want something different and unique. A Disadvantage of globalisation is that many designs will not stay loyal to the cultures and places they came from. For example the Swedish design at ikea is no longer Swedish design its just design. As ikea is made available everywhere it looses its cultural identity. 

Job Roles-

The Design Industry has many different job roles but all of which are hard to get into. At the moment a lot of young people are studying design and finding no way into the job they envisaged.

Graphic designers are from all walks of life and there is fierce competition for roles in the industry.

Roles may vary from company to company some require higher skills than others.

Creative designers are highly creative jobs where the focus is more on be able to generate highly developed concepts than the attention to detail. These jobs are mostly within agencies.

Artworker jobs are mainly within a studio and concentrate on detail, layouts and being able to turn ideas into a creative format. Speed and accuracy are essential for artworker jobs.

Creative artworkers are common in medium agencies and focus on individuals creating designs using a blend of different skills. Speed and an eye for detail can open up a career pathway and become head of design. 

Illustrators provide designs for a range of design sectors such as games designs, medical illustrations, and general illustration. most illustrators are freelance or work for major agencies.

Photo retouching jobs require a high skill level and are mainly within agencies or re pro graphics companies.specialist companies such as catalogue production carry out a high volume of re touching. 

web designers and developers tend to be freelance and creative individuals with skills such as database design and programming language. 

Getting into the design industry can be a hard prospect for younger generation who have just come out of education. most employers now focus on workplace experience rather than qualifications. this leaves only a few entry opportunities such as internships, apprentices, volunteering  and taking on junior roles.
an internship is a form of training given on the job. they can be paid or unpaid work depending on the company and level of position. Businesses are taking on more unpaid interns as a way to ensure free labour for desperate graduates. The law however states that any intern who meets the criteria for being a worker should be entitled to national minimum wage.
An internship may not give the benefits of paid work but will increase desirability on completion as more experience is gained.