Understanding Color: An Introduction for Designers - Softcover

Holtzschue, Linda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0442016832 ISBN 13: 9780442016838

Publisher: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1994

Synopsis

You ll never look at the world or your work the same way again. Understanding Color An Introduction for Designers Linda Holtzschue If you want to achieve eye–catching color combinations to make products come alive, says Linda Holtzschue, you can t rely solely on elaborate color systems or put all your faith in emotional, intuitive approaches to color. In Understanding Color, this longtime instructor and practicing interior designer shows how you can mix the best ideas of both schools of thought and use color more freely, comfortably, and creatively than ever before. This exciting, user–friendly guide presents basic color concepts in a straightforward, easy–to–follow way. It enables you to see color in a whole new light, gain a working grasp of the basic color vocabulary as well as color theory, and master the art of achieving color effects, control, and harmony with the help of many vivid examples and practical exercises drawn from a wide range of design professions. Whatever your design job, whatever your level of experience, you ll want to learn what Understanding Color has to say about:

• how light sources affect color rendition and how to manipulate light to achieve the best color effects
• how to go beyond a mere technical familiarity with the computer and use it to maximize the impact of color in your work
• how to avoid predictable and potentially costly color mistakes that even veteran designers are prone to make
• how to resolve the typical color–related problems confronted by design professionals

Abundantly illustrated, including 24 full–color plates, Understanding Color gives you the practical tools to develop an almost limitless range of effective color combinations so that you can make even dull products more marketable and better products uniquely compelling.

About this title

About the Author

About the Author Linda Holtzschue lives and works in New York City, where she maintains a private interior design practice and teaches at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Previously she taught at Parsons School of Design, where she also served as an Assistant Dean. Ms. Holtzschue’s interior design practice has included a private pediatric dental clinic, a medical library for King’s County Hospital, offices at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital and space planning for the South Street Seaport Museum. Her renovation of a Frank Lloyd Wright residence for private clients was featured in the New York Times Magazine.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Color is stimulating, calming, expressive, disturbing, impressional, cultural, exuberant, symbolic. It pervades every aspect of our lives, embellishes the ordinary, and gives beauty and drama to everyday objects. If black-and-white images bring us the news of the day, color writes the poetry.

The Experience of Color
Color is, first, a sensory event. The beginning of a color experience is a biological response to the stimulus of light. The colors of the real world - of printed pages, objects, and the environment - are seen as reflected light. Images on a monitor screen are colors seen as direct light.

Colors, whether they are colors of light or colors of objects, are mysteriously unstable - they seem constantly to change. Much of the work of the design industries is done in images of direct light, on a monitor, for products that will ultimately he produced as objects or printed pages. Which is the "true" color - the one seen on the screen, or the one that is experienced as the object? Are they the same color? Can they be the same color? Is there such a thing as a "true" color at all?

Light is the cause of color, colorants are the means used to create color, and the color that we see is the effect. The effect of a color changes whenever there is a change in colorant or in light. In addition, colors change according to their placement. Forms, colors, and their arrangement are foundation elements of design. The way in which colored forms are arranged-their placement in relation to each other-also modifies how colors are seen (and the reverse is equally true; colors modify the way we understand forms and their arrangement). This means that every change in light, colorant, form, or arrangement has the potential to change the way a color is perceived. Colors are inherently dynamic, changing in every new situation and with every new use.

Designers use color. They are concerned with effects, not with causes. Understanding the basics - what we see, and how and why we see it - is only part of the story of color. Understanding how colors "work" is background knowledge that supports the art of color. Designers who work with color every day do so in a comfort zone; a healthy mix of fact, common sense, and intuition. We understand color in much the same way that we understand the shape of the earth. The earth is round, but we experience it as flat, and act on it according to that (practical) perception of flatness. Color is light alone, but we experience it so directly and powerfully that we believe our eyes. Color problems in the design industries are solved with the human eye. No matter what technical aids are used, final color decisions are made by human eyes alone. Designers work with color from the evidence of their eyes.
Color Awareness

Color is sensed by the eye, but the perception of color takes place in the mind, and not always at a conscious level. Color is experienced at different levels of awareness depending on how and where we see it. Color is understood in context: as form, as light, as surroundings. Color permeates the environment, appears as an attribute of objects, and communicates without words.

Environmental color is all-encompassing. The natural world immerses us in colors, whether they are the cold whites of Antarctica or the lush greens of tropical forests. Manmade environments also surround us with colors. The accidental color compositions of urban streets are as much an immersion in color as the controlled-color environments of architecture, landscape design, interior design, or theater design.

Environmental colors have a powerful impact on the human body and mind, but few people are consciously aware of colors around them. Environmental color is noticed only when it is a focus of attention, like a beautiful sunset or a newly designed room. Most of the time surrounding colors are experienced with an astonishing lack of awareness. Someone who states flatly that he "hates green" will nevertheless take enormous pleasure in a garden, describing it as a "blue" or "yellow" garden, when in fact the surroundings are overwhelmingly green, with blue or yellow present in a very small proportion to the whole.

Graphic colors are the colors of images in any medium: painted, drawn, printed, or on-screen. Graphic art is a powerful form of nonverbal communication. Graphic art informs: it tells a religious story, sends a sales pitch or political message, communicates an emotion, even illustrates an idea about "pure design." The colors of a graphic image are an integral part of the message. Because they are part of a larger idea, the colors of graphic art are experienced on many levels - conscious and unconscious, sensory and intellectual - at the same time.

The colors of objects are perceived very directly. The separateness of an object allows the viewer to focus both eye and mind on a single entity and a single color idea. We are the most consciously aware of color when it is a quality of a defined object: a red dress, a blue car, a yellow diamond.

The Uses of Color

Color is recognized universally as a natural component of beauty. The word for red in Old Russian is synonymous with the word for beautiful (Red Square is beautiful Square). Colors are used to create beauty; more than that, they are useful. Designers use color not only to communicate, but also to manipulate perception, to create focus, to motivate actions and alter behaviour, and to create continuity. Among its many uses:

Color can be used as pure function, to reflect or absorb light.

Color is a visual language. Colors can alert or warn; they can be used to convey mood or to express emotion. Intense colors and strong contrasts communicate action and drama. Gently colors and soft contrasts convey serenity.

Color identifies. It provides instant discrimination between

Edition details

• Publisher: Van Nostrand Reinhold
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0442016832
• ISBN 13: 9780442016838
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English