The more I read about color the more it got confusing. And since this blog is mainly about providing knowledge that is helpful for people that are in or in contact with Marketers and designers, I decided to focus on the information related to that subject. But, if you are interested in learning more about the linguistic and artistic color history, I would recommend reading "On Color" a book by David Scott Kastan. A beautiful book and a surprisingly interesting read.
A fun fact: Isaac Newton(1642 - 1727) invented the first color wheel. He also said that rainbow has 7 colors, based on mythical and religious reasons. And We just adopted that number even though the rainbow is a spectrum and was seen as many different numbers throughout history.
Now Let's talk about Color Theory:
Having a basic knowledge of colors and color theory will give you an advantage when you decide on a color scheme to your company or facilities (hopefully compatible). It starts with the 3 primary colors yellow, blue, and red.
Then the secondary colors that come from merging 2 of the primary colors. That gives us green, orange, and purple.
The color wheel continues by mixing a primary color with a secondary, that gives us Tertiary colors. From there we can create the full color-spectrum in the same way.
Those are called Pure Colors (Hue).
- Adding white to a pure color to give us a Tint.
- Adding black to a pure color to give us Shades.
- Adding gray (black and white) to a pure color gives you Tones.
Using Contrast Correctly:
Contrast is how one color stands apart from another. It's what makes text or objects distinguishable from the background. High contrast is when colors easily stand apart from each other. Low contrast is when they don't.
