OUGD404 - Colour Theory

Colour theory is a set of principles that is used to help create harmonious colour combinations. The first colour wheel was invented by Sir Isaac Newton  - he split white sunlight into red, orange, yellow, green, cyan and blue beams and then joined the two ends of the spectrum together to show the natural progression of the colours. He associated each colour with a note of a musical scale. A century later, Johann Wolfgang Goethe began studying psychological effects of colours. He noticed what whilst yellow has a warming effect, blue gives the feeling of coolness. He divided the colours into two groups, the plus side and the minus side.

Relationships can be represented visually with a colour wheel, which is the colour spectrum wrapped onto a circle. According to the theory, harmonious colour combinations include any two colours opposite each other on the wheel, any three colours spaced around the colour wheel forming a triangle, and any four colours forming a rectangle – two pairs of colours opposite each other. These combinations are called colour schemes, or colour harmonies. These schemes remain harmonious regardless of the angle of rotation. There are 6 different classic colour schemes used on a colour wheel. The monochromatic colour scheme uses variations in lightness and saturation of single colours. They go well together and create a soothing effect, easy on the eyes. The analogous colour scheme uses colours that are next to each other on the wheel. One colour is used as the dominant colour whilst the other adds to the scheme. The complementary colour scheme consists of two colours that are opposite each other on the wheel. This is a high contrast scheme that uses warm colours against cool ones. The split complementary scheme is a variation of the complementary scheme – instead it uses a colour and two colours next to its complementary.  The triadic colour scheme uses three colours equally spaced around the wheel. This is not as contrasting as the complementary but appears more harmonious and balanced. The sixth and final colour scheme, the tetradic colour scheme is the most varied of them all, using two complementary colour pairs. It is hard to harmonize as it may become unbalanced, so you must have a mix of dominant and subdued colours.­