Colorology

Think back to a time when you noticiced the color combination of a room, a building, or even an outfit that irked you for some reason. The colors individually weren't all too horrid, but together, the combination made your eyes beg for relief.

The fact is certain color combinations are harmonious, while others are utterly discordant. Whether its genetically inherent or culturally acquired, there is some intrinsic component in humans that allows us to prefer or detest color combinations.

Some have attempted to discover that intrinsic component and have experimented with various theories, but most have focused on the actual art of forming color harmonies and theories to be utilized for practical usage. Color theories revolve around the color wheel (the commonly accepted color theory consists of twelve colors: primary, secondary, and tertiary). These are some color schemes of basic color theory:

• Complementary: colors opposite to each other on the wheel = vibrant harmonies
• Analogous: colors adjacent to each other on the wheel = comfortable, natural harmonies
• Triadic: colors that are evenly spaced on the color wheel = vibrant, one color must dominate
• Split-Complementary: similar to Complementary, but instead of the complement color, it uses the two colors adjacent to the complement matched with the base = vibrant, but less vibrant than Complementary
• Rectangle: two Complementary pairs = rich variation
• Square: four colors spaced evenly around color wheel = rich, balance of warm and cool

Color harmonies, produced by these theories, all give pleasure of some sort to their viewers, but more importantly, the nuanced emotion each triggers is entirely different from that of another. Notice how the palettes shown below are generally agreeable combinations of colors, yet it is likely that you will prefer one or more over the others:

    

These preferences exist because each palette induces a distinctive feeling--each conjures up a different image or memory, specialized to that palette. Thus, in order to properly design a space for a user, the design must be specialized to that user, and that anonymous title, "user" must become "Jim", "Paula", or any other individual who will realistically have a different color preference than anyone else. This is a vital consideration that must not be left out of the architectural process.

And that is the conclusion of the color and color harmonies segment. Until next time!

ROY G BIV

For the next few posts, let's discuss the main factors that create the experiences we derive from our environments. The first factor that will be considered in depth is color. Picking fresh fruit at Safeway, choosing between the silver and black shoes for prom, and even ramming down the brake at the sign of red..all emphasize the importance of color in everyday life. So what is the importance of color on design, and how do the colors of design impact us exactly?

This week, I have been busily compiling research on the psychology of..colors. While doing this, it was important to make sure that all the research I chose to add to my personal archives had an experiment attached to confirm its validity. Even if it didn't have one, though, I didn't rush to scrap it because they were useful for building the final consensus. To begin, I will divulge what I found on the basic colors of our rainbow (note: varying lightness and saturation could change the impact of certain colors..hence the several different effects listed under each color, both positive and negative) Different sources claimed slightly-nuanced things, but the general consensus was:

Red
seems to be the most popularly-researched...Possibly because psychologically, we have been trained to be aware of red which signals danger, or physically, red has the longest wavelength, or logically, it is the first color of our rainbow? The realistic answer is that it is probably an amalgamation of these and more. Red is linked to heightened adrenaline, attentiveness, appetite, and stress. Additionally, it is sometimes linked to passion, love, energy, and aggression. In the architectural context, red rooms also seem to hinder performance. This is probably because red triggers arousal and skilled performance level drops with heightened arousal. 

Orange
is commonly linked to warmth, comfort, and fun. However, orange is also linked to many negative connotations and was often reputed as the least favorite color for women (Amen!). Some of the negative associations are tacky, frivolous, inexpensive, irritating, and immature. 

Yellow
often has happy connotations. Positively, it stimulates the brain and makes people feel warmth, cheerfulness, optimism, friendliness, and creativity. Negatively, however, it may induce emotional fragility, irrationality, and fear (more likely in the case of a dull yellow). 

Green
is the color of nature and money. It conveys health, nature, calm, and restoration. On the other hand, it connotes boredom, stagnation, envy, and weakness. 

Blue
is not too often found in nature, besides the sea and a certain kind of berry. This may be why it is an appetite-suppressant. It connotes happy, calm, relaxed, and logical thinking. Negatively, it also connotes sadness, passiveness, and coldness. 

Purple
is a fickle color and has dynamic effects on its users. It conveys luxury, quality, truth and spiritual contentment, but used in the wrong way, it conveys suppression, introversion, or artificiality.

Obviously, appealing color has a subjective component, but understanding the innate psychological response of most people to certain colors provides at least some kind of foundation for understanding color in the designing process. In the studies I used, the researchers were careful to preserve the distinction between color preference that was culturally acquired and color preference that was innately present.

With colors, I can infinitely research every different shade and tint of color, but I believe it is more efficient to explore relationships between color and the method for creating harmonious color combinations. Who knows, some colors that are unpleasant alone (I hate orange) could be very beautiful, paired with a complementary color and design (a grey room with a pop of orange is acceptable). I will thus explore this science of mixing and matching colors in my next post! See you then!