Colour Contrast Experimentation

Going back to the 3rd colour theory session, I played around with the colours of the paper and my 4 objects using their pantone codes to have a look at how the various contrasts they created would look on-screen.

The blue object contrasts more with the orange and red backgrounds than the blue, green or yellow ones due to the contrast of temperature. The reason they contrast more with the red and orange than the yellow, despite having contrasting temperatures, is that there is a greater contrast in hue between the blue with the red and orange than the yellow, which overpowers the greater difference in tone the blue has with the yellow. The blue sits quite nicely with the green and the other blue due to its low contrast in all of the categories of contrast.

Green, being a neutral colour, sits nicely with the yellow, green and blue backgrounds due to it having similar tone and hue. The contrast in temperature however makes looking at it next to the orange and red uncomfortable, especially next to the red due to the complimentary contrast. Because it is a neutral colour, is has a low contrast of extension in most cases, with the obvious exception being against the red, it's slightly higher in the yellow and orange than in the blue and green because the contrast of saturation, as the yellow and orange are more saturated than the green and blue.

The yellow has quite a high contrast with all the background colours, and this is mainly due the the high contrast of saturation. The yellow object is a lot more saturated than the background colours, even the other yellow. The lack of contrast of temperature between the yellow with the red or orange means the colours don't contrast too badly despite having quite a high contrast of tone. The harshest contrast the yellow has is with the blue, which isn't even that bad as the main element is the contrast of tone and temperature, this may be different however if there was a purple background as the complimentary contrast might cause some problems as well. 

The orange object I have noticed tends to have the opposite effects in terms of contrast to what the blue did. This makes sense I suppose though, given that orange and blue are complimentary colours. The only difference being that the contrast between the 2 oranges is so slight that it is uncomfortable to look at. It has contrast of temperature to some extent in that the darker one appears to look warmer because the lighter one looks cooler. This is because of the contrast of saturation, as the background orange is more saturated than the object orange.

Colour Contrast Types

The only noticeable contrast is the contrast
of saturation. Their is very little contrast of
hue or tone.

There is a slight contrast in hue and tone,
but the contrast of saturation is also quite
high. 

There is a high contrast of tone, as the blue
is a lot darker than the yellow. Because of
this there is a big contrast of hue. The blue
is a lot more saturated than the yellow,
causing a high contrast of saturation. There
is also quite a strong contrast of temperature,
the yellow makes the blue look colder, and
the blue makes the yellow look warmer.

There is a slight contrast of tone, as the blue
is a bit darker than the orange. There is also
a big contrast of hue. The blue is considerably
more saturated than the orange, causing a fairly
high contrast of saturation. There is a very
strong contrast of temperature, meaning the
orange makes the blue look colder, and
the blue makes the orange look hotter. On
top of this there is simultaneous contrast,
which cause the blue to make the orange look
more orange, and the orange to make the blue
look more blue.

There is a very minimal contrast in tone,
but the contrast in hue is fairly large. Again,
the blue is a lot more saturated than the
background colour, causing a high contrast
of saturation. There is also a high contrast
of temperature, with the blue making the red
warmer and the red making the blue colder.
On top of this there is some slight simultaneous
contrast, as the blue brings out some of the
orange in the red background.

There is a high contrast of tone, as the
green is a lot darker than the blue due to
the lighting of the photo and the shade of
the green. There is a small contrast of hue,
but nothing to make it uncomfortable to
look at. 

Again, there's a slight contrast of tone due
to the shade of the sharpener, but other
than that their is no contrast besides a slight
contrast of saturation.

The green is a lot darker than the yellow,
causing a high contrast of tone. There is
a slight contrast of hue, with a fairly strong
contrast of saturation, as the green is very
saturated. The green makes the yellow
look warmer, causing contrast of temperature.

There is a slight contrast of tone, as the
green is slightly darker than the orange.
There is also a big contrast of hue. The
green is slightly more saturated than the orange,
resulting in a slight contrast of saturation. 

There is a slight contrast in tone as the red
is a bit darker than the green. There is a
heavy contrast of hue due to them being
opposite each other on the colour wheel,
this also causes complimentary contrast.
There is a fairly strong contrast of saturation
as the green is a lot more saturated than
the red background.

There's quite a heavy contrast of tone, as
the blue is much darker than the yellow,
this also results in a large contrast of hue.
The yellow is much more saturated than the
blue, causing a high contrast of saturation.
There's a slight contrast of temperature, as
the yellow makes the blue look a little colder.

There are only slight contrasts in hue and
tone, as well as in saturation, as the yellow
is more saturation than the green.

The only real contrast in this case is the
contrast in saturation, the notepad is a
lot more saturated than the background.

