Color Theory + Design
Table of Contents Who are you? 4 Research + Color 7 Theory + Color 11 Designers + Color 17 Film + Color 30 Balance + Color 35 Rhythm + Color 39 Retail + Color 43 P/S + U/H + Color 52 Hospitality + Color 56 Culture + Color
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Introduction
Who are you? carolinapapale.wordpress.com
I was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I moved to the United States in the summer of 2003 and have lived in Miami ever since. I often find myself drawn to bright, vibrant colors. Green is the color I feel most connected with because I associate it with nature. It is a calming color for me as it reminds me of the trees and vegetation that I enjoy so much. I love to find different shades of green leaves on the trees and I am instantly drawn to flowers and fruits for its vibrant palettes. Although architecture and interior design have been my major focus for the past six years, I have always made exercise and outdoor activities part of my daily routine. In my free time I enjoy cooking natural, delicious meals and taking long walks at the park or the beach.
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Research + Color
What are the experts saying? The goal was to learn about color from experts and researchers. The assignment was to read, summarize and analyze published material about color.
“Spatial Color: Do the hues of our surroundings affect our psyche, emotions, and behavior?” summary. The article “Spatial Color” by Shashi Caan narrates the findings of a scientific research on color and how it affects human behavior. The experiment consisted of creating three spaces and giving each a different color: one blue, one red and one yellow. Based on previously conducted experiments, the researchers had pre-established hypotheses about how humans would behave in the different rooms: “A. Red inspires people to eat more. Time stands still. B. Blue is calming. Time lengthens. C. Yellow evokes happiness.. and aggression.”
The researchers found some of these things to be true. For example, people in the blue room seemed to be calmer and not as interactive; while people in the yellow room were more outgoing and social. Some things they found were incorrect, the red room was not where people consumed the most food, instead the yellow room is where people ate the most. They also concluded that because the experiment was conducted in a social setting, people react in a different way to the color than if they were alone in the setting. I believe that it is important to conduct more research on the subject based on the conclusions by using different variables, settings and people since factors like the cultural experiences of the subjects might affect their reactions. In my opinion, the most important finding from this research to designers is that color does influence human behavior and actions. This assists architects and interior designers in creating environments that are specific to program and function of a space. By the manipulation of color, designers are able to influence the user’s emotions and their perception of a space.
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Theory + Color
What is Color Theory? “Color theory is the study and practice of a set of principles used to understand the relationships among colors… Without light there is no color. Color transforms as light is experienced.”
Properties of Light Color is the result of light reflected off the surface of objects into the eye, resulting in color vision.
Reflection
occurs when light strikes an object and the light reflected back from an object results in the color we see.
Diffraction
occurs when light is partially obstructed by an object. This interference of light bends the waves around the edges of the object or opening and spreads outward, producing light, dark or colored bands.
Refraction
results when one or more light rays moves through a light medium to another, denser medium such as air to water causing light to bend.
Hue, Value and Chroma
Hue is pure color. It is the property of light by which the color of an object is classified as red, blue, green, or yellow in the reference to the visible spectrum.
Value refers to lightness or darkness of a color. Chroma refers to the purity of a color, completely absent of any white, gray or black that would lessen its intensity or saturation.
Color Language RGB
CMYK
VS
Additive color is color creation with light vs pigment by adding the primary colors of light red, blue, and green in various combinations and intensities. Adding all colored light produces white light. Subtractive color is pigment color using paint, dyes, colorants, and inks where red, blue and yellow are commonly identifies as the primary. The subtraction of all colors produces white.
Color Systems Color theorists study and explain the characteristics of color creations, interactions and arrangements. Many theorists and authors have spent years researching color and providing systems to aid those interested in expanding their knowledge and increasing their confidence using color. No single solution is used in the interior design industry; rather each system offers its own contribution to learning about and working with color.
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Designers + Color
How are they doing it? How do architects and interior designers use color? For this assignment I researched a project by Rem Koolhaas and analyzed where, how and what strategies he used for the application of color.
Architect Background Journalist and architect Rem Koolhaas was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He concluded his architectural studies in Cornell Univesity in 1975 and opened OMA (Office of Metropolitan Architecture) that same year. Koolhaas published “Delirious New York” in 1978 and he became known for his urban theories. His ideas of modernity and the contemporary city reflect his architecture at a conceptual and theoretical level. However, “Koolhaas did not establish a constant look from project to project. Instead, he created architecture that, utilizing the best of modern technology and materials, spoke to the needs of a particular site and client.”
