Month: March 2016

Siqi Wang

Part 1:
I started the assignment by selecting sets of complementary colors. I tested out red-green, and yellow-purple. I don’t really have the color-aid paper for any blue ones, so I failed to test orange-blue. I finally went with yellow-purple, since I think they’re more obviously showing the transitioning between the same muddy yellow into a more lighter/cold over the purple background, and more darker/warm over the yellow background.

Part 2:
It’s very challenging since I gave myself the constraint by only using one random newspaper. Therefore, there’s not so much ideal “black” or “white”. Eventually, I reached to this certain degree of gradient, but I think it will work better if I intentionally look for the colors in different newspaper.

Anne & Elena

Color and content

– PequeCiencia

PequeCiencia is the website of an informal science center, whose goal is to motivate children and show them that science is fun and exciting. The website uses a wide variety of saturated hues, probably to imply playfulness, creativity, excitement and dynamism. Nevertheless, such crowded palette might overwhelm users, hindering the communication (carnival effect). One question that comes to mind is whether we have this association with children because respond better to environments using this palette of colors, or maybe this is an unsubstantiated association?
In general, the salient colors of the website are orange and blue. This suggests that the designer was looking to achieve balance by using complementary and warm and cold contrast.

Now, regarding the functionality color has in the conveyance of information we should notice four points: a) Titles follow the characteristic orange of the logo which provides a warm/cold contrast with the blue background, emphasizing them, making them easy to locate and read; b) Subtitles use a brownish tone, which falls within the palette of complementary colors for blue and orange (see image below; c) Plain text (normal text) use a neutral gray that contrasts very well with the light blue of the secondary background, making the text easily legible; d) Links offer the user the option to display more information about specific topics. Their color is the same blue of the main background.
Note: Although, the blues of the palette shown below do not coincide with the blues being used in the website, I think this might have been the intention of the designer.

– BMW

The first impression when looking at the website in the light of color is dominated by the colors of the brand logo of BMW which include the primary color blue, besides white, black, and grey. In addition, the only other primary color besides blue is a dark and highly saturated red which draws the viewer’s attention at the first look.

The color red does not take a lot of space, but it is heavy compared to the light and mainly white background. By that, the red balances the huge white space and draws attention to the middle, right side of the website. The red in combination with the car is used in order to arouse emotions by the viewer for the product. The great differences in hue draw the attention quickly towards the car – which is the product, BMW wants to sell. Besides, the eye is led towards the logo of BMW in the upper right corner, bringing the car and the associated emotions directly in relation with the brand. The red builds a contrast of extension as it is a small amount of red that weighs heavy in a huge white and grey space. Moreover, the color red builds a contrast of saturation to the background which also explains why it draws so much attention.

The second primary color blue was chosen by the designer to emphasize a call to action. At those spaces where the user is supposed to click something, the color blue is used. The blue picks up the color of the BMW logo and represents a complementary contrast to the red of the car. Blue is used as a representation of the sky and creates a cool and clean image.
The third color group is represented by shades of grey, black, and white. Those colors are also based on the color identity of BMW and its logo. The light dark contrast makes the text easy to read and the information quickly available to the user. The differences in value is used as a tool to draw attention to the elements that need to stand out from the background and by that help people to perceive the information quickly and easily. By having those “non-colors” in the background, the website becomes lean and clean.

The website also builds a great example of a cold warm contrast through the use of cold colors as blue and grey on the one side, and the accentuated red on the other side. The color red and the color blue also build a contrast of hue to the background colors (white, black and grey).

Question for discussion:
– Do you think certain colors (or combination of them) have the power to attract/repel certain audiences?
By comparing the two websites, we can conclude that color can be used to address completely different customer groups and helps to transport the brand and its values.

xiaojie li

This assignment challenged to think about the weight of black and white. I feel if there are some intensive black color, it feels really black even it’s just dot. Because the color of blank part of newspaper is close to the grey background, it’s little bit hard to make the middle part the same as grey background and then get whiter. I think that’s one constraint in doing this exercise exactly following the instruction.