Outline 12: A Design Perspective

Held: Monday, 9 February 2015

Back to Outline 11 - Testing Your Procedures, Revisited. On to Outline 13 - Raster Graphics and RGB Colors.

Summary

We consider the basics of color theory.

Related Pages

Overview

A bit about design.
A bit about color theory.
Exploring some images and design spaces.

Administrivia

New partners!
Mentor session Monday (tonight) at 7:00 p.m.
Work returned (I hope)

Upcoming Work

Exam 1.
- Exam due in electronic form due Tuesday at 10:30 p.m. (free extension until Wednesday at 10:30 p.m.).
- Exam due in printed form Wednesday (free extension until Thursday at review time).
- Required epilogue due Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. (free extension until Wednesday at 11:00 p.m.)
No lab writeup for today!
Today will be more of a discussion day. That means we have time for questions on the exam and more at the beginning.
Reading for Tuesday
- Raster Graphics: Images from Pixels and Colors
- RGB Colors

Extra Credit Opportunities

Academic

Education Film, Wednesday night
TEDx Grinnell, February 21

Miscellaneous

Read and comment on the new Grinnell College Guide to Preventing, Reporting, and Responding to Sexual Harassment and Sexual Misconduct. Angela Voos says that she would really like to know what kinds of things might go in an FAQ or instructional video about the reporting process.

Peer Support (Morning Section)

Julia's radio show, "The Hot Box". Wednesday night/Thursday morning 1:00-2:00 a.m.
Swimming, Conference Championships, February 13-15, The Osgood

Peer Support (Afternoon Section)

Men's Basketball vs. Knox, Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., New Darby
Swimming, Conference Championships, February 13-15, The Osgood

Recommended, But no EC

2 <3 GC day on Wednesday.

The chief aim of color should be to serve expression as well as possible. Henri Matisse

A Bit About Design

Many issues to consider, both formal and informal
Formal attributes include things like balance, symmetry, dimensionality
Informal goals
- How does the image lead your eye?
- Does the image maintain your viewer's interest, or is it easy to see and dismiss?
Successful designers know how to take advantage of certain formal attributes to acheive various goals (including these informal goals).
Right now, we're just going to look at some formal issues regarding color.

Basics of Color Theory

Issue: Do we think in terms of paint (traditional) or in terms of light (computer/theatre)?
Three models
- RGB - additive color, based on red, green, and blue lights
  - Adding colors makes things brighter - more light is transmitted
  - Often represented using a 0-255 (integer) or 0-1 (real) range.
- Red, Yellow, Blue - subtractive color
  - Adding colors makes things darker - more light is absorbed
- Hue, Saturation, Value
  - Hue is the underlying color
  - Value refers to lightness and darkness (high value is lighter)
  - Saturation refers to how much of the color we have (low saturation is closer to grey, high saturation is purer color)
  - We'll look at the color wheel to ground this understanding
    - A color wheel
    - A color cylinder
    - And we will play with some issues in lab tomorrow
Working with RYB and the color wheel, we say that there are
- Three primary colors: Red, Yellow, and Blue
- Three secondary colors, created by combining the primaries.
- Six tertiary colors, created by mixing a secondary with the neighboring primaries.
We also assign temperature to colors: red colors are warmer, blue and green are cooloer
- Temperature can also affect where in the plane you see something
The ways you arrange colors affect the way you understand them.
- Traditionally, there are ranges between harmonious and dischordant.
Color schemes
- Complementary - opposite on the color wheel
- Analagous - three neighboring colors on the 12-color color wheel
- Monochromatic - variations on one color (different hue/saturation)
- We may take a quick look at the Color Scheme Designer

Activities

A few check-ins about HSV.
Some sample designs, taken from the Kluber version of Digital Design
Maybe more fun with the Color Scheme Designer