The Project The McCormick Tribune Center at IIT was designed as a social hub for students. It’s program includes a cafÊ, computer lab, bookstore and post office. The major challenge when designing the building was that it was to be located next to the train station. In order to muffle the noise from the train, Koolhaas designed a stainless steel elliptical tube around the stop and over the main building.
Less is More... The IIT campus had been recognized for its Crown Hall designed by Mies Van de Rohe during the Modernist Movement in 1956. Koolhaas criticized Mies’ work and felt that the campus “had been ‘scraped’ clean of its urban density, and a long period of decay reluted in the ‘disappearance of the city around it.’”
Crown Hall by Mies Van de Rohe
Although the Crown Hall is well acclaimed for its openness and simplicity, and follows Mies’ concept of “less is more�, it was criticized by Koolhaas because the building holds very undefined program which creates an impersonal and unwelcoming feeling for the students.
Crown Hall interior
More is More... When designing the McCormick center, Koolhaas took into consideration the student’s daily activities and patterns. In the attempt at creating more social interaction he designed a series of walkways throughout the building which intersect areas of designated program and function.
Floor Plan of McCormick Center
Color Use Koolhaas implemented the use of color, in both interior and exterior of the building. He used color to apply variation of character to the different areas in the complex. He predominantly uses orange in different tones and hues, and implements some grey and black.
McCormick Center view of entrance Mies van der Rohe protrait
Building walkway
Use of color inside the restrooms
Color palette
Color and Light Throughout the project, various light qualities affect the colored surfaces differently. By using porous, and translucent materials at various opacities, different renditions of warm oranges and reds reflect and appear throughout.
Natural light through semi translucent orange glass.
Artificial light through translucent orange surface.
Color palette
Conclusion Koolhaas utilizes black to make reference to Mies’ Crown Hall, however the implementation of the orange creates a contrasting dynamic. The color creates a more fun, lively and warm environment.
Mies Van de Rohe’s Crown Hall interior
VS
Rem Koolhaas McCromick Center
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Film + Color
Psychology and Perception How does color affect our emotions and actions? In this assignment I watched and studied how the use of color can have powerful impact in the film “Amelie�.
Amelie Film Analysis
PAPALE
Color + Environment _ FILM ANALYSIS_M.5
The movie Amélie is about a girl who lives in Paris. Amélie doesn’t interact with the world like everyone else. She is very observant of other people’s daily routines. She is particularly fond of mysteries and love stories. One day she finds a box of relics in her apartment and she decides to find the person who it belongs to. Once she finds the man and she notices the impact that finding the box had in his life, she decides that she wants to help others and have an influence over other people’s lives. In the midst of trying to find a man who lost a book of photographs, she ends up falling in love with him. Amélie’s character is trying to find herself through other people’s experiences. Although she is lonely, she finds comfort and happiness in her fantasies. Color in the movie helps portray the world as seen through Amélie’s eyes. Most of the film has a yellowish hue, this helps construct Amélie’s fantasies and symbolizes a sense of happiness and optimism in her life. The saturation of the film is vivid and it’s intended to exaggerate the scenes. The colors that stood out the most during the film were: yellow, green, red and blue. However, when the narrator talks about people’s memories and stories other than Amélie’s, the scenes are in black and white.
SCENE ANALYSIS In this scene, Amelie is baking in her apartment and she has a fantasy where her and Nino are together. In this part of the scene the colors are vivid. As she remembers that this is untrue and she cries, the scene becomes less saturated. In the scene, there are instances of color contrast that help to describe the character’s moods and desires. The top image shows Amelie’s imagined reality; on the left a hue of green, as the sweater she wears, which represents the life she dreams of and aspires to but she will only achieve if she has the courage to meet Nino. On the right side, there is a view of her apartment, a deep, dark red (complementary to the green); that is her comfort, it represents her suppressed passion and desires about to burst. Yellow in this scene represents her hope and potential happiness that she will only find with Nino.
RED
Passsion Desire Love
GREEN
Soothing Perseverance Tenacity Inexperience
YELLOW
Happiness Optimism/Hope Idealism Imagination
COLOR PALETTE
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Balance + Color
What is Color Balance? Balance is a means whereby harmony, peace, and connection can be made between the observer and that which is observed. This visual process is intuitive but can be achieved in interior design by a series of steps.
Types of Color Balance
Munsell value and chroma scale
Value contrast
is opposition to show or emphasize differences between two objects. When working with color, adequate dark and light contrast creates more stimulating results. With regards to visual weight, the lightness or darkness of a color refers to the perceived color weight of an object, the weight imparted by out perceptions of the color itself.
