COLOUR + VALUE

Colour is the first thing you see and the most vital element of design. It can effect an audience physically, emotionally and psychologically. When choosing a garment, the colour is the first thing noticed, then fabric, silhouette and details. Colour appears when light waves are reflected and absorbed by a fabric or surface.

When talking about colour it is a combination of three different terms which are:

Hue: The name of a colour such as green, red, blue, yellow or purple.
Value: The lightness or darkness of a colour often known as tone. Eg: light green verses dark green. Different values are created through the addition of black, grey and white to hues. Colours with a high value are white to light grey (score 1-3) and colours with a low value are dark grey to black (7-9).
Chroma: The purity of a colour. It refers to the intensity, brightness or dullness of a hue. Through Chroma fluorescents, earthy tones and jewel colours are achieved. It is what makes khaki different from dark green.

THE FACTS

(Coonagh, 2014)

Colour has many emotional effects on an audience due to its properties of temperature and motion. Within the colour wheel opposite, there are two temperature zones, cold and warm.

Warm colours such as red, yellow and orange are associated with heat and fire. Cool colours such as green, blue and violet create a sense of cold, rain and ice. Designers often utilise both cool and warm colours to ensure their garments suit all skin tones and in the seasons, for example cool tones are used for summer and warmer tones are used for winter. Colours recede and advance due to their interplay with light. Lighter colours reflect more light, therefore advance towards the eye looking larger. Dark colours absorb light, receding from the eye and look smaller.

When designing, the colour scheme is very important. There are two types of colour schemas being harmonious and contrasting. Harmonious schemes use colours that are closely situated with each other on the colour wheel. Contrasting colour schemes use colours which are widely spaced from each other on the colour wheel.

Harmonious colour schemes are:

Monochromatic: One colour or hue
Analogus: Uses three colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel.
Achromatic: Only uses black, white and grey.

Contrasting colour schemes are:

Complementary: Two colours that lie exactly opposite each other on the colour wheel.
Split-Complementary: One colour with the two colours beside its complementary colour.
Triad: Three colours of equal distance around the colour wheel.
Accented-Neutral: One colour with a neutral (black, white or grey).

(Kennedy, 2008; Castle & Peters, 2007; Roueche & Shirley, 2012)

COLOUR SCHEMES

Monochromatic

Analogus

Triad

Split Complimentary

Complementary

Achromatic

Accented Neutral

ACTIVITIES

Choose a frame from the film above and design a garment that captures the colours and mood from the frame.
Using Adobe Photoshop, illustrate your design using this template.
In 100 words at the bottom of the page, analyse your design in terms of colour scheme, temperature, psychological effects and hue/value/Chroma.
Post your design to the Facebook page as a jpeg when completed.

Optional Activity:

Create yourself a Colour and Value Scheme revision sheet by completing the following template in Adobe Photoshop.
Fill-In the appropriate colour wheel segment to create samples of the labelled colour schemes.
Save your revision sheet as a jpeg and post to the Facebook page.