Readymag Design Almanac: Color

We are constantly exposed to color, but most of the time our consciousness remains relatively monochromatic. We tend to ignore color nuances and fail to analyze the effects of color combinations. We allow ourselves to react reflexively to color when, in fact, the ability to discern color nuances and understand color combinations takes enormous effort in order to achieve the necessary ‘expansion of the angle of sight,’ as Russian avant-garde painter and color explorer Mikhail Matyushin has put it.

Information about color psychology and color theory is widely available. We are surrounded by numerous texts on the subject, but the abundance and availability of knowledge does not ensure that it will be used or used well. A designer is both a protector of the environment and a great manipulator of it. Unlike the artist, the designer primarily deals with pragmatic tasks that directly affect the everyday world. Obviously then the designer must be constantly alive to color and should have a personal commitment to its study and the search for precisely right combinations.

For this chapter on color from the Readymag School, we have asked five renowned designers and a photographer to reflect on how they use color in their work and to share their sources of inspiration.

One of the things that inspires me now is the infinite range of colors. For me, color is as significant as music. And when I think about music the vocabulary is so huge: Indian music, Mexican music, the Grateful Dead, the Beatles, Beethoven, Bach — I mean it’s infinite.

What there is to notice is so extensive. It has really to do with your mood, to what extent you are open or to what extent you have the patience for it. I sometimes feel overwhelmed by what there is to notice. The ability to notice color is a kind of muscle; exercise that muscle and you will see far more colors than you ever believed existed. There are lots of things that wake you up to take notice. For example, if you order vanilla ice cream in a cafe you may not notice its color, but there are many colors of vanilla ice cream. Just to go out in the street is sometimes amazing. There’s always a dog or a cat whose color you’ve never seen before, or somebody has thrown away a tin and it’s shining in the sun. Color is everywhere and the question only is how much you notice it.

Look at the street — buildings don’t change color very much; they do a bit because of the light obviously. But the clothes people wear are affected by fashion. Maybe in metropolitan cities more than in provincial cities — I don’t know. But if I go into Regent Street in London, I may notice that the color of the street has changed because of the fashion, the clothes people are buying. I imagine that last year more people were wearing black than five years ago, when they were probably wearing more grey and blue.

It’s very important for designers to push the capacity to notice, to see more than they thought possible. And this is certainly true with color. It’s also very important to push your ability to put yourself in the shoes of other people. Like any form of exercise, the more you do it, the stronger you get. Your clients may not be good at noticing, but you should notice on their behalf. There are millions of ways we can improve life for each other, but you can only start to use your imagination if you are a good noticer.

Here’s an example that happened to me recently — a new and very, very elegant restaurant called the Delaunay opened in London. For a week the restaurant was open only for friends, and all sorts of people came and gave the owner their opinions. He asked me for my opinion. And I said, I’m concerned about your tablecloths because they are linen. Linen has a texture and because of this texture there are millions of little grey holes. And because of the texture of the fabric, there are thousands of little shadows.

The effect of that is that the light from above shining on the tablecloths does not reflect up to the people. So the people do not look bright; with the light coming from above, they look tired. They don’t have light from below to make them look awake — which is why most tablecloths are made of cotton. The point of a tablecloth is to be a nice thing to look at but also to reflect light onto people’s faces. So if you make it out of linen it does not work. My friend said, Oh god, I just spent $20,000 on my tables! And he did not change the tablecloths.

If you ask an English company to send you their paint colors, they probably will have three whites. And if you ask a Japanese company to send you their paint colors, they will probably have a hundred whites. But even that’s not enough! For example, if I’m working with designers and they are looking in a Pantone book for a green, I will say, Look, go out with a watercolor box into Regents Park because you will find a million greens. And Pantone has only 10.

Michael Wolff

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Michael Wolff is a highly regarded British designer, co-founder of Wolff Olins — one of the world’s most iconic and reputable design companies. Michael has worked as a graphic designer and art director in the sphere of corporate branding for over 50 years. His clients include Audi, Renault, Volkswagen, Citibank, Citigroup, Shell and BP. Michael, who studied to be an architect, worked as an interior designer and product designer early in his career, but in 1965 he joined forces with businessman Wally Olins and switched to graphic design. Michael was the first to use images of animals in contemporary branding and by the end of the ‘60s had revolutionized graphic design in the field.

My life as a designer contains a lot of things that are inexplicable; you just do your best and work as sensitively as you can. When you teach, you do the same thing. You try to open students' minds to noticing, try to switch on the creative power inside your students. It may sound rigid, but I always say: Look, exercise your noticing, enjoy the colors of every product you buy — what’s good, what’s bad. Make the language of appreciation and noticing part of your life. When you go to exhibitions and see paintings, you suddenly become more aware of color.

I’m intensely influenced by color. I look at a color and think how great it is that yellow exists. My front door is the most bright yellow you could imagine — like the yolk of an egg, like a dandelion and the reason behind it is that the brightness of yellow makes me smile. I like to greet people with a smile so my front door is a kind of smile. Yellow is a very gracious, welcoming color for me.

I can’t believe in the intensity of red and the thousands of nuances of red. When I see a bright red car, I’m just happy. For me, color is one of the great joys of my life really.

I like looking at sheep and I love the subtle color of natural wool. Sometimes it’s brown, sometimes it’s white. There is more shadow in the coarser textures.

Color is a visual experience for the viewer’s eyes and brain. It’s cool to make this experience unique each time. I think the sensation of novelty experienced when you look at certain colors is very important. That’s why new, unhackneyed colors are always very advantageous and why the fashion in color changes so frequently.

Transitional colors resulting from the mixture of basic colors are in fashion now — for example, yellow plus green #E4FF33 and blue plus violet #523BFF. These are shades for which you won’t easily find names in the usual lists.

This year, bleak and subtle colors (earthy #6D8256, vinous #B34F70)

are also in demand — just because they haven’t yet worn out their welcome. I don’t much like such colors, but in combination with classical gold, silver or bright acid colors they can be interesting. There are several basic colors that never die. The absolute leader is black, of course.

Black is always popular, and monochromatic combinations of black, grey and white are now much used both in the fashion industry and in graphic design. The electro blue #003DFF has stayed popular over many years — it has the right energetic vibe.

The natural and fresh yellow #FFEE2E is constantly used because it allows designers to come up with a shade that works for their particular project, conveying the proper emotions, saying the right thing. For the 15 years that I’ve been in the design industry, I have seen many changes in the particular yellow used, but yellow never annoys me if it is used modestly.

Present-day digital design tends to use plain, bright colors, frequently in sophisticated gradients. Don’t forget that there is often a big difference in the same color online and offline. The screen emits light, and that makes the difference. In addition, different materials and textures also make the same color look different. Colors and textures substantially shift the shade of the color, depending on the reflective properties and the white balance.

It’s almost impossible to make saturated cold colors — cold green, bright blue and everything from blue to violet — look good offline. Without backlighting, they don’t contribute much. Orange Pantone also looks much better online than offline.

But such problems are largely manageable now, at least partially. New chemical paints containing light-reflecting particles have come on the market, and thanks to these particles, these colors show a very subtle gleam. But most print shops don’t use such paints.

color

Max Orlov