Color Schemes

During one of our class periods in Think-and-Make we listened to a lecture about color schemes. It was interesting because I had no idea that there were so many different ways designers could put colors together for a certain use. I used to think that color was just simply color and that there were bright colors, light colors, dark colors, etc. After the lecture I realized that there are so many different aspects to the way colors can be arranged and put together to suggest a mood or feeling.

• Hue: the name of a color (orange, blue, etc.)
• Value: the lightness or darkness of a color, Light Colors = tints, colors mixed with white; Dark Colors = shades, colors mixed with black
• Chroma: the purity of a color, weak chroma looks very grey
• Color Balance: ratios of colors that are easiest to look at

Types of Color Unity

• Analogous Color: color palet with colors next to each other on the color wheel
• Limited Pallet: 3 colors or less
• Hue, Value, or Chroma Dominance
• Transitions in Hue, Value, or Chroma
• Soften the Chroma to eliminate big color leaps
• Use of Neutrals: black, white, and treys can unify composition
• Keying the color: adding a "filter," ex: adding a filter to a photo on instagram
• Harmony: elements that are related/ colors within 3 steps on color wheel
• Contrast: visual movement, colors more than 3 steps away on color wheel
• Harmonious Chroma: colors either all greyed out or all pure

Our assignment over the weekend was to take 2 photos each representing a type of color unity. I will put the pictures up soon!