NOTES ON STEVEN BLEICHER'S CONTEMPORARY COLOR: THEORY & USE CHAPTER 9
The Fine Line Between Art and Design
-USA Today Front Page
The eye moves from largest color image directly under the masthead to the medium-sized color image below it and then back up to the smaller color image on the left. This creates a circular motion, which keeps the viewer involved and scanning the page.
The USA Today design uniquely incorporated color graphics and photographs. Initially, only its front news section pages were rendered in four-color, while the remaining pages were printed in a spot color format. The paper's overall style and elevated use of graphics – developed by Neuharth, in collaboration with staff graphics designers George Rorick, Sam Ward, Suzy Parker, John Sherlock and Web Bryant – was derided by critics, who referred to it as a “McPaper” or "television you can wrap fish in", because it opted to incorporate concise nuggets of information more akin to the style of television news rather than in-depth stories like traditional newspapers, which many in the newspaper industry considered to be a dumbing down of content. Although USA Today had been profitable for just ten years as of 1997, it changed the appearance and feel of newspapers around the world.
On July 2, 1984, the newspaper switched from predominantly black-and-white to full color photography and graphics in all four sections. The next week on July 10, USA Today launched an international edition intended for U.S. readers abroad, followed four months later October 8 with the rollout of the first transmission via satellite of its international version to Singapore. On April 8, 1985, the paper published its first special bonus section, a 12-page section called "Baseball '85", which previewed the 1985 Major League Baseball season. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_Today
During the early 1980s Barbara Kruger perfected a signature agitprop style, using cropped, large-scale, black-and-white photographic images juxtaposed with raucous, pithy, and often ironic aphorisms, printed in Futura Bold typeface against black, white, or deep red text bars. The inclusion of personal pronouns in works like Untitled (Your Gaze Hits the Side of My Face), 1981 and Untitled (I Shop Therefore I Am), 1987, implicates viewers by confounding any clear notion of who is speaking. These rigorously composed mature works function successfully on any scale. Their wide distribution—under the artist’s supervision—in the form of umbrellas, tote bags, postcards, mugs, T-shirts, posters, and so on, confuses the boundaries between art and commerce and calls attention to the role of the advertising in public debate.
White text on red banner background creates very readable type. Use of banner boxes or headlines is directly appropriated from her years of working in advertising and newspaper graphic departments.
www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/fe…
-Robert Wesley Wilson (1937-2020) was an American artist and one of the leading designers of psychedelic posters. Best known for designing posters for Bill Graham of the Filmore in San Francisco, he invented a style that is now synonymous with the peace movement, the psychedelic era and the 1960s. In particular, he was known for inventing and popularizing a "psychedelic" font around 1966 that made the letters look like they were moving or melting.
His style was heavily influenced by Art Nouveau. Wilson was one of "The Big Five" San Francisco poster artists, along with Alton Kelley, Victor Moscoso, Rick Griffin, and Stanley Mouse. Wilson often used complementary color schemes for their visual vibration. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wes_Wilson
-Postmodern Design
April Greiman is an American designer widely recognized as one of the first designers to embrace computer technology as a design tool. Greiman is also credited, along with early collaborator Jayme Odgers, with helping to import the European New Wave design style to the US during the late 70s and early 80s."
April Greiman’s Poster from Design Quarterly No. 133 –
“Does it Make Sense?” 1986, shown here, is interesting in that it can be viewed from any orientation. And her use of monochromatic color scheme unifies divergent visual elements.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Greiman
-Spot Color
Pantone is the most used brand of spot color inks. Employed in graphics, packaging, and products. In offset printing, a spot color or solid color is any color generated by an ink (pure or mixed) that is printed using a single run, whereas a process color is produced by printing a series of dots of different colors.
The widespread offset-printing process is composed of the four spot colors cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black) commonly referred to as CMYK. More advanced processes involve the use of six spot colors (hexachromatic process), which add orange and green to the process (termed CMYKOG). The two additional spot colors are added to compensate for the ineffective reproduction of faint tints using CMYK colors only. However, offset technicians around the world use the term spot color to mean any color generated by a non-standard offset ink; such as metallic, fluorescent, or custom hand-mixed inks.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_color
-Color and Type Readability
Readability is related to how the type is arranged (or typeset) and therefore is controlled by the designer. Factors affecting type’s readability include:
Type size: When setting text, the smaller the size, the more challenging it can be to read. The demographics of your intended audience should be taken into consideration when deciding on a size for text.
