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When it comes to using colors effectively, we first need to understand the different terms that characterize them, and how they relate to one another.
In this video, you will learn the meanings of tint, tone, shade, hue, value and saturation, among many others. Let's dive in!
Now let's do a fun little exercise.
I'm sure you are already using the Adobe Color tool. I'd like you to quickly open it now.
With this image in front of you, mix up the color scheme using the wheel. For now, set the harmony rule on the left to custom.
Choose the most dominant color as the base. Set the color fronts, the splash-wall, the floor, and the ceiling. You don't need to be accurate by any means. Just try to get the colors as close as you can.
Now try to apply what you have learned to this color set. Do you have high- or low-chrome colors? What shades, tints and tones do you use?
Play around freely—change things up, repaint the front, change the tiles. As you try new colors, re-adjust the image of your kitchen in your head. That's important.
Explore, experiment, and re-imagine. And I will have a question for you once you return.
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Practice time
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Welcome back! If you recall, in the last part of the video, we talked about the meaning of colors.
Colors affect us—they affect our mood and tell a story of their own, by the meaning associated with them.
Some of these meanings are universal, some may be specific to a culture, and some specific to a person.
What does the color of the furniture make you feel?
What part of you does it represent?
These are important questions to ask, and you will ask these to your clients as well—not only in interior design but also in any branding or packaging projects you take on.
The colors in a design tell a story themselves. This poster redesign is a good example, although the main problem with the original one was not its color scheme. What movie do you expect to see from poster #1 vs. poster #2?
By the way, this tutorial also touches on several design theory principles. If you’re interested, you can watch it on YouTube later. Here’s the link to it:
Now, continuing on with our color visualization exercise, it's time to play a bit with the harmonics presets on the left.
Make sure to click on the color box that is the most dominant and important color in your kitchen, to set it as the base. Now quickly click through the options to see what results you get.
In the second part of the Colors tutorial, I'll explain how each of these harmonics works, as well as how you can balance the colors in a composition. Click on the Play button to start the video.
You can explore any color scheme you have for any design and, in time, you will have developed your instinct to pair up colors that work well for the given environment. Often clients present you with their color scheme in the brief, and sometimes it’s an exciting combination that no one thought of before.
A friend of mine who is a professional interior designer told me: "Half your worth is showing people in blue what they suggest to be white."
Of course, to practice, you can use any kitchen images to recolor. From Adobe Color, you can save the color scheme directly into Photoshop.
Try to apply the 60-30-10 rule we talked about in the video.
If you enjoyed what you've learned so far, I have a few more things in store for you.
Over the last year, I made a whole series of free 'teaser' tutorials on Design Theory. Color was just the first two parts of many.
When you subscribe to the waitlist, I’ll send you the link list for the entire series.
Regardless, I recommend that you check out the final page. I want to explain a vital design principle that stands true even beyond the scope of Graphic Design.