Color Theory 101

A good understanding of the basics of color theory is important for any designer be it a designer of  fashion, interiors, architecture, fine art, webpages, textiles, floral arrangements, landscapes, make-up application or anything else for that matter.

In primary school perhaps you were taught that red, blue and yellow are the primary colors and violet, green and orange were the secondary colors. This is true on a 12-color scale of primary, secondary and tertiary colors. This system is very limiting.  In reality primary colors would all be of the same level of brightness.  Yellow is much brighter than red or blue.

In design, the color systems are is as follows:

Subtractive Color System

In the subtractive color system colors are produced by subtracting light and when all colors are mixed the result is black.

Primary Colors: Yellow, Cyan and Magenta 
Secondary Colors: Red, Green and Blue (formed by absence of one of the primary colors)

Additive Color System

In the additive color system colors are produced by adding light and when all colors are mixed the result is white.

Primary Colors:  Red, Green and Blue

Secondary Colors: Yellow, Cyan and Magenta

Mixing of colors is done in the eye.






Notes of Interest:

• In color theory it is understood that there exist colors which are not visible by the human eye.  Just like a dog is only able to perceive colors on the white, grey, black spectrum, humans are only able to perceive colors in the primary, secondary, tertiary color spectrum.
• Pastels are made by mixing grey with any other color.

View an informative video about the color wheel.

My first week of classes.

I just finished my first three days of classes at the University and I feel so refreshed. It has been several months since my brain has felt active and challenged. My favorite class so far is Egonomics I think. It is the study of the human and his workplace surroundings. This can apply to his work tools, for example as in factory workers who perform repetitive movements throughout the day, as well as the safety of his work environment, his comfort level and many other aspects. The design or redesign of particular elements will benefit the worker. Ergonomic principles are used to develop higher productivity in employees. It is much more complicated than that of course but that is the gist of what I got from the first class. Clothing designers need to understand ergonomics not only for the eventuality that they will perhaps have a production line of garments someday, thus a factory full of workers. They also need to understand it so that the clothes they design will be comfortable to the wearer. There is a scientific system of measuring the human body, anthropometrics and the proportions and range of mobility of the human body change with age. The science of ergonomics was developed with the well being of the worker in mind (around WWI, when factory workers making military products developed debilitating conditions due to repetitive movements of their labor). Our first project will be to visit a clothing factory and do a report on the ergonomics of the workplace. I have also taken the Consumer Behavior class where we had to analyze some techniques used in advertising to consumers. The Stamping and Dying class was a color theory class. A little confusing since the primary colors in sustractive and additive colors are not what I learned in Kindergarten. I kind of don´t quite get it yet. I have a lot of reading to do!