Color is one of the most powerful and obvious elements we have at our disposal to produce good design. Here is a base to understand colour definitions:
Hue, the descriptive name of the color. eg. Red, Green, Orange, Pink are all Hues.
Primary Color, Red, Yellow and Blue, the only three pigments that cant be mixed from other pigments. These are the basis of all other colors.
Secondary Color, Orange, Green and Violet, Three colors falling half way between each or the primaries and containing a mixture of only two primaries.
Tertiary Color - a color between each primary and its adjacent secondary eg. Red/Orange between Red and Orange.
Saturated Color - a color containing no more than two primaries and no black or white.
Compound Color, a color containing a mixture of the three primaries eg. brown, khaki, yellow ochre, Burnt Sienna.
Complementary Color, opposite colors on the color wheel. eg. Red/Green, Yellow/Violet
Harmonious Color, adjacent colors on the color wheel eg. Yellow/ Green, Green and Blue/Green.
Analogous Colors, Colors beside each other on the color wheel.
Value or Tone, The lightness or darkness of a color eg. Yellow is a high value (or light tone) color. Violet is a low value (or dark tone) color.
Shade, any color with black added.
Tint - any color with white added.
Warm Colors - Red, orange and yellow. These are the colors of fire.
Cool Colors, Green, blue, and violet. These are the colors of water.
This is a lot of definitions to take in, but what can we do with this? There are many ways in which designers can use colours to their advantage in projects.
- Analogous Colours can be used for harmonies
- Complementary Colours are used for contrasting, to allow one color to dominate another or stand out
- Colour triads are formed by pairingtwo complementaries, then replacing one of these with the two colors either side of it. The warm/cool colours can dominate and the other one can create a pop
- The colour ripple effect of placing together complimentary colors of the same tonal value, is a technique used to animate an area of a painting or design. For the effect to work the tones must be identical.
- By mixing warm and cool colors you can create depth in your design.