404 Study Task 01 - Use of colour in graphic design

In my own opinion the area of graphic design that colour is the most important to is branding and advertising, designs that are being put out there to encourage people to buy a product or service. The right use of colour is essential and specific to the consumer whose attention the designer is trying to gain. According to the way our natural senses function, colour is the most influential, followed by shapes, symbols and finally words. The colour used has a significant impact on the way a brand is perceived by the public, it is essential to look at other brands to get an idea of how colour schemes play a part on brand perception. If a company with a strong brand recognition altered their colour scheme where it is expected to be maintained, there could be dangerous consequences. 

Colour meanings vary from culture to culture and the impact that a brand has on the targeted audience, there are a few different words used to describe colour: Hue is the primary value of a colour and how it is perceived through the eye. Saturation is the overall intensity or brightness of the colour, any colour that appears dull is referred to as desaturated. Value is the lightness or darkness of overall colour schemes. 

Designers look at colour theory before choosing what colour schemes to go for, there is a scientific backing behind how we see colours and what they mean to us based on psychology. As I have looked at different brands and companies in the past for research I noticed that a lot of the time, companies in the same business use similar colours for their brand logo - for example Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr, all social media platforms using different shades of blue to represent themselves. The colour blue is described with many words: security, trust worthy, stability, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, trust, friendliness, courage and science. I couldn't link all of these to the social media outlets however the majority are definitely things that they would want to convey, for example you would want a social media site to be secure, if you are going add a lot of personal details you don't want anyone on the internet to be able to access, you also want stability, rather than the site crashing and you loosing all of your photographs and virtual memories you have made.

In a design project there is usually one dominant colour, either because of how much is appears in the design or because it stands out in comparison with other colours - and one or more accent colours. There are various ways to get colour palettes for a project from the colour wheel 'Colour Harmony'. Monochromatic is the word used to describe a collection of various shades, tones or tints of one colour - for example a range of greens varying from light to dark ; this type of scheme is subtle and rather conservative.  Analogus is hues that are side by side on the colour wheel, this type of scheme is versatile and easy to apply to design projects. Complementary colours are those that are opposite eachother on the wheel, Split complementary being any colour with the two that flank its complement. Triadic is any three colours that are evenly spaced on the colour wheel. Finally Tetradic/double-complementary is two complementary pairs, very eye-catching but often more difficult to balance which means it is wise to choose a dominant colour.