Hue balance refers to complementary colors, those that when placed next to one another intensify the other hue, making each other appear brighter. These colors are opposite to each other in a color wheel.
Intensity contrast is the relative brightness or dullness of color, established by adding the complementary color to a particular hue or with the addition of gray. It does not refer to lightness or darkness that occurs from adding white or black.
Color interaction
involves the contrast of light and dark values; when one value is placed next to or surrounded by the other, the visual weight of the smaller of the two color areas is intensified.
Illusion of vertical and horizontal space the interior walls, floor and ceiling
can be achieved by the location of the color choices used in
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Rhythm + Color
Rhythm is movement Rhythm is the repetition, recurrence, or sequencing of similar design elements in the built environment, creating a pattern. Rhythm can be achieved through color contrast or similarity in hue, value, and intensity.
Types of rhythm Repetition
is the systematic orderly succession of identical design elements (shape, line, color, form) along a defined path in space.
Alternation
occurs when two design elements are repeated in sequence but the pattern includes two distinctly different elements as opposed to one element repeating.
Progression
involves the repetition of similar elements with a continuous change (large to small, narrow to wide, light to dark).
Color continuation
refers to the placement of one or more colors throughout an interior to create a continuous movement of the eye through the space.
Color radiation uses a concentric color arrangement instead of objects to unify design elements and create visual movement versus the traditional sense where it is an arrangement of objects in a radial pattern.
Color and line can be used to “outline� a space; an effective and easy way to introduce rhythm to an interior that is limited in visual movement.
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Retail + Color
Color sells... Designers use color emphasis to create points of importance and focus. In this assignment I explored how the intentional use of emphasis in a retail store can bring attention specific areas and create an experience for the shopper.
Anthropologie
Introduction
The design of the Anthropologie store at Lincoln Road mall aims to create an "eclectic, rustic and modern" experience for the shoppers. The store has multiple areas segmented to look like different rooms, each with their own character and cozy feel. The store uses a variety of textures, patterns and colors to display their clothing, accessories and furniture. They mostly use pastel colors with multiple pops of bright, intense colors to create emphasis and focus the shopper’s attention to the merchandise.
Contrast of Hue
The store has various areas separated by walls and themed to look like a room of a house. Each area has a main color that drives the theme of the accessories, furniture and clothing in the room. This picture shows two of the adjacent rooms with two contrasting main hues: one is red and the other one green.
Contrast of Value
The contrast of value is used in the different blues. The dark blue in the background allows the lighter colored clothing and accessories to stand out. This gives an emphasis to the room and the merchandise.
Contrast of a Design Feature
The geometric form of the furniture and the black and white frames contrast the soft and organic form of the plants and the rope these are hung from. The round, industrial bins also contrast with the small kitchenware items on display, which gives them emphasis.
Contrast of Texture
The smooth to rough texture of the wood to the pebble stone floor emphasize the rustic look that the designer is going for. The rustic charm of the wood contrasts the beachy and sandy look of the stone.
Focal Point
The attention on this wall is drawn towards the colorful design of the paper installation on the gray wall. This then allows the eye to steer towards the colorful, summery designs of the clothing.
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Proportion + Scale Unity + Harmony + Color
Math is beauty The beauty we see in the natural world grows from the divine proportions that help to make sense of everything, a correctness or fitting of parts into a composition pleasing to the eye.
Proportion and scale Proportion
is defined as the size relationships between elements (parts) and the visual composition or space (whole).
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. The proportion of color in a space will be relative to other design elements and should be scaled to fit interior spaces on a situation by situation basis. Whereas proportion is concerned with the relationships of various parts arranged to create an aesthetically pleasing whole, scale is concerned with the relative size of space. Color can be used to change our visual perception of a space’s actual size.
Unity and harmony Unity
is defined as the repetition of color to achieve a unified whole.
Harmony
is the result of a perfect balance between individual color relationships. If the color combinations result in a pleasing whole where no one color stands out, then one has achieved a color harmony. Unity and harmony of a space can be achieved through similarity of color, shape and form. These are inseparable design elements. Uniform distribution and use of color in a complex interior space can harmonize the visual clutter. Color harmonies should be planned to accentuate the interior, not overwhelm the space.
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Hospitality + Color
"Unity with variety is ideal"
Ching
The goal of the assignment was to observe and analyze the use of shape, line, texture and pattern in the interior design of a prominent hotel. Through these, the designer achieves visual variety and interest.