Type case: Stick to upper and lowercase when readability is of prime importance.
Line spacing (aka leading): The amount of line spacing needed to improve readability will depend on the size and design of a typeface, as well as its x-height. Therefore, when ease of reading is of high importance, make sure there is enough line spacing to maximize readability, which in general is at least two to three points for print, and a bit more for smaller digital devices.
Line length: For best readability, stick to ‘average’ line length, which is usually between 45 and 70 characters.
Color, or contrast: The color of the type and background can either make the type more legible or almost Impossible to read. So, make sure there is enough color contrast between the type and its background. This is important when you are using black and white (and tints of the former) as well as color. When styling type for digital usage, as they can vary dramatically in how they display color and contrast, be sure to allow for variation from one device, platform, and setting to another.
creativepro.com/legibility-and-readabil…
-Color First
Color psychology is the study of hues as a determinant of human behavior. Color influences perceptions that are not obvious, such as the taste of food. Colors have qualities that can cause certain emotions in people. Colors can also enhance the effectiveness of placebos. (Ex. red or orange pills are generally used as stimulants.) How color influences individuals may differ depending on age, gender, and culture. For instance, heterosexual men tend to report that red outfits enhance female attractiveness, while heterosexual females deny any outfit color impacting that of men. Although color associations can vary contextually between cultures, color preference is to be relatively uniform across gender and race.
Color psychology is also widely used in marketing and branding. Marketers see color as important, as color can influence a consumers' emotions and perceptions about goods and services. Logos for companies are important since the logos can attract more customers. This happens when customers believe the company logo matches the personality of the goods and services, such as the color pink heavily used on Victoria's Secret branding. Colors are also important for window displays in stores. Research shows that colors such as red tended to attract spontaneous purchasers, despite cool colors such as blue being more favorable. Red and yellow, as a combination, can stimulate hunger, which may help to explain, in part, the success of fast-food restaurants such as McDonald’s, Burger King, and In-N-Out Burger. The phenomenon has been referred to as the “ketchup & mustard” theory.
For Poison, Dior came up with the color of the perfume before the scent was developed. Dark, complex hues appeal to a higher economic clientele. See image here.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_psychology
-The Color of Home Computing
Apple was the first to make the computer a household item and give it color. Soon, most other manufacturers followed suit. iMac is a family of all-in-one Macintosh desktop computers designed and built by Apple Inc. It has been the primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since its debut in August 1998 and has evolved through seven distinct forms.
In its original form, iMac G3 had a gumdrop or egg-shaped look, with a CRT monitor, mainly enclosed by a colored, translucent plastic case, which was refreshed early on with a sleeker design notable for its slot-loaded optical drive. The second major revision, the iMac G4, moved the design to a hemispherical base containing all the main components and an LCD monitor on a freely moving arm attached to it. The third and fourth major revisions, the iMac G5 and the Intel iMac respectively, placed all the components immediately behind the display, creating a slim unified design that tilts only up and down on a simple metal base.
-Snow
The 2003 iMac was snow white. The shape of the base is echoed in the form of the twin stereo speakers. All the corners from the monitor to the keyboard were rounded off. The fifth major revision (mid 2007) shared the same form as the previous model but was thinner and used anodized aluminum and a glass panel over the entire front. The sixth major revision (late 2012) uses a different display unit, omits the SuperDrive, and uses different production techniques from the older unibody versions. This allows it to be thinner at the edge than older models, with an edge thickness of 5.9 mm (but the same maximum depth). It also includes a dual microphone setup and includes solid-state drive (SSD) or hard disk storage, or an Apple Fusion Drive, a hybrid of solid-state and hard disk drives. This version of the iMac was announced in October 2012, with the 21.5-inch (55 cm) version released in November and the 27-inch (69 cm) version in December; these were refreshed in September 2013, with new Haswell processors, faster graphics, faster and larger SSD options and 802.11ac Wi-Fi cards.
