COLOR THEORY 1
CONTENTS I N T R O D U C T I ON
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DESIGNER
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FILM
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BALANCE
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RHYTHM
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RETAIL
16-21
P/S AND U/H
22-23
HOSPITALITY CULTURE
24-28 29-34
THE END
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INTRODUCTION My name is Michelle Cuervo. I was born and raised in the city of Miami, but my background is Colombian. I am interested in anything creative (photogaphy, film-making, etc.). My hobbies consist of painting, photography, and watching baseball games. A strength of mine is my will-power to finish what I begin, while one of my weaknesses is that I am still not fully comfortable with public speaking. I am very passionate about traveling and becoming a cultured person and because of this I plan to travel to a long list of cities around the world. I am in the Interior Architecture program at Florida International University and because of this I have received the opportunity to travel to places like Ireland, The Netherlands, and even Belgium. After I graduate I would to live somewhere in Massachusetts or in South Carolina. Finally, I am motivated by the idea of making my family proud and expanding my horizons by moving out of my comfort zone. I am excited to continue my education and I am eager to learn!
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COLOR+DESIGNER Gerrit Thomas Rietveld 1888-1964
This week’s assignment was to research one project that uses color as an important aspect of the architecture. I chose to examine the Schroder House because it is a model for modern architects that have been inspired by the De Stijl movement. Seeing how I, myself am interested in modern architecture, I found Rietveld’s work to be fitting.
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ABOUT RIETVELD:
Gerrit Rietveld was born on June 24, 1888 in Utrecht, Netherlands. He left school at the age of 11 and began working with his father who built furniture. After a while he picked up on the family business and started a furniture workshop of his own in 1917. Through the years he was able to teach himself how to paint, draw, and make models. As a builder of furniture his goal was to reach simplicity in his designs and eventually mass produce his works. A year later, after having created his famous Red and Blue Chair, he began his own furniture factory, and became an architect.
Rietveld was greatly influenced by the De Stijl movement, which was a response to the first world war. The members looked to creating universal work instead of individual work. The members were group of artists and architects who aimed to reduce their work to only the absolutely essential components along with the use of basic primary colors, black, and white. He became a member of the movement in 1919.
He designed the famous Schroder House with the help of Truus Shroder-Shader (owner of the house). Rietveld continued working toward the use of inexpensive materials and prefabrication throughout his career. Finally, he designed the zig-zag chair and began the design of the van-gogh museum which was continued and completed after his passing on June 25, 1964.
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SCHRODER HOUSE
Utrecht, The Netherlands 1925
The Schroder house was designed for a widowed mother of three who decided to build a smaller home for her family that is personal to their intended lifestyle. Rietveld aimed to create space only with the use of planes and lines that t physically ranslated into slabs and posts. It is a perfect example of the De Stijl movement; a built manifesto of the ideals of simplicity, asymmetry, and precision. Another quality of uniqueness that the house has is that spaces are not reached through corridors and are not separated by built walls, but instead, they are flexibly divided by sliding panels. This allows the entire second floor to be an enormous open space or three separate spaces with a sitting area.
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COLOR PALETTE: In order to abid by the De Stijl ideals, the color palette maintained the use of essential colors only such as red, yellow, blue, black, and white. This made the project look like a built three-dimensional Piet Mondrian painting.
COLORS Color was used mainly to give order to the flexibility of the project. Colors reveal spaces without the use of walls. The red flooring for example, is calling out the sitting area as a space of its own without closing it in with a built structure. Another example of the use of color in this project is the black doors and railings. Rietveld anticipated that these parts of the project would aqcuire a lot of contact. In response to this expectation, he made these parts black so that they would not become tainted. Finally, color is used to blur the distinction between the interior and exterior of the house. Along with the blur of interior and exterior, there was a dissolution of boundaries between floors and walls.
