Colour | Graphically Speaking

A collage using orange showing things that made me happy in my childhood

Assignment Three brief:

Choose a colour that has a meaning that you want to explore and celebrate. Think about what the colour you have chosen means both to you and to other people and create something that celebrates that meaning.

This process started with a mind map and photos taken of items around the house and garden. All the colours had meaning for me and I realised that I have quite a few favourite colours.

A collage of householditems showing my favourite colours

Colour Me mood board

I used Adobe Color CC to see what colour options emerged and I decided to go with orange and teal as that combined two of my favourite colours.

: Colour palette 1

: Colour palette 2

The orange comes from my favourite jacket, made from a glorious Irish Linen. It is one I made myself and always makes me think of my Irish grandmother who along with Mum taught me how to sew and knit. It always makes me feel happy and confident when I wear it and that was the theme I wanted to develop.

Having done a bit of research about colour theory I found the quote attributed to Frank Sinatra, “Orange is the happiest colour.” I decided this would form the loose theme I would work with.

: Initial collage sketch

: Sketchbook collage

: Colour Me collage 1

The first idea I developed from a sketch and a physical collage, and included a number of orange things that make me happy. I played with different elements in Photoshop and while I like some of the combinations I didn’t feel it was going in the right direction.

: Orange is…1

: Orange is…2

: Orange is…3

: Orange is…4

The second idea I decided would be much more minimal and focused on the text and orange as the dominant colour. Initially the teal colour was too central so I moved it over. I liked this idea for its simplicity but was a bit concerned that it hadn’t fully answered the brief.

This took me to developing a further collage in Photoshop, using some of the elements of the physical collage. I wanted it to feel a bit looser than the earlier idea with a variety of textures as well as the designated colour palette. It includes my love of books, nature, and initially I went with a broader quote about happiness from “psychology now.’ I quite liked the layout and decided to add the photograph of me and my brother as children laughing and go back to the Frank Sinatra quote. While this was my preference feedback from family suggested they didn’t ‘get it’ and it was too busy and messy.

: Orange is collage 1

: Orange is collage 2

So I decided to ask for feedback from the Visual Comms Facebook group and they provided some very helpful feedback. The two preferences were the minimal version the square and the final collage. The minimal version with the squiggle was felt to be too distracting. There were suggestions for the minimal version about changing the typeface for happiness and its colour. I tried this out but the interplay of the colour made it too difficult to read so I changed the colour blocks instead. It is fascinating to see how many permutations there can be with so few elements!

: Orange is…5

: Orange is…6

: Orange is…7

One reflection suggested the flowers in the final collage were also not necessary so I tried a version without. Monica Pritchard picked up on the childhood theme with the photo and rippling pool water. I decided to take this theme further and rather than include things that make me happy generally I focused on my childhood in Australia and included elements that I think of happily – the tree frog on my blind, the Sulphur crested cockatoos that would steal the washing and follow me about, swimming, sunshine and freedom to play in an extraordinary natural environment. At that point I was going to be the next Gerald Durrell!

: Orange is collage 3

: Orange is collage 4

Final Selection

It was hard to choose a final version as in some ways it felt like I could keep working on them and coming up with yet more ideas. I want to select two rather than one because they are so different in approach.

: Orange is…7

: Orange is collage 3

I suspect that Monica is right that the stripped back version of the collage works best in design terms, although it is the version with the Australian flora and fauna that makes me smile the most.

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12 two tone coloured squares exploring the relationship between different colours

Draw two grids of squares, filling one with colours you like and others with colour you dislike. Then put the two groups side by side and ask the question, ‘which one looks better?’

Next try experimenting with placing colours together as Johannes Itten did. Try and find different combinations of colours to illustrate the list of ideas (Graphic Design One: Page 69.)

Given the almost infinite variety of colours I wasn’t quite sure how to start approaching this exercise. For the two grids I started by using Adobe Draw as it is really easy to add blocks of colour; working fairly randomly I selected colours and filled the grids.

: Dislike 1 (Draw)

: Dislike 2 (Draw)

: Like 1 (Draw)

: Like 2 (Draw)

: Like

: Dislike

I then remembered I had a set of Pantone based postcards so spread them out in different combinations and took photos. Although the course text suggests most people find they prefer the colours they don’t ordinarily like because of the colour dynamics I confess with the drawn set I still preferred the bright and gawdy versions! With the printed versions however I agree that the more muted colours look better in relationship to one another.

I then went on to use the Pantone cards for the colour combination exercise. I spread them out so I could see all the colours and created a grid of all the terms. The Postcards are not accurate Pantone samples so I knew there would be some colour variation when I moved onto digital versions but it felt like a more manageable way to attempt the exercise. I probably made a bit of a meal of the task but it got me to the end point I needed. I went through several steps:

As I worked through each word I made a note of the Pantone number
Using the Pantone website I looked up a Hex number for each colour
I set up two artboards in Illustrator and added the squares which are effectively three squares layered (there was probably a more effective way of doing this using outline but I wasn’t sure how to do it)
I started adding the colour initially a square at a time and then realised I could highlight the outer and inner square and fill them at the same time! (it all helps with my Illustrator learning)
As I went I made notes on my sheet about any changes I made

: Colour Dynamics 1

: Colour dynamics 2

Given that I knew the Pantone postcards were not true colour representations I had expected to make some changes, and when I did these were mainly based on seeing the outcome of the two colours interacting. I also noticed that I have a tendency towards warmer, brighter colours and would seldom choose browns or greens. The colour squares can be downloaded here as a PDF.

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