Designing with colour: Critical analysis of colour application
Colour is one of the important visual elements used in designing to help convey meaning in art, architecture and in applied design. There are various theories concerning the application of color. These theories explain how color can be used efficiently to convey an intended message to the audience. This study delineates architecture and interior design colour application through the colour combination techniques, seven types of colour contrasts and colour harmony.
Colour has been used in architecture from time in memorial. One example of a building which has used colour is Wainwright building, St Louis, and USA 1890-1891. The building used red brick façade and was used as an office building. Another building is Villa Savoye building built between 1928-1931. The house was painted in white to emphasize the building contrast with the natural environment.
During the last quarter of 21st color has become an important instrument of art in western architecture. Various combinations of colours are used to communicate different meanings. Currently the discipline of architecture appreciates the fact that colour can be used for multiplicity of roles. Some of these roles include color as an architectural style, a form of expression to enhance experience of the built environment, as a contribution to in heritage values and a sense of place, in the mitigation of visual impact of the built environment and as a communication and also as a signaling device (Rose, 1991).
In architecture, specific colors are used to provide a given style. Examples of how color is used in the architectural world can be seen in both modernist and post-modernist architecture. In early modernist, most of the colours used included white and achromatic colours such as black and grey. Example of building with this type of colours is Walter Gropius Bauhaus building (1926), Kharry Seilder’s Australia Square (1967), Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, Paris (1929) and Rose Seidler House (1948) (Rose, 1991). On the other hand, the postmodern architects incorporate a wide range of design elements. It is more creative and innovative given the fact that achromatic colors and are replaced with stronger and vivid colors (Jencks, 1989; Rose, 1991). Examples of these buildings includes Philio Cox and Partner’s University of Technology Sydney building (1983), and the New Orleans 91978) among others (Rose, 1991). Colours are also used in the interior designs to create mood and ambience, manipulate perception of depth, spaciousness and size and also to ease navigation within the built environment.
Colour contrast is also an important consideration in the colour design. There are seven types of colour contrast that are used by designers in their work. One of them includes the contrast of hue which results from differences in hue, light dark contrast arising from differences in tonal value. Cool-warm contrast which is done between warm and cool colors. Complementary contrast, simultaneous contrast, contrasts of saturation and contrast of extension whereby the proportion of use of color varies with the designer’s preference. Large contrast of extension which creates focus, minimal extension that creates impact and intensity and medium contrast of extension which ensures that there is movement around a certain design in any piece of work (Itten, 1961).
The Itten colour wheel is used to combine colours. The contrast of colours is achieved by using opposite colours in the wheel. For instance, red is used with green, orange with blue while yellow with purple (Itten, 1961). Other colours have low and high saturation in terms of purity and intensity or high to low tonal value such as dark or light.
Colour harmony is yet another important concept in the application of colour. The major colour harmony approaches or theories of colour harmony approach the subject as a stochastic phenomenon and an idiographic. Secondly this approach views color harmony as a predictable and universal phenomenon. Colour harmony is stated to be a universal phenomenon if it is immutable and absolute and is therefore used regardless of the individual’s differences whether they are cultural, perceptual or temporal factors. The idiographic is more individualist and less predictable thus a subjective issue. For this reason, aesthetic response to colour is influenced by various factors.
Colour harmony is also categorized into five areas. These are the achievement of visual comfort, ensuring a balance of opposites, ensuring proportional arrangement of colors, ensure similarities of visual and colour attributes and there is mathematical or geometric order (Feisner, 2000). Colour harmony therefore is related to a color perception’s influencing factors such as individual differences, cultural experiences, prevailing context, perceptual effects and influences of time and designs and social trends among many other (Feisner, 2000). Because of this, interior designers select their colors by factoring in the people that will use the building, their culture, perceptions among many others. The colour harmony should be of value and should meet the expectations of the people.
In architecture, combinations of colors can either achieve success or have some weakness that may reduce a building’s aesthetic appeal. The building can lack attractiveness if the colours selected are not selected wisely. The combination of colours should be able to convey a distinct message to the audience; it must be as a result of innovation and creativity and should fit the style of architecture. Another consideration the choice and combination of color is the suitability of the color scheme to the people that are using it. If some of these factors are not considered, the colour may not appeal to the users.
In conclusion it is important to reiterate the fact that choice of color for an architectural project is heavily dependent on the intended message as well as the perceptions and preferences of the building’s intended users. Having such a mindset and the relevant practical skills and knowledge of colors can greatly complement a person’s architectural career.
References
Feisner, E. (2000). Colour: How to use colour in art and design. London: Laurence King
Itten, J. (1961). The art of color (Revised edition, 1973). New York: John Wiley.
Rose, M. A. (1991). Defining the post‐modern. In M. A. Rose (Ed.), The post‐modern and the post‐industrial: A critical analysis (pp. 3‐20). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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