VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS: colour theory: pt 2

We looked at colour again, but with coloured card. With larger squares and smaller ones.

Also experimented with ways of laying the colours out on the square, too see if this affected the colour change at all.

With this image, it shows that the yellow stands out the most, compared to the red, which sits behind with the blue and green. This is because the yellow is closer to white and the others are darker, so due to the contrast, the yellow looks much brighter.

I found that when there was a black background, the black made the colour stand out more. Made it brighter, compared to when some colours were on a white background.

For example this yellow on black really pops. It leaves a 'halo' effect around the edges as it is so vibrant. Black and yellow, is usually seen as 'danger' and you can see why this is so.

There is another example of how black really effects the colour, by making it bright and stand out.

When yellow is against white, its difficult to look at and almost merges.

As well with the black background, the white is much easier to see, as the yellow has changed slightly due to the black.

Yellow is a difficult background colour, as it is close to white. It makes it difficult to look at when another colour is laid on top.

Complimentary colours sit well together, for example, the red and green. And the yellow is the brightest and stands out.

However, the blue on red isn't as easy to look at, and the edge vibrates. On the second image, the yellow still stands out and doesn't sit back with the red, but neither does the blue.

What I found interesting in the session, was ways the colours changed depending where they sat with each other.. for example, with red, green and blue. Changing the background colour and the small squares around changes the way you read it, yet they are the same colour.

Having the yellow on a blue background makes the yellow stand out much more, rather than having the blue on a yellow. This is the same as yellow on green.

I think they all sit good together. This is because blue and yellow make green, so it works well.

I did the same with orange, yellow and red.. again, when you mix the 2 primary colours together, you create orange, so this works in a similar way to the blue, green and yellow.

VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS: colour theory

With our objects, we experimented with what would happen to the colour when putting it on different coloured card. Would the colour stand out more, or change?

I found that with a yellow background the yellow stood out more than the green top. It also made the green top look lighter compared to it being on the blue background.

With the red scissors on a red and black background, the black reinforces the red in the scissors, whilst on the other side, the red background seems to make the red of the handles darker.

The green background makes the colour on the object look darker compared to when on the white background.

Looking at 2 different colours placed on different backgrounds really changes the way they are seen. For example, the red on green above looks more saturated than the red on red below. And the green on red above looks darker than the green on green.

We created the colour wheel by arranging our coloured objects. For example: yellow-green to green to blue-green to blue to blue-violet... etc.

After stepping back, I think the colours looked really good. Obviously it wasn't perfect, but I think we managed to get it close.

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At the beginning of the session, we got into our colour groups, and were told to put our coloured objects in an order, and make our own system.

We decided to sort our greens in tones, from lightest yellow-green to absolute green to darker blue-green.

We also had the tertiary colours coming out from both ends too. We were able to do this pretty easily, as we had a large range of different tones of green.

We then had to pick out 10 of the objects, and with the pantone colour books, find the colour code for each object. This was quite time consuming, and difficult, as there are so many slight variations of colour, and finding the right one was difficult.

NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS:

Here are the final images of my envelope and information that is enclosed.

Work in my sketchbook shows the thought behind the rounded corners, and after a crit, someone suggested I look into changing the colour of the envelope, to make it stand out from other envelopes that come through the post.

It looks very clinical and I've tried to add certain parts from warning labels on the backs of medicine packets to try make it more 'safe.'

The information part of the brief was mostly based upon my poster. As I'm using the cut out doll and tabs as an interacting part of my project. The third part is some health and safety rules about using the product. And I've added some silly 'elf and safety rules to reinforce some of the rules that are put into place.

The first image is the same blue as the other 2 posters, but I changed the blue to red as this was suggested in crits. This doesn't work as well in my opinion, and I don't think I'm going to use it.

The next poster after I think works well, as the colour looks as if it's a sign, and this is seen instantly. At the beginning, I didn't have any colour on the poster, and you couldn't relate it to the other posters.

I'm unsure about the 3rd poster. I think it works alright, but the layout of the images could be looked at more, as it looks random and just thrown on.

Here is a macquette of the envelope that I intend on making.

I like the colours and the sign idea. However, I think that the envelope is too busy, and difficult to read, so I decided to simplify it more, keeping the colour and only one symbol and a warning at the back. This, I think works much better and I think there's a better quality to it.

Work from my sketchbook, looking at layout and what to put on the posters:

Here is my final design. After talking to the tutor, she made me see that keeping it simple was the best way to go in this. And after working with the photographs and such above, I was finding it difficult to make it simple and easily understood.

The middle image I am changing slightly, and getting rid of the cut out body in the middle, and just having the safety gear in lines. As the image+text and image posters were similar to each other.

I decided to use blue as one of my colours, as this is usually seen with safet signs. (blue+white)

- Scan of cotton wool- this could be used as background possibly?

These are some photographs I have taken for both the solely image poster and image and text poster.

The first images is a 'younger child.' My aim was to try make the photo's a bit humourous, but at the same time, serious (no laughing) so got the model to pose 'glum' and 'bored.'

Also looked at different levels, with her sitting down, to convey that there was nothing she can do, as health and safety has taken the fun out of everything.

I then needed photos of an older child (teenage/mid twenties) to show that being so "wrapped up in cotton wool" has prevented any development or learning, so is still stuck being over protected.

I really like the facial expression in this photograph, it gives it a bit of attitude, like teenagers would do.

I then got an older model, showing he is working, but still wrapped up, and having to be extra safe, still hasn't moved on. Again, there are some facial expressions, that make the image a bit funnier.

I am going to look at tracing the images and drawing them out by hand, see if i can simplify them, but keep some humour and keep the message simple.

Here are a few experimentations with font, and layout of the statement for the poster that is solely text.

I decided that I would be using capital letters as this can be read easier than lowercase letters, and I think is more eye catching.

I started looking at what font would work best with the poster, and looked at having a kind of 'childish' look. But I think it would be best to keep the type simple and clear, like safety signs, as it will be much more eye catching and easily read.

I'm starting to think about colour, and instead of having all the words in colour, perhaps finding an important word(s) to emphasis. Which means it will grab attention and convey my message quickly. Perhaps know what the poster would be about without having to read all the way through it.