Color Theory Notes

Design: Color Theory

• Color Theory
  • Three stages
    • primary, secondary and tertiary
• ROYGBIV
  • visible colors
• Primary colors
  • Pigment generated colors derived from red, yellow and blue (dark)
  • Light generated colors are derived from red, green and blue (light)
• Dark color recedes, light color advances
• Color Mixing
  • RGB (red green blue light generated model)
  • RGY (red green yellow pigment generated model)
  • CMYK (cyan magenta yellow black print process model)
• Color Modes
  • Monochrome (tints, shades and tones of a single hue)
  • Grey Scale (black and white only)
  • Web Safe RGB (Hexadecimal compatible)
• Color Modification
  • Tints (add white to a pure hue)
  • Shades (add black to a pure hue)
  • Tones (add grey to a pure hue)
• Color Harmony
  • Complementary (opposites)
  • Split Complementary (opposites + 1 two colors over)
  • Analogous (colors next to each other on color wheel)
  • Triad (triangle in color wheel)
  • Tetradic (rectangle in color wheel)
  • Quadrilateral (square in color wheel)
• Color Palettes
  • Different color palettes can invoke mood, location, emotion
• Color Properties
  • Cool, warm, bright, dark, saturated, desaturated
• Color Intensity
  • Changes in relation to its surrounding color
• Color Associations
  • These types of color associations are universal to all people
• Cultural and Psychological Color Associations
  • These color associations are generated from cultural and contemporary sources and may not be universally recognizable
• Why Color Matters
  • 73% of purchasing decisions are now made in-store
  • Catching the shopper’s eye and conveying info effectively are critical to successful sales
  • Color increases brand recognition by up to 80%
• Color Affects
  • Appetite
    • Blue is a rare occurrence in nature
    • We have no appetite response to blue food
  • The Mind
    • Pink is a tranquilizing color that drains your energy
    • Used in prisons, holding cells, opposing team locker rooms

Color Swatch

File Format Exercise

Graphic Design Notes

What is Graphic Design

• Design elements are the basic units of a visual image
• The principles of design govern the relationships of the elements used and organize the composition as a whole
• All imagery, art, design, and photography are alike, comprised of elements that can be broken down and analyzed

Design Elements

• Space 
  • Exists in 2 or 3 dimensions
  • Can refer to positive or negative space
  • foreground, midground, and background
• Line
  • Can vary in thickness, texture, and direction
• Color
  • Various pallets
• Texture
  • Implied and real
• Shape
  • Organic and inorganic
  • Geometric, natural, and abstract
• Value
  • Light and dark
  • Used to give depth
• Balance
  • Work must have a balanced “weight”
  • Not necessarily symmetrical

Design Principles

• Unity
  • Creates a sense of order
• Variety
  • Repetition with slight differences
• Repetition
  • Repeated elements
• Harmony
  • Use of elements to balanced, good feeling
• Proximity
  • Can create a sense of unity or a lack of unity
• Proportion
  • How we perceive threat/emphasis
• Functionality
  • Must have a purpose
• Emphasis
  • Creates focus and conveys purpose

Juxtaposition collage

Graphic File Notes

Graphic File Formats

Create and evaluate multiple file formats for quality/file size

File formats:

• • All computer docs are in different file formats
• • Format is determined often by the files origin, like photoshop
• • Graphic files such as a photo, vid, or artwork can be reduced in file size by using image compression formats

Lossy vs lossless

• • Graphic image formats are in 2 catagories of compression, lossy or lossless
• • Lossy= image data “lost” or reduce for smaller file sizes and can cause poor image quality. Shows “compression artifacts”
• • Lossless retains image data for higher quality, but larger file size   

Graphic formats:

• • Tif, jpg and gif are the 3 most common formats for common activities such as printin, scanning, and internet
• • PNG is a common web format, high quality 
• • Each format has its own advantages and disadvantages

TIF:

• • Tagged Image Format
• • Common format for desktop publishing, print photo and graphic design
• • Is a lossless file format. It retains image data for maximum image quality
• • Can result in large files

JPG:

• • Joint Photographers Expert Group
• • Created for digital photography and works best for photos
• • Is Lossy
• • Can reduce image file size by 10: without showing significant compression artifacts
• • Level of compression is adjustable

GIF:

• • Graphics Interchange Format
• • Best for graphics or images, flat color and even tones
• • Is ajustible for changing color bit levels from 1 to 8
• • Contains no dpi (dots per inch) data for printing
• • WORST FOR PRINTING

Know your pixels

• • TIF and JPG are best for images that have blend in color, “contiguous pixels”
• • Gif is best for images with flat even tone, “non-contiguous”

SAEDA album cover

Place and Trace Project

GRUMPY CAT COFFEE LOGO

Anti-Litter Poster

High mountain tea house design

pixel art

car project

The Phylosophers CD cover

FOXHALL poster