There is quite a strong contrast of tone,
orange is a lot darker than the yellow. There
is also a slight contrast of hue. Both are
equally saturated so there isn't any contrast
of saturation. Both being warm colours
means that there's no contrast of temperature.

There's a fairly strong contrast of tone as
the red is darker than the yellow, there's
also quite strong contrast of hue as well.
Again, both are equally saturated and
warm, so there isn't much contrast of
saturation or temperature.

There is a large contrast of hue as the two
colours are opposite each other on the
colour wheel, which means that there's
some complimentary contrast going on.
The strongest contrasts are the contrasts
of saturation and temperature. The orange
is a lot more saturated than the blue, and
it makes the blue look a lot colder, while
the blue makes the orange look hotter. 

There is a low contrast of tone as both
colours are similarly dark, although there
is a high contrast of hue. The orange is
very slightly more saturated than the
green, causing a very slight contrast of
saturation.

The orange is quite a lot darker than the
yellow, meaning there is quite a high
contrast of tone. The contrast of hue is
only very slight, but the contrast of
saturation is lot higher as the orange is
a lot more saturated than the yellow. Both
colours are hot colours so there isn't any
contrast of temperature.

The only contrast is the contrast of saturation.
The knife is only slightly more saturated than
the the orange background, so the contrast
of saturation is only very slight.

There is a slight contrast of tone as the
red is a bit darker than the orange, which
is partially because of the contrast of hue.
The orange is more saturated than the red
which has caused a reasonably heavy 
contrast in saturation.

Studio Breif 4 - Communicate - "Neon" Paint

I popped into the stationary shop in the Merrion Center on the off chance that they had some glow in the dark or luminous paint. They didn't. What they did have was a 4 pack of neon paints for sale at 10p. I thought I may as well buy them and use the green to try and paint over the green area on a re-print of my poster. Unfortunately, when I got home I discovered that all the paint inside had dried up to the point where it was completely solid. After mixing some hot water into it, I eventually made the paint usable, although unfortunately it was somewhat watered down.

My 10p "neon" paints.

In good light you can see that the paint looks very bright. 

With no light it shines very slightly, what else would I expect for 10p though.

In a dark room with a bit of light, the sort of lighting that is present in most fish shops, this is the result. The effect is exactly what I wanted, even if the paint and/or my painting wasn't amazing. The green shines fairly brightly and you notice the black enough to intrigue you. This intrigue would make it more likely for you to pick up the handout/flyer/leaflet I produced.

In summary, I'm pleased with the effect my poster creates, and it is pretty much how I envisaged it would be in terms of the effect. I'm not so pleased with the paint, but like I said, I can't really complain for using half a pot of paint that cost 10p. I think this poster, if screen printed properly using the correct ink, along with my flyer, provide a suitable and successful outcome to problem presented in my brief.

Colour Theory 3

In todays colour theory lesson we took a more in depth look at the different types of contrast and how to understand them in practice in the hope that we could then have a better chance of being able to control them in our work.

Pantone matching the pieces of paper so I can use the colours
to play with different contrasts on photoshop to see how they
look on screen compared to how they look when printed.

This shows how how the star looks differently coloured depending
on what coloured background the item is placed against.

Yellow Background

Fairly close tones and so they blend together and have little contrast of tone. Their is a slight contrast in hue but not much to make a significant difference. The main difference is the saturation, as the green is a much purer green than the yellow.

Green Background

The similar hues mean that the green background brings out the yellow in the star more due to the background being more saturated than the star. There's a very small contrast of tone due to the hues being very similar on the colour wheel.

Blue Background

The contrast of tone makes the green star look slightly darker, although the contrast of hue isn't too different. The contrast of saturation if very strong as both colours are very saturated, it's just that the blue is a fairly light tint. 

Orange Background

The contrast of tone is quite strong because of how much darker the orange is than the green. Their is a very strong contrast of hue because of how far apart they are on the colour wheel. The contrast of saturation isn't so strong because the orange seems a lot more saturated than the green. Their is a fairly strong contrast of temperature as with the green being a neutral colour, the orange is made to look warmer. There is also some simultaneous contrast going on, as the orange makes the green look bluer, and the green makes the orange look more red. This also results in a bit of complimentary contrast. 

Red Background

Again there's a strong contrast of tone and saturation due to the red being much darker and purer than the green. Their is strong complimentary contrast because of how different the hues of red and green are.

We then looked at how different combinations of printing plates can affect the colour in CMYK printing. The left colours show Cyan, Yellow and Magenta having all been printed, whereas on the right only Cyan and Magenta have been used. We then used linen testers to look at how the dots are printed individually.