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CONCLUSION
Rietveld’s use of color is very effective and efficient in the sense that the architecture has its own language through the use of essential colors, planes, and lines. The program is indentifiable through colors, which makes wayfinding much simpler. Minimalism and flexibility were key to this house, which was representative both for the client (a mother with three children) and also in order to follow through with the ideals of the De Stijl movement. It speaks about displacement, constant movement, and dynamism through the retractable panels and everything being at a 90 degree angle. It also shines a light on modern architecture by moving away from traditional architecture. Color is no longer just a decoration or a “pop” to make a space stand out , but rather a guide to the client’s way of living, a clear distinction of space, and a work of Mondrian art brought to life.
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WORKS CITED
http://www.gerrit-thomas-rietveld.com http://www.archdaily.com/99698/ad-classics-rietveld-schroder-house-gerrit-rietveld http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/965l Weston, Richard. Plans, Sections and Elevations: Key Buildings of the Twentieth Century. London: Laurence King Pub., 2004. 48-49. Print.
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COLOR+FILM INTERSTELLAR This assignment consisted of watching a movie and observing it to understand how colors can impact a viewer’s perspective emotionally and visually. It opened my eyes and it helped me appreciate how much thought goes into every film down to the color palette. It also helped me understand how color could manipulate a scene to create a specific feeling.
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FILM SUMMARY This film takes place in the future where we have essentially run out of all our resources, crops are dying, and there is a second Dust Bowl that continues to damage the Earth. The government shuts down NASA; therefore, there is really no hope for life on another planet once the Earth basically collapses on itself. A secret organization hires a father of two who is a former pilot for NASA to go through a wormhole across the galaxy to find a new planet to re�populate. I thoroughly enjoyed all the lessons that this movie provides for example: it sends a warning message saying that we need to take care of our planet. It is also just an example of the sacrifices that so many people make, leaving behind their families and everything they love for the well being of the larger population.
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COLOR PALETTE Black is a mysterious color that is typically associated with the unknown or is a symbol of grief. The main character is going through feelings of sadness and confusion not knowing where he is or what will happen next, which is shown with so much darkness surrounding him. The color white can represent a successful beginning. White depicts faith and purity. Flashes of white while the character falls into the unknown produce feelings of peace and hope for a new beginning. The color yellow can be cheerfulness, increased mental activity, it helps activate the memory, and encourage communication. The picture above shows the moment where he is trying to send a message to his daughter, which is enhanced with shades of yellow. The brown color says stability, and approachability. Brown provides feelings of connection, relaxation and warmth. These shades are also shown in the same scene shown above, where he is reconnected with his daughter, which he thought he would never see again. The blue color communicates significance, and importance. This color is shown sporadically when the character finally arrives in the tesseract and discovers what he’s looking at.
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SCENE ANALYS I S
The scene that I chose is when Cooper (the protagonist) falls into the wormhole and lands in what looks like a tesseract and ends up being another dimension that connects him to his daughter’s bedroom in the past. At first the scene starts off with darkness because Cooper just let go of all hope and is falling into a wormhole. The black surrounds him showing how lonely he feels physically and mentally. Shortly after, flashes of white light are shown, which represent Cooper finally coming to terms with the fact that the will die and never see his family again. The white lights also give a sense of hope that maybe this is not the end for him. Then the white lights start turning into shades of yellow, which eventually mix with brown, black, white, and blue creating this tesseract that connects him to the time right before he went on the mission. The tesseract has shades of blue, which represents its importance while the browns and yellows give off a sense of happiness, comfort, and connection when he finally sees his daughter. The light in the bedroom is really bright which shows it purity and his daughter’s innocence. The scene ends with Cooper showing his regrets for leaving and not listening to his daughter and trying to communicate with her through this other dimension that dimension that he’s trapped in.
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COLOR+BALANCE
Balance: the relationship of different hues to each other when they are equal in visual weight Symmetry:when elements are equal on both sides of an axis Contrast: opposition of colors or objects to emphasize the differences Example: Bright vs Dull Color Interaction: when one value is placed by the other, the visual weight of the smaller color area is intensified. Point: Too much color creates disorder.
