J06: Color Makes Me Happy

My favorite lecture to this day was the one on Color and Design. Color is everywhere, which to me is a pretty big deal. You can’t get away from it, if you try. Even if you close your eyes you still see black. I think the fact that colors make you feel different emotions is really cool. Color is an important factor in branding and marketing which makes me really wonder why companies choose the colors they do for their logos. When it comes down to the science of colors I can’t even imagine trying to figure out where color comes from. My brain just isn’t shaped for that sort of stuff. I really like looking at the color wheel and seeing what colors go together and what color harmony to use when creating something. I also think the way colors interact with each other is sweet, especially in the Bezold Effect, and making things look transparent by using different shade of the same color. There is an endless amount of color and color combinations in the world which makes me happy knowing that I have an endless supply of ideas when choosing colors.

1.     Colour Lovers (link)

This is one of my favorite websites. My oldest sister Jackie showed it to me and I was hooked. The site allows you to make color palettes and patterns that you can save and use for whatever you want. I used it a lot in high school when I would have to make power point presentations. It made it a lot easier to make backgrounds that I actually liked instead of using the boring ones that come with the program. My favorite part is naming the palettes I make. Plus you get to see palettes and patterns that other people make, which is fun to look at. And it’s pretty cool because if you make a new color, then you get to name it.

2.     Color in Web Design (link)

Any and everything you’ve ever wanted to know about color in web design is located at this website. The site takes a look at Color Theory in Web Design. Some of the topics include Color Terminologies, Relationships of Colors, How to Make a Wise Choice to Convey Meaning, What Colors Mean to Users, and Examples of Colors in Big Companies Sites. I liked the part about What Colors Mean to Users, because it connected to what we learned in lecture. It also has some really cool pictures.

3. Bill Nye on Color
These are music clips from a Bill Nye The Science Guy episode on light and color. The episode helps you learn about color in lasers, neon lights, Crayola crayons, bubbles, and paint. I would put the whole episode up, but it was in three parts on Youtube so I took the good sections from it. These are the links if you want to see the whole episode.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Now I remember why I watched Bill Nye when I was younger. He’s pretty corny.

4.     Isaac Newton's Color Theory (link)

This site informs readers on how Isaac Newton studied colors by placing a prism ear his window. It shows his first color wheel, which became the model for color systems, which would come later on.  The site also summarizes how the scientist Goethe thought Newton’s theory was wrong and insisted that what we see of an object depends upon the object, the lighting and our perception.

5.     Worqx.com (link)

I know I said this before about a different website but this site truly has any and everything you’ve ever wanted to know about color! There are tons of tabs, which help explain things such as Color Theory, Color Basics, the Color Wheel, Complementary Colors, Color and Contrast, Color Studies and Shades and Tints. Plus the site has a Palette Picker which reminds me of the Colour Lovers website. I really like how the site shows lots of examples and explains what changing the saturation, values and tints changes the whole look and feel of a color scheme.

 

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