In October 2014, the seventh major revision of the 27-inch (69 cm) iMac was announced, whose main feature is a "Retina 5K" display at a resolution of 5120 × 2880 pixels. The new model also includes a new processor, graphics chip, and IO, along with several new storage options.[3] The seventh major revision of the 21.5-inch (55 cm) iMac was announced in October 2015. Its main feature is a "Retina 4K" display at a resolution of 4096 × 2304 pixels. It has the same new processor, graphics chip, and I/O as the 27-inch iMac, along with several new storage options.
-Titanium
On June 5, 2017, Apple announced a workstation-class version called the iMac Pro, which features Intel Xeon processors and standard SSD storage. It shares the design and screen of the 5K iMac but is colored in Space Gray rather than silver. Apple began shipping the iMac Pro in December 2017. The iMac Pro was discontinued in 2021.
On April 20, 2021, Apple announced a 24" iMac (actual diagonal screen size is 23.5 in.) with an Apple M1 processor, its first as part of its transition to Apple silicon. It comes in 7 colors (Silver, Blue, Green, Orange, Yellow, Purple, and Pink) with a 4.5K Retina display. On the base configuration, the M1 iMacs come with two Thunderbolt 3/USB 4 ports, and two USB Type-C 3.1 Gen 2 ports on the higher configurations. Apple claims that the M1 iMac offers up to 85% faster CPU performance than the previous 21.5” iMac models. This iMac is the thinnest being only 11.5mm thin due to the entire logic board and speakers being housed in the bottom “chin” of the iMac.
The computer is now a metallic screen floating on a brushed metal sculptural base. Its minimal design continues to influence its competitors as well as dominate the market.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMac
-Masculine (Power) Yellow
Power tools normally come in an array of silver and black colors. DeWalt’s use of yellow not only makes their line of tools easily recognizable but has also worked as a branding trademark.
The yellow color for commercial construction tools is purely cultural. This color is often associated with construction, but the main reason for using such a bright color is because construction equipment needs to be visible to people who work on a job site.
www.engineersupply.com/why-is-construct…
-Picking Color for the Web
You can configure the Adobe Color Picker to let you choose only colors that are part of the web-safe palette or choose from specific color systems. You can also access an HDR (high dynamic range) picker to choose colors for use in HDR images.
The first thing you need to know is how to access the color picker. Either clicking the foreground/background color swatches, which are located on the bottom left of your screen in the tool panel by default, or creating a “solid color” adjustment layer will bring up the color picker.
helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/choosin…
-Motion Graphics: Using Warm and Cool Colors
Great motion design relies heavily on color. The colors used in a project create an emotional response in viewers. Having a basic understanding of color theory can help you set the mood of a project. The cooler hues of the background appear to visually recede, pushing the warmer range of hues to the foreground.
The color wheel can be split down the middle, between warm colors and cool colors. Warm colors are on the red/yellow side, while cool colors are on the green/blue side, though as you can see in the graphic below, there are cooler and warmer shades of each color.
Warm and cool colors can work together, as you’ll see in the color combinations below, but in general you want to avoid using too many warm and cool shades, as this can appear chaotic. It’s a better idea to pick just two or three colors that work well together.
biteable.com/blog/color-theory-basics-v…
-Gaming
The primary function of color vision is to make it easier to identify objects, and indeed, the use of color in games reflect this. We make apples red in games because they are also red in the real world, and so we can recognize them easier in the game. But color has many other functions in games, as it does in art, design, and film…
Color is a powerful way to evoke emotion. Color grading is a popular method used (adapted from film) to adjust the colors of games in one sweep; usually with the purpose of changing the mood.
Sometimes, a color change can also be useful to reduce emotional impact. For example, to look less violent, some games color their blood green to pass certification requirements (such as those in Germany).
In Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, the monster is comprised of warm hues while the background uses atmospheric perspective to create depth.
-Warm and Cool Colors Reversed
Higher contrast ratios typically mean deeper blacks, which makes a big difference in overall picture quality. It's of particular importance for dark scenes in movies and games, especially in a dark room.
When reverse contrast is used, see The Game Room still here, backgrounds have lighter softer tints, while the main character in the foreground is composed of deeper, darker more saturated blue and violet hues. This helps to isolate the figure from the background, as well as focus attention on the main character.
www.gamedeveloper.com/design/color-in-g…