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COLOR+RHYTHM
Rhythm: movement Repetition: the orderly succession of an element along a defined path Example: Banq restaurant in Boston Line: can be used to outline a space and introduce rhythm Point: The stronger the contrast of color the stronger the color rhythm.
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COLOR+EMPHASIS
Color + Emphasis had a lot to do with a field trip to the mall to examine a retail store. I chose Abercrombie and Fitch because it is consistent with its clean design and the general feeling it exudes through its colors and organization. I learned how to distinguish between a thorough thought process for the color choices of store and a store that just has trendy colors that make it stand out.
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CONTRAST OF HUE
Contrast in hue is when two colors that are opposite of each other on the color wheel are placed together to compliment each other.
In this case, Blue and Brown are not opposite to one another on the color wheel, however, they compliment each other because Brown is a warm color while blue is a cool color.
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CONTRAST OF VALUE Contrast in value is when there is an emphasis due to a duality of light colors versus dark colors without the use of chromatic hues.
In the fitting rooms at this particular Abercrombie and Fitch, there was a perfect contrast of value showing white, grey, and black all working together without overpowering one another. The Black flooring offers a mysterious and sleek look all around the store, but the white looks clean and new just like the merchandise that is being sold and presenting in these fitting rooms. The grey is placed between the two opposing colors to create a harmony.
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CONTRAST OF A DESIGN FEATURE When emphasis is established when information is presented through alternative styles.
In this case, there is a contrast in themes that come together to communicate the history of the founding of A&F as well as providing a new, younger design targetted at the main consumer. The moose commemorates the original store which sold sporting and excursion goods in contrast to the clean and sleek design that surrounds it.
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C ON T R A S T OF TEXTURE Emphasis through texture for example smooth vs rough or hard vs soft
The shelving and walls work together to form a textured contrast. Not only do they contrast in color (one dark, one light), but they also contrast in texture. The wall is scored and has a harder feel to it, while the shelves are leveled and polished wood.
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FOCAL POINT A focal point is a single design element that provides the greatest visual emphasis in a room.
The main attraction in this space is the hanging fishing boat over the tables of jeans being sold. The ceiling it is suspended from is even a couple feet taller then the rest of the room in order to make it a great moment for the area. It stands out due to its isolation and it is ineresting enough to draw customers to the items on sale placed directly below with bright lights.
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COLOR+PROPORTION+SCALE
Proportion: the size relationships between parts and the whole. Example: a human’s body parts Scale: the size of a shape in relation to another object Example: a human to a chair Golden Section: the ratio between the smaller and the larger is the same as the larger and the whole Point: Using nature as an example can guide us to establish relative proportions to later translate them into interior spaces. 22
COLOR + UNITY+ HARMONY
Unity: the repetition of color to create a complete whole Harmony: the perfect balance between colors Monochromatic: variations of tints, tones, and shades of one hue to create variety within the same color. Example: Navy Blue, Cobalt Blue, and Sky Blue Complimentary colors: Colors that are opposite to each other on the color wheel and contrast each other perfectly. Example : Orange and Blue (warm and cold) Point: If colors in a complex space create harmony instead of business, in the interior, then the colors were distributed evenly.
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COLOR+VARIETY
The goal for this assignment was to be able to find a hotel that successfully put together all the different uses of line, shape, texture, and pattern into a cohesive design that speaks for the hotel. I stumbled upon a perfect example of that in Memphis in the Madison Hotel. It is historic, and the design of the interior spaces speak about the hotel’s story.
Project: The Madison Hotel Designer: George M. Shaw Location: Memphis, Tennessee 24
The color palette in this space consists of black and white with bursts of bright warm colors that give the space a sexy and dynamic feeling.
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LOBBY
Line: The white curved lines not only provide a great contrast against the black
flooring, but also give a sense of movement- which mirrors the busy program for the space.
Shape: The circular shapes represent fluid movement, which may represent the musical spirit of the hotel.
Texture: The tufted wall shows off its tactile texture with the lights below shining and showing the softness of the satin-like material.
