Volume 01 // Number 08
August 2007
- In this issue
- Color and Contrast
- Getting Unplugged
- Find of the Month
Hi,
This email newsletter comes to you in our never-ending pursuit of helping our friends and clients succeed because your success is our success.
Color and Contrast
Color informs our lives. It can provide meaning (red stop signs), it can convey emotion (romantic lavender and pink), and is a constant with trends in fashion, colors of automobiles, and the colors of walls in our homes; affecting us on a daily basis. Color also provides contrast; allowing an object or message stand out when faced with a myriad of choices. We see color, we feel color, but the real key to understanding color is being able to speak color.
Speaking color involves understanding basic color terminology and there are three terms key to describing any color. They are:
- Hue
- Saturation
- and Value
Hue refers to the distinct characteristics of every color. Think of the rainbow of colors in a spectrum. Each color within that spectrum is a different hue.
Saturation refers to the intensity of a color based on how much or how little gray it contains. The more gray that is added to a color the more neutral it will appear. It will often be referred to as soft, muted, toned-down, or dusty. In a hue’s purest form, with no gray added, colors are described as pure, brilliant, rich, or bold.
The lightness or darkness of a color is its value. Lighter values of a hue are called “tints”. Darkened values of a hue are called “shades”, and medium value of colors are called “midtones.” Any two colors close in value, when put next to each other will have a soft edge, or transition, between them. Sharp changes in value create more contrast when colors are placed together.
Last color note. Colors may appear to change according to their surroundings. Very large color masses, like walls within a house, will affect smaller masses of color. For example, a small area of medium gray when surrounded by a large area of black will appear brighter than the same medium gray surrounded by a large area of white. Any color seems lighter against a darker color and a darker color again a lighter color. Please contact us with any questions.
Getting Unplugged
At the end of July I was able to get unplugged literally for a week. I was in a remote location in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona off “the grid.” I had no access to cell phone service and not an Internet connection for many miles.
An experience like this lends itself to presenting a new perspective on many things. For me, in particular, I realized how many people are slaves to their machines. Cell phones, Email, and the Internet all contribute to a feeling of busyness that pervades the modern business environment.
Sometimes I feel that these devices are not serving me. Rather I am serving them by attending to their incessant ringing, beeps, and pop-up windows. I am not saying they do not serve a purpose, they do. However, at what tipping point is too much? When do these tools inhibit versus advance our lives?
What we all need to be asking ourselves is, are we being busy? Or are we being productive?
Finally, Find of the Month
Every issue we share an Internet destination we have come across that has some application to doing business, getting things done, or is just plain cool. Based on our main topic this month its Color Combos, and Color Schemer. These websites contains a large number of color combinations that you can use to inspire you to see new combinations and options for your next project that needs some color.
That’s it for this month of DesignDetails. We’ll talk to you again in September.
Here’s to your success!
Bert Mahoney
Publisher, DesignDetails
Principal and Creative Director,
HamiltonBerchman Design Group, Inc.
details@hamiltonberchman.com