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.