Monday, July 7, 2008

The Non-Designers Design Book, Chapter 7

Chapter 7 - Using Color
When starting this Chapter, I had the thought in my mind that there were rules to color selections, but in reality any combinations of colors worked--if they looked okay.  After a few pages, I thought that was wrong--as I learned about combining complementary colors--and then became more assured that the theory behind this stuff was irrelevant (sorry!) as it just came down to how it looks.  I became more assured in this thought after learning about split complementary triads, analogous colors, monochromatic colors and then, most importantly, in this quote from Pg. 102: "Are there any colors that don't look great together?  Not if you subscribe to the Robin's Wildflower Theory of Color . . . "  So, while I found the terminology and manners of selecting colors, I realized that in the future I will simply check with my senses on this matter, i.e, what looks good?

I did find a few things rather interesting in this chapter though.  First, I was interested to learn how the color wheel was created from the primary, secondary and tertiary colors.  I was also interested in learning of the difference between shade and tint.  I looked around myself in the room that I was in, which is painted what my wife and I call a "shade of yellow."  Now I know: it's a tint of yellow!  D'oh!  I also made mental notes to "watch the tones" in my color selections and to use warm colors and cool colors appropriately.

I must admit though, CMYK and RGB made my head spin.  I understand the main characteristics (CMYK is based on combinations of cyan, magenta, yellow and a key in rosette patterns and RGB acts differently because it is used on screens on which light is not being reflected, rather being sent right to our eyes), but not the how.  This is especially true of RGB.  How the heck does red and green give you yellow?  Also, I did not know that I could select which I worked with.  Maybe the distinction between CMYK and RGB is a moot point for an 8th grade math teacher?

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