TABLE OF CONTENTS YOU + COLOR THEORY + COLOR DESIGNERS + COLOR FILM + COLOR BALANCE + COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY + COLOR RHYTHM + COLOR RETAIL + COLOR P/S AND U/H + COLOR
HOSPITALITY + COLOR RENDERING + COLOR WORKPLACE + COLOR CULTURE + COLOR
ABOUT ME
I was born and raised in San Salvador, El Salvador. In 2009, I moved to Miami to pursue a degree in visual arts. I concentrated in the fields of photography, sculpture, mixed media and contemporary art. In 2013, I received my Bachelor’s degree in Art and Art History from Florida International University. Currently I am working in my Master’s Degree in Interior Architecture. My intention towards pursuing a degree in Interior Architecture has to do with my passion and curiosity for design. Good design creates better lives; with good design we can provide an environment where humans can thrive with new ideas and engage in rich interactions. I aspire to be successful in transmitting through my design honesty and conscience towards our planet’s rich resources, as well as develop ideas of how we can best coexist with our environment.
THEORY + COLOR Albert Munsell is credited for eveloping the three dimensions of color. These are hue, value and chroma. Hue: Color at its purest state. Value: Refers to the lightness or darkness of a color. Chroma: Represents also the purity of a color. completely absent of any white, gray or black. Color can also be described by its quality. Color can be changed in three ways: through tint, tones and shades. Tint: Adding white to a color Tone: Adding gray to a color Shade: Adding black to a color Primary Hues: red, blue, yellow Secondary Hues: violet, green and orange, made by combining two primaries. Tertiary Hues: red-violet, blue-violet, blue-green, yellow-orange, and red-orange, each made by combining a secondary hue with one of the primaries. Complementary colors result from two colors opposite one another from the color wheel like red/green. Analogous color schemes result from two or more colors adjacent to one another on the color wheel: blue/ blue-green/green. Split Complementary scheme is like complementary but includes three colors. Monochromatic color scheme is based on variations of the same color. Triad is composed of three colors equally spaced along the color wheel. Tetrad is composed of four colors equally spaced along the color wheel.
DESIGNERS + COLOR Luis Barragán is one of Mexico’s most influential designers of the 20th
century. He is remembered in particular for his symphonic manipulations of light, color, shadow, form and texture in space.
“I believe that architects should design gardens to be used, as much as the houses they build, to develop a sense of beauty and the taste and inclination toward the fine arts and other spiritual values. Any work of architecture which does not express serenity is a mistake.”
- Luis Barragán
He is also recognized for reinventing the International Style by merging Mexican vernacular design, in his use of color and materials, with modernist forms of abstraction. Barragán was born in Guadalajara, Mexico and was profesionally trained as an engineer. Despite this, he grew an increasing interest in architecture, which encouraged him to embark on trips to France and Spain during the 1920s and 30s. There he was able to meet influential architects, intellectuals, and artists such as Ferdinand Bac,Le Corbusier, Konstantin Melnikov, and Friedrich Kiesle. Upon his return, he moved from Guadalajara to Mexico City where he started his architectural firm which focused on modernist style homes with Moroccan influences. In the 1940s Barragán began to discover hi personal style. He met an influential artist, Chucho Reyes, who acted as a catalyst in Barragan’s metamorphosis of style. He also discovered his country, he began to distill the proportions and details of old Mexican convents, monasteries and haciendas. Barragán was also moved by the spirit of grace and solitude with which his buildings are strongly imbued. He was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1980 for his “commitment to architecture as a sublime act of the poetic imagination” And his house became one of UNESCO’s World Heritage sites in 2004.
Luis Barragán House and Studio, also known as Casa Barragán, was completed in 1948. It is located in Tacubaya a working class neighborhood within the greater Mexico City. The entrance of the home is austere and blends in with the street and its modest traditional homes.
The house is distinguished by its profound dialogue between light and constructed space and the way in which colour is substantial to form and materials. It is a house which appeals to all the senses and re-evaluates the ways in which architecture can be perceived and enjoyed by its inhabitants. Upon entering the home, the visitor is gently showered with the color yellow coming from the walls of a waiting area called “la portería.” It is a mindful pause before being exposed to the symphony of colors in the rest of the house. In la portería, the yellow serves to heighten and prepare the senses for the rest of the house.
DESIGNERS + COLOR Color Palette Barragán’s color palette was inspired by the vibrant hues of Mexican traditional clothing and festivals. For Casa Barragán he includes yellows, pinks, reds, greens, off-whites and purples. The transition of colors throughout the house acts as a succession of complimentary colors that guide the visitor through the space. The first color encountered, the warm yellow, serves to prepare the pupil for the encounter with vibrant pinks, which ultimately lead to the greens entering from the windows that frame the home’s garden. Luis Barragan was interested in the landscape that surrounded his homes as much as he was in the actual home. He always made sure the colors of the walls and the natural landscape complimented each other rather than compete.
DESIGNERS + COLOR In Barragán’s houses the interior is cozy, protective, and without distraction. “The importance of walls is that they isolate one from the street’s exterior space. The street is aggressive, even hostile: walls create silence...” -Luis Barragán
He used walls to create an all-enveloping domestic enclosure, allowing glimpses of the sky but little else of the outside world. Views focused instead on the patio, which was itself surrounded by high walls.
The custom window shapes for the dining and living room flatten the view of the garden into an abstract picture. The green comes to fill the room and mix with the rest of the colors in the interior.
In la estancia (left) Nature acompanies and provoques the experiences in the interior. More than acting as a boundary, the window flattens the landscape, converting the garden view into a metaphysical plane.
DESIGNERS + COLOR
Cuarto de Cristo
Luis Barragan created his own version of the modernist style by painting it with the warm and vibrant colors of his native Mexico. He believed a house should not be a “machine for living” rather his goal was to create “emotional architecture” which he is successful in doing so by mastering the relationships between space, light, and color throughout the house.
Guest room
FILM + COLOR Pierrot le Fou (1965) was directed by Jean-Luc Godard, a
prominent expositor of the French New Wave (La Nouvelle Vague) style of film. The French New Wave neglected the traditional French cinema and rather focused on youthful iconoclasm, playing emphasis on current issues as well as social and political issues of the era through the use of experimental editing, visual style and narrative. The French New Wave has also been regarded as an example of postmodernism in film.
Pierrot le Fou (1965) is about a family man, Ferdinand, who is
discontent with the current life he lives in both personal and professional aspects. Upon his return from a shallow industry party, he decides to escape with his ex-girlfriend, Marianne, and surrender his bourgeoise life. Ferdinand discovers Marianne is wanted by the OAS, an organization fighting to maintain French Imperialism in Algeria. Ferdinand sees the OAS as a reminder of his past privilege, and decides to join Marianne in her adventure of fleeing to the Mediterranean Sea. They steal a bright red car and proudly display their rejection of high society. They live on the go, asking for money, stealing and writing by the seaside. However, this lifestyle also turns out to be hard to maintain, and when they are spotted by the gangsters, a series of violent events unfold.
color palette
Red Yellow Blue Green
The color palette in Pierrot le Fou is mainly composed of the primary colors in their pure hues: red, blue, yellow. It also includes a secondary hue, green. Despite this, at the begining of the film the viewer also encounters red and blue in tint form, with the appearance of pink and baby blue. As the film progresses and the plot becomes more raw, so do the colors, and the tints leave room for only pure hues.
Baby blue Pink
FILM + COLOR morning SCENE This scene takes place during the morning after Ferdinand decides to escape with Marianne. Ferdinand and Marianne are having breakfast at her place. Marianne is singing to Pierrot about her love for him. We see Pierrot sleeping in Marianne’s pink bed and Marianne wearing a baby blue robe.
Tinted red: Pink sweet, babyish, physically weakening
Tinted blue: Baby blue gentle, trust, loyalty.
CAR SCENE In this scene Ferdinand and Marianne reflect on ther decision to live on the run from the OAS. She says a mad man is the same as a man in love. Ferdinand doesn’t show any signs of regret on his decision. This scene is visually appealing because it pairs two complimentary colors: red and green. Moreover, throughout the film, the director assigns red to represent the life Ferdinand desires full of adventure and existential reflection.
Red excitement, courage, passion
Green youthful, rawness, nature
FILM + COLOR ROOM SCENE In this scene Marianne is held captive by the members of the OAS. It is a scene full of anxiety as we see both the kidnapper and Marianne demonstrate passive aggressive body language.
Red
hatred, aggressive, danger
Yellow caution
Blue strength, authority
Green
rawness, nature
BALANCE + COLOR Balance
refers to the relationship of different hues to one another when each is perceived to be equal in perceived visual weight. Balance is striving to achieve the point of equilibrium between two or more forces. It means that harmony, peace, and connection can be made between the observer and that which is observed. Balance in general is used to describe the physical or perceptual state of equality or oder of objects within a larger composition. It is descrcibed by three types: symmetry, asymmetry, and radial balance. Types of Color Balance: Value Contrast, Hue Balance, Intensity Contrast, Size of Color Area. Value Contast: Is opposition in order to show or emphasize differences between two objects. When working with color it refers to light /dark values. Hue Balance: complementary colors when placed next to each other they intensify each other, making each appear brighter. Intensity Contrast: created by the brightness or dullness of a color by adding the complementary color to a particular hue. Color Area: the larger the amount of color used, the lighter it will appear, the smaller the area the darker it appears.
