Colour Harmonies

There are many ways that colours can compliment and work with each other, each one has a different 

name and rule that it follows. 

Complementary

Complementary colour schemes are two colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel. They give a lot of contrast but work well together in most circumstances, if the saturation of the colours are at their fullest.

Here complementary colours have been used and a high amount of contrast
is created. This makes the piece stand out a lot.

Analogous

Analogous Colors are groups of three colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel, with one being the dominant colour. They look good together because of how close they are on the colour wheel and are balanced well.

Triad

Similar to analogous colours, a Triad of colours are three colours that are evenly spaced around the colour wheel. They are balanced, but contrast a lot so stand out a fair bit.

Here we can see that the Burger King logo
has used a triadic colour scheme, which
gives it it's vibrant appearance.

Square

A square colour scheme takes 4 colours that are evenly spaced around the colour wheel. It's similar to a triad but with one colour added, so therefore it will produce quite vibrant results and will work well with bright colours.

Split Complementary

Split complementary colours are similar to complimentary however it takes the colour opposite it and uses each colour which is beside that.

The Firefox logo uses a split
complementary colour scheme of
blue, yellow and orange.

Tetradic

A Tetradic colour scheme is made by drawing out a rectangle on the colour wheel. It gives four colours, 2 each which complement each other.

Gamut

The word 'Gamut' simply means a complete range or scope of something. However when colour is concerned a gamut means a range of colours available on a certain device or platform. For example, a computer or tv screen displays colours by mixing RGB light, so the gamut is fairly large (as shown by the diagram below). A print based piece such as a newspaper or magazine uses CYMK mixing to display colour, and therefore the gamut is smaller. A gamut is useful if you want to preview how something is going to look when printed, as it can show the range of colours available on the device being used.

Difference Between Colours in 1960s + 1970s + 2016

Colours in the 1960's were very bright and psychedelic because it was a decade of change and freedom. Some examples of the trending colour schemes are Andy Warhol's pop art which used very vibrant colours, The Beatles's Yellow Submarine Film, and the fashion of teenagers and young adults at the time.

                           

These colour trends were heavily influenced by the hippy drug culture at the time, as the use and availability of LSD and Marijuana increased (hence the vibrant psychedelic colours). Additionally music figures like The Beatles and Elvis Presley influenced colour trends, as well as the desire for freedom and change as the war was over and people were happy and relaxed.

As the 60s passed the colour trends changed again with culture, and at this point vibrant, bright colours became less popular changing to calm, more sophisticated earthy solid colours like beiges and browns. The country was recovering from another war, so peace and calm were reflected in these warm earthy tones.

Nowadays, the trending colours that have stood out to me are golds and yellows which were incredibly popular during the summer, and pastel colours such as baby pink and light blue. Here is a list of the top 10 colours of spring 2016 I found.

How Many Colours in  a GIF?
-256

What is the Colour Mode of Photoshop?
Photoshop has a range of colour modes that can be selected, these are:
Bitmap, Grayscale, Duotone, Indexed Color, RGB Color, CMYK Color, LabColor, or Multichannel

Colour Theory

Colour is incredibly important in the design industry and is very effective to an audience. Different colours can connote completely different messages and its the first thing a viewer will pick up, both consciously and subliminally. A simple colour can say a lot about a piece (e.g. it's core message/context/genre) without any other text or imagery. To understand colour we had to learn about mixing colours and the colour wheel. We did a short test where we discovered that there are lights; Cyan, Magenta and Yellow (which can be mixed to make other colours). These are the colours that should be used when painting. On a computer, it's different, as the colours used to make colours are Red, Green and Blue (or RGB). Both of these mixing techniques can be worked out using the Colour Wheel.

In our Interactive lesson with Steve we had the task to make our own colour wheel to help further our knowledge of colour. We had to make the colour wheel using our own photos, so in groups we went into Bath looking for colours. Most of the main colours on the very outside of the wheel were fairly easy to find around Bath, some could even be found inside College. Magenta and Purple proved fairly hard to find however. As we went on with our hour to gather as many colours as possible, I discovered how it was quite a painstaking task to find the lighter colours seen closer to the center of the wheel, however I managed to gather most of them.

Once our time was up we returned to class to arrange our photos into a colour wheel. I used Photoshop and the wheel pictured above as a template for mine. With the magic wand tool and many, many layers I made my colour wheel. The final product is pictured below: