Systematic Colour

In todays session we started learning about Systematic colour and how colours are perceived differently to each individual person and can vary noticeably. Colours are perceived on different wavelengths, with the lower wavelengths being blue and the higher wavelengths being red.

The eye has two different kinds of receptors, called Rods and Cones. Rods perceive greys and tones, while Cones perceive colour and despite the spectrum of colours we think we see, the eye only recognises three colours; red/orange, green and blue, and the three types of Cones are sensitive to each colour.

Primary colours (red, yellow and blue) can be mixed to make other colours, but no other colours can be mixed to make these three.

Secondary colours are the colours made when two primary colours are mixed together.

Tertiary colours are the colours made when one Primary and one Secondary colour are mixed together.

Colour mode RGB (red, green, blue) are Additive colours, and when all mixed together, they create white, whereas colour mode CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow) mix to make black (Key).

Complimentary Colours are two colours that will cancel each other out to create a grey, the same grey for every combination of two colours.

We had each gathered 15 objects of one colour and used them to make our own colour wheel.

HUE + TONE + SATURATION = CHROMATIC VALUE

HUE

Hue, and saturation each have high and low values, as does it's chromatic value. However, shades and tints are changed by a higher level of either black or white.

Pantone Colour Matching takes all of these into consideration when matching a colour. The colour can be identified using tints, shades and hues, and the combination is different for each individual colour. Pantone is an 'agreed' set or colour swatches which is recognised both digitally and manually around the world. The code of each colour swatch shows its chromatic value.

Pantone swatch books contain samples of each and every variation of colour, with specific numbers so these colours can be duplicated digitally. While digitally the colour may not appear to be the same as the pantone swatch, the printed version is exact to the swatch as it is based on the same number. The pantone system allows for designers to avoid dealing with the inaccuracies of digitally represented colour.

We chose a selection of items and used the pantone swatches to match the item to colour, which familiarised us with how to identify the variations of tone, hue etc in colours that we were trying to match, but there were still some we weren't able to be totally accurate with.