Pattern: The intertwining vine-like pattern further emphasizes the flow of movement in this space without being too overpowering. The white background contrasts well with the flooring and the red pillows that are added as bold accents
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The color palette for this space consists of white, different tones of grey, and warm tones from the wooden tables and the velvet red chairs. These colors work together to create a modern, yes sophisticated space
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Line: The curved line created by the different materials leading up the stairs
GATHERING
forms a natural sort of wayfinding to the next level
Shape: The rectangular lights in the otherwise dark space around it provide a
relaxing and luxurious atmosphere for guests to unwind. The lights also frame the photos of iconic musicians in the area from around the time of its original design.
Texture: The woven texture on the wall is a perfectly subtle way to break off
from the plain white wall and transform into a darker grey and patterned wall.
Pattern: The feathered pattern on the wall supports the history of the music-driven hotel, which was built in the early 1900s.
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COLOR+CULTURE
C O L O M B I A N CU L T U R E
This study on color an culture was very interesting. I researched the use of color in my culture, and another culture that I am interested in. Being Colombian, I learned a lot about my own heritage and finding that what I am studying about (color) explains my background was very satisfying. I was also intrigued by how the same colors could be applied to a completely different culture and mean something completely different. I felt very culturally aware after learning all about both cultures through color.
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COLOR PALETTE
Colombian culture is anything but bland- it is very colorful and symbolic. The symbolism begins with the nation’s flag. It is yellow, blue, and red. The Y E L L O W stands for the country’s gold and natural wealthiness. The B L U E symbolizes the rivers, the sky, and the two oceans that surround Colombia’s borders. The R E D signifies the blood of the patriots who foought against the spanish monarchy for the country’s independence. The shades of O R A N G E in the architecture represents the old spanish influences on the country, much like the G R E E N S that defend the nation’s Andean culture which is surrounded by mountain ranges and all kinds of flora. Finally the B L A C K is iconic to the typical hat called Sombrero Vueltiao that is a perfect example of their culture. The weaving of hats, bracelets, and bags is a huge part of the culture. Weaving is symbolic due to each design’s uniqueness and plethora of colors that represent Colombia’s caribbean influences.
SOURCES http://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/national-traditions/colombian-tradition2.htm http://www.uncovercolombia.com/index.php/en/colombia/the-andes-region http://www.colombia.travel/en/practical-information/culture
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I T A L I A N CU L T U R E
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COLOR PALETTE
Much like many other cultures, the Italian flag has symbolic colors. The bright shade of G R E E N is representative of hope, the hills of Italy, and the military. The W H I T E represents the mountains, faith, and the original flag of Milan. R E D honors the blood spilled in wars for independence, charity, and the flag of Milan as well. Red is also iconic for race cars such as ferraris, which are representative of italian racing. Deep shades of O R A N G E also referred to as burnt Sienna, are traditional to the Renaissance period in Italy when the clay soil was used to create this color. G O L D is significant to portray a sense of luxury specifically during the Golden period. A darker shade of G R E E N is a pigment that came about through the techniques of venetian painters in the 14th century. Finally, many other colors present themselves in forms of masks that are used in celebrations such as Carnivale di Venezia. It ends with a religious holiday, which marks the importance of religion in the Italian culture.
SOURCES http://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/national-traditions/italian-tradition3.htm http://www.italylogue.com/about-italy/italian-flag-what-the-colors-mean-a-little-history.html http://www.italymagazine.com/featured-story/shades-italy-top-ten-italian-colours
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COURSE CONCLUSION I feel very knowledgable about how color plays such an important role in film, architecture, culture, and so many other areas of life that so many people are unaware of. The assignments were straight to the point and all accomplished a lesson either through experience or research, which I found to be very helpful specially for an online course. The organization for the lessons also played an important part in the success of this course because each assignment built on the last, which expanded my knowledge through application. I feel confident that as a result of taking this class, I have a solid foundation for the rest of my education on design in terms of color. I enjoyed taking this class and look forward to other courses similar to this one! Thank you!
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