Visual Language: Colour Theory.

• tint: introducing more white, brighter.
• shade: darker, introducing more black.
• if you lower the satuation, the chromatic value (bright hue) is being dulled/made paler.

Colour Part III: Colour and Contrast.

• Colours are made up from wavelengths, variant in dimensions.
• Additive and Subtractive define luminence.
• Additive: RGB mixes to white (in secondary colours).
• Subtractive: CMYK mixes to black (in secondary colours).

Seven Contrasts

• Contrast of Tone.
• Contrast of Hue.
• Contrast of Saturation.
• Contrast of Extension.
• Contrast of Temperature.
• Complementary Contrast.
• Simultaneous Contrast.

We only percieve colour by differenciating comparisons.

Contrast of Tone:

Formed by the juxtaposition of light and dark values.

You can't percieve a tonal contrast.

By changing colour or tones, we can make things more or less easy to read- an aesthetic hierarchy- (e.g. used in comic books) along with weight of line to attract attention in a visual order.

Contrast of Hue:

Formed by the juxtaposing of different hues. The greater the distance between hues on a colour wheel, the greater the contrast.

Contrast of Saturation:

Formed by the juxtaposing of light and dark values and their relative saturations- deferinciating colour by it's saturation- defining the "bluest blue" etc.

Contrast of Extension:

Formed by assiging proportional field sizes in relation.

How much of something we can see by how we read it- spacial.

How we divide space and colour in composition defines how much/less of the colour we can see from points of contrast.

Complimentary colours exaggerate one another.

Contrast of Temperature:

Formed by juxtaposing hues that can be "warm" or "cold".

When flat colours are placed side-by-side, they give an illusion of a gradient transition between the tints and shades.

Complementary Contrast:

Juxtaposing complementary colours from a colour wheel or perceptual opposities (as far away as they can be on the colour wheel).

Different colours respond differently with complementary values.

Simultaneous Contrast:

Formed when boundaries between colours perceptually vibrate.

When colours are upon a neutral background, they perceptually try to "push out" their complimentary colours in the vibrating lines.

Task: Start visually investigating colour contrasts (complimentaries)- put colours together, see how they are affected. What happens visually? Look at how colour effects colour- both through primary and secondary sources.

Above, just a few examples of colour contrast, as my colour theory group mixed with the contrasting colour group: green. It was really interesting to see the visual reaction created by all the different tones and saturations of our colours- some tones and shades working more in harmony with one another, and some less.

I am really looking forward to exploring colour theory and learning more about the subject, as I know it will undoubtedly benefit my practice, and make me even more inquisitive about design around me.