DSGN 0010
Spring 2025
COLOR 101
What is color?
HILMA AF KLINT
Philosophy of Color:
SUBJECTIVE OR OBJECTIVE?
Plato + color = internal world
Aristotle + color = external world
Plato believed that our perception of color was a result
of how the “pores of the eyes” projected onto an
external object.
For Aristotle, color came from the physical properties of
the external world around us. He believed that light and
color had to move through a transparent medium (like
air) in order to be seen.
OLAFUR ELIASSON
Humans
(3 color receptors)
Mantis Shrimp
(12-16 color receptors)
WHY COLOR IN ART + DESIGN?
NAM JUNE PAIK POSTER, BLUETOPIA BY RENEE GREEN
Color PsychOLOGY
TYRIAN PURPLE + MAUVE MANIA
PAINTING BY SIGMAR POLKE
Prussian Blue in Ukiyo-e
UTAGAWA HIROSHIGE
Scheele’s Green
EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
https://ismy.blue/
NEWTON
GOETHE
GOETHE’S COLOR STUDIES
Newton v Goethe
More Studies in Color
JAMES SOWERBY’S STUDIES OF NEWTON
WERNER’S NOMENCLATURE OF COLOUR
EMILY VANDERPOEL’S COLOR MANUAL
Chevreul
COLOR STUDY FROM A JAPANESE TEXTBOOK
THE BAUHAUS
JOSEF ALBERS’ INTERACTION OF COLOR EXPERIMENTS
Albers & Itten
ROTHKO, TANTRIC PAINTING BY UNKNOWN ARTIST, HOWARDENA PINDELL, ETEL ADNAN
The COLOR WHEEL
PRIMARY COLORS
SECONDARY COLORS
TERTIARY COLORS
components of color
1
3
2
Hue
Saturation
Value
Another word for color
Intensity of color
Light/dark
Hue
GARY HUME (LEFT), IKKO TANAKA (RIGHT)
Saturation
Value
Color scheming
1
3
5
Monochromatic
Single hue
Complementary
Opposites on the color wheel
Triadic
Colors that form a triangle on the
color wheel
2
4
6
Analagous
Colors next to each other on the
color wheel
Split Complimentary
One color plus the two colors on
either side of its complementary
opposite
Tetradic
Colors that form a perfect
square or rectangle on the color
wheel
Monochromatic
Complementary
Triadic
Split Complimentary
HOWARDENA PINDELL, RENEE GREEN, ROTHKO, MATISSE, WARHOL
Tetradic
Analagous
RGB & CMYK: When/where?
Pantone colors
PANTONE’S 2025 COLOR OF THE YEAR = MOCHA MOUSSE