PHOTOGRAPHY + COLOR
RHYTHM + COLOR Rhythm is a natural evolutionary trait in nature that can
be transferred into interior spaces and emphasized with color. Rhythm color guides the users to understand the functionality of the space and guides them along the path or intended sequence. Types of Rhythm repetition, alternation, progression, continuation and radiation. Repetition: Is the systematic orderly succession of identical design elements (shape, line, color, form) along a define path in space. Alternation: Occurs when two design elements are repeated in sequence similar to repetition, but the pattern includes two distinctly different elements (round to square, red to blue). Progression: Involves the repetition of similar elements with a continuous change (large to small, narrow to wide). Continuation: Refers to the placement of one or more colors throughout an interior to create a continuous movement of the eye through the space. Radiation: uses a concentric color arrangement instead of objects to unify design elements and create visual movement.
RETAIL + COLOR
COLOR + EMPHASIS
PROJECT: Hermès Flagship Store DESIGNER: RDAI LOCATION: Miami, Florida
About the Store Hermès is a Parisian fashion house known for its craftsmanship, rich heritage and timeless style. It focuses on the manufacturing of leather goods, lifestyle accessories, luxury goods, ready to wear, and perfumery. Each object is made by hand, keeping the same technique and knowledge that has characterized the house since its establishment in 1937. Among the goals for the design of the store was to create a setting where visitors could experience the collection with an abundance of natural light. This is achieved by encapsuling the interior with a floor to ceiling glass facade, with an outer shell of vertical white-coated steel rods. These allow the light to filter through the interiors and at the same time act as a screen to provide privacy from the exterior. The interior of the store is dominated by an ondulating terrazo-plaster staircase which suggests movement between floors with its organic shape.
Contrast of Hue Most of the furniture that displays the products in the store is made of wood. Therefore, the color palette employed in the design is composed of a range of browns. The contrast of hue in the store happens between the various colors of the products displayed and the permanent brown palette of the furniture.
Contrast of Value In this example (left) we can see a complimentary contrast between the blue color of the garments and the caramel brown display rack.
Contrast of value is achieved with the application of different light sources in the display shelves. These change the color value of the warm brown material to a brighter orange tone on the surface of the shelves againts a dark brown on the edges of the shelves that extrude. This helps the costumer focus on the products laying on the surface and visualize it better without the furniture taking away too much attention.
Here, the bright LEDs on the back of the shelves give the warm wood a different color value, creating a contrast.
Contrast of a Design Feature The store's first floor contains a partition of warm brown wood rods that contrasts with the white tone floors, columns and staircase. This partition suggests movement within the space, inviting the costumer to examine the objects of the collection on display.
Contrast of Texture Here we can see the contrast of texture between two materials in tones of brown. The juxtaposition between the semi-cold wood rods and the softer leather couches create a monochromatic experience of different textures.
Focal Point The primary focal point of the store is encountered as the costumer enters the store. The patterned tile floor which starts at the front door, provides directional movement and invites the costumer to the store. It rests in a living room set up with Hermès accesories. This creates a sense of comfort, a property the brand considers important when it comes to their products.
P/S AND U/H + COLOR Proportion is defined as the size relationships between elements and the visual composition or space. Scale refers to the size of a shape in relation to a given known, in most cases the human body and its position within space. Color can be used to change our visual perception of a space’s actual size. Common proportions when using color: Dominant: 60%-70% Subdominant: 20%-30% Accent: 10%-20% The color with the largest proportional area is the dominant color. Smaller areas are subdominant colors. Accent colors are asigned to smaller areas but offer a contrast because of variation of hue, intensity or saturation Elements of Color Harmony - The harmony of scale in which closely related values of a single hue are exhibited together. -The harmony of hues in which analogous colors of similar value are exhibited. -The harmony of a dominant colored light in which an assortment of different hues and values is pervaded as if by a dominant tinted light. -The harmony of contrast of scale in which strongly different values of a single hue are combined. The Seven Color Harmonies monochromatic, complementary, split ocmplementary and double complementary, analogous, triadic and tetrad, multi-hue, achromatic.
RENDERING + COLOR
Dominant and Subdominant
Accent
WORKPLACE + COLOR PROJECT: Macquarie Group Headquarters DESIGNER: Clive Wilkinson Architects LOCATION: Sydney, Australia
COLOR + VARIETY
The Macquarie Bank office headquarters follows a non traditional interior plan aimed to encourage collaboration between employees as well as reinforce the importance of their well being. Here color plays a role in making a distinction between “meeting pods.� These are designated work areas for collaboration that can reserved to have meetings with co-workers.
