Colour is an essential element for any graphic designer. Nevertheless, each color has its own specific hue and value, the expression and perception of a color changes in different contexts. It is very powerful for creating an emotion as powerful as music can. Colour helps us instantaneously understand our environment. They are intrinsically important to our everyday life. There are several graphic design institutes who teach color theory as part of their curriculum but only few focuses on the implementation aspect as well.
GDI is one of the best graphic design institute where students will learn how to work with color, discovering how to develop color schemes for your design projects. They will learn everything from fundamental color concepts and terminology to the practical application of color in typography and using color effectively on-screen. To understand color theory in a simpler way, we have answered some of the vital questions which are must for every graphic designer.
Q 1. Why Colours are Important for any design?
Ans. Colors are connected to our feelings, which is useful to any entrepreneur for marketing. You want to discern what message you want to share about your upcoming event, business, or product and make sure your color choices reflect that because people make decisions on the bases of color. It is also important to keep in mind the print medium & size & how perceived by the passing audience.
Color is also helpful in communication via messages because it draws the attention of recipient, sets the tone of the message, and guides the eye where it needs to go. Colors present a sense of direction also. Colors show what we want to say without any words and it make every design attractive. We are visual society where people give importance to the visual presentation of the services or event they are interested in. It not only influences a decision in subtle ways and but also grows recognition for your business brand.
Most Common Color and their Characteristics
RED Colour (Primary Colour)
- It is hot color. It associated with fire anger, love, passion.
- It’s been also associated with Devil and Cupid in the history.
- This color can have physical effect on people.
Example:
- This red colour shows the royalty.
- The bright pinkish red color demonstrates the feeling of passion.
Blue (Primary Colour):
- Blue color is associated with calm, peace, sadness, virgin, strength, reliability, and safety.
- Different shades of blue color are used it a trustworthy, energetic & refreshing.
For Instance:
Yellow (Primary Colour):
- Yellow color is often considered the brightest and most energizing of the warm colors.
- It is also associated with happiness, sunshine, hope, danger.
- Softer yellows are commonly used as a gender-neutral color for babies (rather than blue or pink) and young children.
For Instance:
- Yellow color is used for warning.
- Toyfight uses light yellow color because it shows simplicity & straightforward.
Q 2. What are all the color modes in computer please explain with their respective characteristic & uses?
Ans. A color mode is a system that uses a three primary colors to create larger number of colors. There is different type of color modes with different purposes, and each have a slightly different range of color they can produce.
There are two kinds of color mode which are based upon additive and subtractive i.e.
- RGB (additive)
- CMYK (subtractive)
- LAB Mode
- Bitmap Mode
- Grayscale Mode
- Duotone Colour Mode
1. RGB
- It stands for red, blue, green.
- This color mode uses light to create color, & it is used for digital media.
- RGB is called an additive color model because when the three colors of light are shown in the same intensity at the same time, they produce white. If all the lights are out, they create black.
RGB color mode.
Uses:
- The main purpose of the RGB mode is for the sensing, representation, & display images in an electronic system.
- It also uses for the conventional photography.
For instance:
In above picture, Different colors are used in RGB mode
2. CMYK (subtractive colour mode):
- It stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black.
- It is also known as process mode because it is used in the printing process. To print a color image on paper, you have to use ink. Starting with the bright white paper surface, the colors are printed according to a pattern. The more color is applied, the more the white surface is masked. That is why it is called subtractive.
Uses:
- CMYK mode is used when an image is preparing to be printed.
- It is also use for describing printing process.
For instance:
3. LAB Mode
- Lab describes how color look rather than how much of particular colorant is needed for a device to produce color.
- Lab is considered to be device independent color mode.
- The Lab Color mode has a lightness component (L) that can range from 0 to 100.
For instance:
4. Grayscale Mode
- It uses the different shades of grey in an image.
- Grayscale values can also be measured as percentages of black ink coverage (0% is equal to white, 100% to black).
- Grayscale mode uses the range defined by the working space setting that you specify in the Color Settings dialog box.
For instance:
5. Bitmap Mode
- It uses one of two color value to represent the pixel in an image.
- Bitmap mode are called bitmapped 1bit images because they have a bit depth of 1.
For instance:
6. Duotone Mode
- It develops duotone, tritone & quadtone by using one to four custom inks.
For instance:
Q. Write down all the color schemes with the related images. Don’t forget to add their uses and examples.
Ans. There are six types of color schemes.
- Complementary color scheme
- Analogous color scheme
- Monochromatic color scheme
- Split complementary scheme
- Achromatic color scheme
- Triad color scheme
All of above colour scheme are easily understood by color wheel i.e.
1. COMPLEMENTARY COLOR SCHEME
- In this scheme two opposite colors are used that means putting warm color with cool color. For e.g. Red with blue.
Complementary color scheme
For instance:
2. Analogous Color Scheme
In this scheme adjacent colors are used I.e. one color is used as dominant and another as enrich. For e.g. Red, Red-Orange, Orange.
For instance:
3. Monochromatic Color Scheme
In this scheme tint, tone & shades of single color are used. The use of monochromatic color provide a sense of visual cohesion.
For instance:
4. Split Complementary Color Scheme
In this scheme one primary color and two secondary colours are used. Triangle if formed, then it would form split complementary.
For instance:
5. Achromatic Color Scheme
In this scheme only neutral colors are used and that is black, white, and grey. Achromatic color scheme are obtain when mixing pure color with white, black or grey or by mixing two complementary colors.
For instance:
6. Triadic Color Scheme
Just like an Analogous color scheme, instead of grouping three colors you will be taking three colors that are equally spaced for designing.
For instance:
Effective and beautiful graphic design depends upon the combination of various elements. Colors are one of the most important of these elements, as they are illustrative, symbolic and used for communication designs. Study of colors and its effect on individuals has been influential and very important. Designers and artists must have a great understanding the psychological impact of various colors, and be able to utilize them correctly in artwork, advertising, clothing styles, interior decoration and ofcourse, graphic designing. Gain professional skills in designing with color in graphic design courses offered by GDI.
Always remember, the more you play with color and practice design, the better you get. No one creates their masterpiece the first time around.