I did some research and found the most useful books and fascinating to be 'Interaction of Colour' by Joesf Albers and 'M to M of M/M (Paris)' compiled by Emily King. Josef Albers colour theory broke down to me how people perceive colour. After studying this I was able to write what I'd like to include in my pamphlet on colour theory;
Josef Albers
“In visual perception a thing is never seen as a thing really is.”
Josef Albers teacher at the Bauhaus believed we viewed the world in a way that becomes mundane, he thought many people missed out on the beauty of the world as we use our eyes so much, we don’t take enough time to observe. His signature series: Homage to the Square Colour (1950) he began from the age of 62, was composed of hundreds of variations of a basic composition featuring three to four squares set inside each other with the smallest gravitating to the bottom. “They are all different palettes, and, therefore, so to speak, of different climates”. Underlying symmetrical and quasi-concentric order of squares is constant in all paintings.
Colour is constantly changing as we always see it in relation to its surroundings, Albers noted how this changes our perception. In his book ‘Interaction of Colour’ Albers demonstrates experiments undertaken used to simulate colour alteration which are natural to us, such as ‘after image’ whereby the colour of an image changes if you’re to stare at one block colour image for a timed period (red circle), then quickly shift your vision to another (white circle which then appears green). This is due to the theory that human retinas (rods and cones) are tuned to receive any of the 3 primary colours. Therefore the red- sensitive part has been exhausted so the sudden shift to white only the combination of blue and yellow occurs. Albers proves after-image is a psycho-physiological phenomenon and not even the trained eye can combat colour deception.
Furthermore he ponders on the relativity of colour, how say an orange square on a light blue background appears lighter than the same colour on a brighter shade of orange. Optical mixtures such as this create the Behold Effect, whereby colour appears different depending on its relation to adjacent colours.
The M/M book especially brought me in thanks to their collaborations with Bjork:
As a fan of her music, I found it fascinating to delve deeper into the mesmerising aesthetics of her visual identity and research into M/M whom she worked with to create such individualistic artwork, my favourite being 'Family Tree' featured above thanks to its grotesque contrasting imagery with the purposeful choice of pastel pink.
Klein Blue
Yves Klein on a summers’ day in 1947 chose with his friends to divide up the world, he chose the mineral realm and lay back staring at the infinity of the heavens, “The blue sky is my first artwork” which led to an alteration of the direction of Western art. Klein had always been committed to colours found to be spiritually uplifting; gold, rose and blue. In 1960 International Klein blue was patented thanks to his chromatic devotion. Klein’s ‘Blue Revolution’ was born, from then on his exhibitions featured Klein blue in block painted format initially, before he moved onto using different methods of painting, using brushes, sponges, busts and living models, in order to record the body’s physical energy. Many art historians debated Klein’s use of IKB; in the wake of WWII it seemed to represent freedom from aggressive abstraction which had been popular at this time, Klein’s work was more like a rebirth of expressionist art. However as they were blank monochomes, it was argued his works were more like a void, this obsession can be translated to fear of nuclear holocaust. Another argument was that as Klein was a Catholic, it could just be for religious purposes as blue was typically representational of eternity and godliness. The colour is an eradication of the horizon of sky he had initially observed, embodying the sky and sea.
Examples of the use of Klein Blue
Anthropometry of the Blue Period (ANT 82), 1960
Pure pigment and synthetic resin on paper laid down on canvas
Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Éponge (SE180) (Sponge [SE180]), 1957
Resin with pigment on sponge
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), San Francisco
Table Bleue, 1961
IKB pigment, glass, Plexiglas and chrome-plated metal
Victoire de Samothrace (S 9)
Dry pigment and synthetic resin on plaster with metal and stone base
Masque, (S 10), 1962
Dry pigment and synthetic resin on polyester
Petite Vénus Bleue, 1956/7
Brass pin, International Klein Bleue pigment, gold-leaf, acrylic
Pantone
Pantone is a corporation from New Jersey owned by X-Rite Inc., a supplier of colour measurement instruments and software. They’re best known for the Pantone Matching System, a proprietary colour space used in a variety of industries and throughout the design world, in manufacturing of coloured paint, printing, fabrics and plastics. Pantone colours are described by their allocated number eg. ‘PMS 130’, PMS colours are frequently used in branding and even government and military legislation. These colours allow designers to colour match specific colours when production stage is underway, regardless of variational factors such as eye sight or equipment.
RGB & CMYK
The CMYK colour model used in colour printing and is used to describe the printing process itself; referring to the inks: cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black). The reason black is referred to as ‘K’ is because the other colours printing plates are aligned or ‘keyed’ with the key of the black key plate. This model masks colours on a lighter background while the RGB model has white as the additive to enable combinations of all light primary colours. However CMYK creates black as a result of a combination of inks, RBG works in a way that black in the absence of light.
Studying the book ‘Colour Works’ by Eddie Opara and John Cantrell gave me a better insight into the use of colour in graphic design;
Use of Colour In Graphic Design
As the very essence of graphic design is to communicate a message and evoke and emotional response to the viewer, choice of colour is therefore integral as colour can set a mood and be associated with specific cultural and psychological references. Colour however is also subjective in the way often people’s personal preferences is also a great factor which is impossible to predict unless you know the audience personally and so on. Reading into the use of colour in graphic design I found ‘Colour Works’ by Eddie Opara and John Cantwell, they explained:
“Colour should never be the goal, something to be placed into the foreground of an idea. It should be used later to highlight and mark form and content”
“Colour sets the psychological tone of what someone is trying to create, where colour follows form”
I furthermore looked into the use of colour within brands, companies and their logos. “Company colours,” designers wrote that colour choices, “are more important to a company’s recognition and identity than any other element”. Colour charts however vary between cultures such as Japanese and American colour charts, indicating cultural differences when it comes to this visual language. This is also relevant in terms of colours relating to a countries flag for example Lufthansa’s airline logo, where yellow is also associated with positivity.
We therefore must be considerate of these cultural differences and consider context not only for this but also gender, age race and so forth.
Researching basic theory, ‘hue’ denotes the colour of something and enables you to convey the message. ‘Chroma’ refers to the purity of an image, in can be thought of not as saturation but the brightness of a colour in comparison to white, while saturation refers to hue in terms of colour conditions. The colour red is typically seen as one associated with power, passion and possibly violence, so depending on the context you can manipulate which it may refer to. Another primary colour yellow is associated with highlighting, brightening and generally has the appearance of something happy, positive and energetic. Green however gives the appeal of something natural, earthy and vibrant; typically used to indicate a product is organic on the other hand it can reflect envy or jealousy; Darker blues often indicate reliability while lighter variants are refreshing and futuristic.
The use of black and white however initiates a sense of clarity, modernity and sophistication, which is why generally government official documentation for example uses little to no colour. The more colour, frequently the less formal the piece is.
Variations within the use of colour also depends on the use of warm or cold colours. Warm includes red, orange and yellow. They include all variations of these three colours which are typically energising, passionate and positive. Meanwhile cold colours including blue green and purple and are more subdued than warm colours; they are colours of relaxation, nature and calming and indicate a more professional tone. Using these guidelines a designer is able to manipulate the tone and emotional outcome of the message to some degree, however it’s the viewer who may associate colours differently due to their own personal background, age and personal preferences.