ANALYSIS
The palette is vibrant hues of blue, purple, green and orange. When it comes to line, color plays an important role in determining the boundaries of the meeting pods. On the top example, the lime green color surrounds the perimeter of the pod horizontally and vertically, accentuating height and giving rise to the interior space. For shape, color is used to emphasize volumes that are extruding from the main building. In texture, we see how different colors are applied throughot the entire pod, taking a wide range of textures. For example, the purple carpet texture against the purple couch texture. Finally in pattern, the number decals that are designated to the pods serve as a pattern to aid in wayfinding
L I N E
S H A P E
T E X T U R E
P A T T E R N
The Macquarie Bnak office headquarters is a very dynamic office design with emphasis on the employees’ well being. The color palette is vibrant and dynamic. Here, colors designate the different zones the office plan is divided into and they emphasize the different activities that are carried out during the working day.
COLOR + CULTURE
Introduction My culture and country is El Salvador and I have chosen Japan to learn about their culture and how they use color. Japan interests me because of their spiritual closeness to nature. I appreciate the value they put to their relationship with nature in order to live a balanced and harmonious life.
El Salvador
COLOR palette
El Salvador BLUE Represents the ocean and the sky. in El Salvador it’s always blue.
YELLOW Represents happiness. El Salvador uses bright colors because their people are happy and its sunny all year round. PINK Found in nature. Specially in flowers.
GREEN Found in nature, mountains and volcanoes surround El Salvador.
WHITE Represents purity and holiness.
El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America. Its towns are colorful and its landscape is rich, covered in green and blue hues. This is due to the fact that most of the country is surrunded by volcanoes and mountains, so green meets the blue skies on every horizon. The weather is exceptional, sunny throughout the year and with tropical temperatures. Due to this, the color preference for homes on the exterior tends to be bright and saturated. Salvadorians are always cheerful and have a positive outlook towards life. They are generally optimistic and happy and they use the color yellow on their homes and buildings to express this. Also influenced by nature, the hot pink flower called “veranera” is well liked to emphasize joy and create warm environments. In addition to this, most Salvadorians are very religious and the color white is used to express purity, like in places of worship and traditional ceremonies like weddings. Finally, El Salvador borders the Pacific Ocean on the south, and this is a key factor to the country’s identity. This blue hue of the ocean is represented even in the national flag.
Japan
Japan
COLOR palette RED red is used as an emblem, importance and presence. PINK taken from the cherry blossoms trees that surround the country
GREEN found in nature, also in green tea ceremonies.
WHITE represents purity and transition.
BLACK represents death and mourning.
Japanese culture strives to live a balanced life by maintaining a harmony between nature and themselves. That is why most of the colors used in their built environment come directly from their landscapes. For example the tinted green comes from the matcha tea which is green tea that has been consumed for many generations and forms part of a ceremonial ritual. In addition, a lot of red is used to emphasize through contrast important places. It is the strongest color used. In the national flag, the red circle in the middle represents the rising sun. Pink is also a common color used in Japanese culture. The color comes from the fowers of their national tree, the cherry trees. Every year when they bloom, families gather in the parks to have picnics under the pink flowers. The colors white and black both represent times of contemplation. White signifies a transition and black represents death and mourning.
CONCLUSION We constantly seek to express ourselves. It is in our human nature the desire to communicate. One of the ways we can express ourselves is through the use of color. In addition to this, it can serve as an important tool to emphasize and bring to life things within our built environment. I have learned that using color in a systematic way rather than by chance, it has the opportunity to convey a more powerful message that can be more easily read by a different pair of eyes. This course has taught me to use color in an organized way, and thus achieving more legible results and ultimately employing these concepts to make our living spaces more exciting.
REFERENCES
“Biography.” Luis Barragán 1980 Laureate. Hyatt Foundation, n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2016. “Macquarie Bank / Clive Wilkinson Architects.” ArchDaily. ArchDaily, 01 Apr. 2010. Rauchwerger, Daniel. “25 Years After Luis Barragán’s Death, A Look At Mexican Modernists.” Architizer. Architizer, 15 July 2013. Web. 29 Jan. 2016. Reed, Ron. Color Design: Transforming Interior Space. New York: Fairchild, 2010. Print. Street-Porter, Tim. “Architecture of Mexico: The Houses of Luis Barragan.” Mexconnect. Mexconnect, 1 June 1997. Web. 28 Jan. 2016.