Making colours work...

When it came to selecting the colours for a local florist 'fleurti' there was so much choice. The client specified that she would like to use green but was open to suggestions. We tried lots of different colour combinations including using shades of the same colour to pick out certain sections. Using a yellowy green and a shade of yellow is an example of using 'analogous' colours that sit next to each other on the colour wheel. They do work very well together and in my opinion looks very fresh. Just to give the client some alternate options we tried using a very bold red against a beige background so it stands out more. In the end however we used a combination of analogous colours of green, yellow and orange. These work really well as they are natural and flowery colours so a perfect for a florists. They really compliment each other well but the orange is also a nice contrast and gives some interest to the mainly text logo.

Making colours work...

Choosing the colours for 'Creative Beauty' s website was quite challenging as the clients original  brief didn't outline any colour specifications. She had sent some pictures of the salon with the brief and it had a vintage 'shabby chic' feel so I decided to use browns and mink as these are very relaxing colours and fitted well with the salon image. However, the client then decided that she would like to go with a hot pink and black theme. I wasn't very happy with them colours as they aren't very therapeutic and don't really suggest 'salon' when you see the, but tried them out anyway and added in grey as well to make it a little brighter but this didn't work very well as it looked too basic and not very sleek and stylish. The final design was all black with highlights of hot pink. Despite what I first thought it actually looked really chic and did look like a salons website. Both me and the client were happy with the outcome of the final website.

Colour in Culture

Colours can be very symbolic and hold lots of different meanings in different culture. When using colour it helps to be aware of your audience and how they perceive certain colours. For example in Western countries  red symbolises ‘stop’, ‘no’, or danger and green symbolises ‘go’, ‘yes’, and nature.  Black is the colour of mourning in the Western world whilst the Eastern countries use white. Another example of how different societies view colour would be that in China receiving a red envelope would symbolise good luck and fortune, People in China give red envelopes containing money. However, in many western countries, mainly the UK, a red envelope would be bad news or a bill and is not used as it is viewed as an unlucky colour. Colour can represent feelings, moods, countries and cultures and when selecting colours to use in design it is important to be aware of all of these meanings and connotations.

Colour in brand identity.

‘Bimbo design’ is a perfect example of how designers use colour to distinguish their work. People become familiar with the colours as well as the logo and text and this can be much more recognisable at a glance than having to read text. Because of this is it so important for companies to keep the same colour / colours consistent throughout all of their branding. Bimbo design is hot pink and white and the colours have become a brand in themselves. Another good example of this is the mobile phone network and company ‘Orange’, the companies colours are so recognisable and distinctive that on advertisements they only need to show a block of the orange colour for people to know what company the advert is for. Coca Cola is another good example of a company / brand that heavily rely on their colours to advertise. In the diet coke advert they use a cartoon thats mainly silver, white and red so you instantly know that it is an ad for coca cola.

Colour Theory

Colour theory is a design method of finding out colour harmonies using the colour wheel.  The colour wheel can range from a basic wheel of just primary colours to an in depth wheel consisting of every shade of colour imaginable. It is used by designers to show colours in relation to each other and how they work best and what is most pleasing to the eye. The wheel shows that colours that are directly opposite each other are the most compatible for example, orange and blue. And colours picked off random areas of the wheel may not work together for example, red and pink.  However the colour wheel can also be used to illustrate analogous colours, a selection of colours and shades of that sit next to each other on the wheel but work well together such as yellow, yellow-green, and green. Colour Context can also be placed into colour theory.  This explains how colours work in relation to each other but also in relation to shape and space. For example the same size and coloured square could look bigger or smaller when placed on different coloured backgrounds. When going into different shades and hues of colour, the colour theory becomes much more complex. Sometimes a block of the same colour when placed half and half on 2 different shade backgrounds can make the block look like it is different shades of the same colour.

Colour Theory does however have some limitations.  For example the colours, despite being complimentary, may not be effective together for what the designer needs. For example, green and red are complimentary colours on the colour wheel but using them on a design piece would give connotations of Christmas. For maximum impact red would happily go with yellow but according to the colour wheel these shouldn’t be used.