Seeing is Believing

I chose to look more into the correlation and complimenting (and sometimes contrasting) aspect that color has within design. Color is a very important part of design as it can invoke emotion, deceive the eye, creating illusions of space and dimension, add to something's aesthetic value, as well as create a multitude of problems for designers (especially interior). For other fields it can suggest or impose a feeling of being rushed or calm to slow down the user's time with the site or product. Color may seem like an after thought on many products but it is far from that, being a well thought out aspect important to hooking in consumers or making a room visually pleasing. 


One way in which color can be tricky is how we perceive it. When I say this it is less about the differentiation of: this is blue this yellow, but colors can be drastically or even subtly changed by lighting conditions that it is put within. This is called metamerism in which a color or colors may look one hue or match in a certain light but do not in another. Essentially the varying light sources, whether it is an incandescent light bulb, florescent or natural light can create inconsistent appearances with the same color, each having different properties from the hue of the light to reflectiveness. Not all colors are affected by metamerism but mauve, lilac, taupe, celadon, grayish blues and tan are often problematic for color differentiation in certain light source. If you'd like to read more visit: http://www.colormatters.com/r_barclay.html


When dealing with light and how it reflects off of different colors we must delve a little deeper into something called the subtractive theory. Essentially the subtractive theory dictates that a color absorbs all of the light/color frequencies, excluding the one it is. The blue bar at the top of this page appears blue because it is reflecting only that frequency back to your eyes. The subtractive theory deals with pigments and print. The opposing system is that of light known, fittingly contrasting pigments as the additive theory. In this theory instead of color being absorbed excluding the reflected hue and white being the absence of color, white is the epitome of color and mixture. If you'd like to read more visit: http://daphne.palomar.edu/design/color.html

There are also different systems of colors respectively called CMYK and RGB. CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (or black) and is typically used for print as it deals with pigments. RGB stands for Red, Green, Blue, and is used for most digital media as it uses the light system of color. That is why if you look very close to an older tv screen (prior to 720 and HD screens) you can usually see red, green and blue squares that make up the screen. If you'd like to read more visit: http://sixrevisions.com/web_design/a-look-into-color-theory-in-web-design/ 

Other effects that color can have are psychological ones. For instance old people and babies tend to dislike yellow seeing as it scientifically proven to take more chemicals in the eye to perceive it, which can take away from other brain functions. Red food tends to make the eater hungrier as the color causes a spike in the viewer's metabolism. Blue and Pink have calming effects. Gray promotes productivity, and surprisingly creativity. Color can create a multitude of effects on someone viewing them, and can even induce actions if placed in or on the right things, ie. a fridge that's red, it's not too practical a color for a fridge but it can increase your appetite every time you walk past it. If you'd like to read more visit: 
http://www.writedesignonline.com/resources/design/rules/color.html


On top of color's effects on the real world the virtual one also reaps it's benefits. With much of consumerism going to the internet, companies must appeal to customers' perception of them, or provoke a response from them. In the case of web design, colors such as red induce more impulsive decisions, yellow serves as a great attention grabber, and green seems to just drive people away, except if the company is associated with nature (environmentalism, etc.). With the many responses people have to colors on a website people can almost be persuaded just by a color scheme in front of their eyes. According to psychologists 60 percent of product/service rejection or purchasing can be attributed to site's colors. If you'd like to read more visit: http://www.pepfx.com/articles/web_design/webdesign_colors.php