Do you ever struggle to find those elusive perfect colors for a graphic design project? What do you do?
There are many color theming sites out there, like Adobe Kuler and Colour Lovers, but not all of the themes people put together actually work with a real project and there are a lot to dig through.
Are there any “old reliable” color themes you always go back to?
magine what our world would be like without color.
Grey sky.
Black sea.
White grass.
How dull!
While value is a great way to influence the mood, create interest and add depth to a project, color can be critical to a design’s success or failure. Food would certainly not look as appetizing in black and white, and I’m sure you ladies wouldn’t buy that red dress without knowing whether it’s an orange-red or a blue-red.
Not consciously taking control of the element of value to your designs is like using a flashlight at noon. Its full potential is utterly wasted!
What is Value?
Value is the relative lightness or darkness of an object. It is the difference between shadow and highlight, and all the midtones in between. Value is not the same as color, though value can be used to “color” an image. Black and white photography is a perfect example. It’s not any less appealing because there is no color!
Texture can open up a wide world of sensual experience.
When the audience can relate to your design, which is telling the story of a person, business, product or service, they can have a much deeper connection than with a composition devoid of that experience.
Have you ever visited somewhere when you were little and then gone back many years later when you were an adult? Did you bring a friend along with you and blather on excitedly all the way there about how it would be absolutely super-colossal, gigantic, enormous!
But then you get there.
As an adult, the magic is gone. You realize it was only your perspective as a small child that made the pool seem so huge.
Have you ever looked at a design, be it an advertisement or a website, and felt repulsed? Like you can’t keep looking at it because something about the design is pushing you away, making you feel an awkward tension, a dizzying overload of information or frustration because you can’t find what you’re looking for?
It’s probably because you are looking at a negligent of space.
Do you only think of circles, rectangles and triangles when you think of shape? True these are the basic shapes that almost everything is made up of, but there’s so much more!
What is a Shape?
Shapes convey meaning, aid in creating direction and can be used quite effectively for drawing attention to a particular section of the design. There are three basic categories to put shapes into: geometric, natural and abstract.
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Hi, my name is LaurenMarie and welcome to Creative Curio, a place to learn, discuss and explore the realm of graphic design. You can learn more about me and Creative Curio on the About page.