Commercial Design Analysis PROJECT: SLS Hotel DESIGNER: Philippe Starck LOCATION: Miami Beach
HOSPITALITY
Papale
HOSPITALITY
Discussion The design of this lounge space/bar in the SLS Hotel is successful because of the variety of its elements, textures, lines and design features. The color palette of the interior space includes several tones of neutral grays, browns and pops of orange. The feeling of the space is beachy comfortable and rustic with spunk! The line of the wood board clads the space from floor to ceiling creating and loungy and warm atmosphere. The furniture, as well as the beachy decorations which include canoe paddles, surfboards and different kinds of reclaimed wood tables makes the space visually interesting. It creates the sense of being in a summer house or cabin. Orange is used for the lounge chairs, the lighting fixtures and accessories which creates feelings of relaxation and comfort, contrasting the noisy pool area which is located right outside. The patterned tiles on the floor offers continuity from the exterior as well as a strong contrast from the furniture, and the wall and ceiling cladding which adds a visual break.
Details
texture
Shape Wood planks and shelves contrast the organic form of the reclaimed wood table
Line The straight vertical lines of the column cladding contrast the horizontal shelves and the lounge chairs
Texture The soft texture of the chair fabric contrasts the rough reclaimed wood table
pattern
Pattern The eclectic, oriental inspired floor pattern adds a visual break to the space
Discussion Once again Phillip Starck designs an eclectic, yet elegant space by utilizing different shapes, patterns and a few contrasting colors. The flamboyant lettered patterns are reflected on the vertical surfaces of columns and walls as well as in the carpeted floors; however the designer uses contrasting colors for both surfaces, this creates visual interest without being overly abundant. Most of the furniture is dark brown and red which helps to tone down the exciting variety of shapes and patterns and creates a feeling of comfort and sophistication. The main palette is made up of black, white and pops and variations of a deep red that entice visitors to stick around and take time to enjoy their gourmet meal. The niches on the wall and ceiling include recessed lighting that highlight the sharp lines that contrast the organic lettered patterns. This gives the space a warm glow that also suggests comfort and style.
Details
texture
Shape The round columns contrast the linear wall niches and picture frames.
Line The verticality of the patterned column line is broken by the long, horizontal and neutral colored table that ends at the tall windows.
Texture A variety of textures is observed in the rough rattan chairs, glossy marble tables and soft carpets.
pattern
Pattern The designer reflects the lettered pattern used in the columns to the carpet but creates contrast in the color.
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Culture + Color
Symbolism in design This assignment consisted in studying two different countries’ architecture, customs, textiles, interior design etc. and identify how its main color palette identifies with the culture.
Argentina
Colors of Argentina The colors of the Argentinian flag are influenced by the colors of the sky: light blue, white and a yellow sun. During the revolution to free themselves from Spain citizens looked for colors far off from the Spanish red and yellow flag. Although these colors are not seen in the flag any longer, red and yellow still stand in the Argentinian culture. Red is used for the classic gaucho outfits as well as the woman’s dress in the classic Tango dance. The northern textile workers, artists and handcrafters use the native red soil to make pots and vases. La Boca is a colorful and picturesque neighborhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina where many immigrants settled by the late 1800s. The colors represent the diversity of the multiple people who settled in the area and painted their houses in whatever colors they could find. Today, the area is a “small cultural refuge since many artists, bohemian and handcrafters have settled in the area.�
Morocco
Colors of Morocco Moroccan
carpets, carvings, ceramics, and weavings are common designed objects used in homes. Color in Moroccan design is bold, with bright blues, yellows and muted oranges. Blue is used as an old tradition to ward off evil and protect from the “evil eye.� It can be observed in the exterior of homes. Interiors are a kaleidoscope of colors using aquamarine and turquoise to reflect the beauty of the cool, aquatic Mediterranean cuisine. Beautifully designed carpets and tiles are common in Moroccan interiors and serve as inspiration to modern Western interior designers. The Moroccan flag of red symbolizes the prophet Mohamed, and the green star symbolizes life, wisdom, and good health. Green and red are the favorite colors among the people.
Closing Statement Learning about color theory was in many ways helpful for my career. I was able to gain observational skills and focus on details which I had never noticed before. Who knew color was such a powerful and influential part of life? Although the concept of color seems simple, it really is a complex and fascinating subject. I look forward to using the techniques that I learned this semester for the rest of my career.