Friday, September 4, 2015

color - Colour theory and rainbow palettes


I've been reading about colour theory and want to understand how it relates to rainbow palettes like the attached, also a palette type commonly used by the designer Paul Smith as his signature.


How are the colours related? I have a suspicion they are being mixed from a main set to get all the varieties?


How would I go about creating a similar palette?


enter image description here



Answer



If you want to understand more about color theory, look to the masters: Josef Albers and Johannes Itten. Read the texts and experiment with their theories and you will develop an eye for combinations like the one you reference and many more sophisticated examples.


Beyond the aesthetics of it, color is math. If you really want to get into generating palettes instead of choosing palettes you'll have to experiment with that. With an understanding of the math behind color harmonies (complimentary, analogous, split compliment, triad, pentagram, etc) and a little javascript, you could create an endless variety of palettes.


No comments:

Post a Comment

technique - How credible is wikipedia?

I understand that this question relates more to wikipedia than it does writing but... If I was going to use wikipedia for a source for a res...