Having taught in Art College for 15 years as well as exhibiting and having paintings displayed in public collections in the UK, I read with great interest the article recently submitted by Charlene Rashkow titled “Color and its Influence on Marketability.” As an artist, I revel in color and its power and only have to sit in front of a Monet to realize the powerful emotional tug color can have. This very power makes the misuse of color an abuse to the viewer, which means that professional designers are often guilty of color misapplication.
Being particularly proud of the major accomplishments my web site has achieved, I firmly believe that there are several factors to consider where color is concerned. In fact, a major management task in our company was and still is controlling designers. A clear sense of our identity is what we want to portray and recognize that as being essential to our success. To that end, we use color liberally at www.hoteldesigns.co.uk as we understand its purpose and significance. In part, the use of color is a uniform for our site – instantly recognizable as well as different. And if you read our site often enough, as our 20,000 readers do, you quickly discover it is friendly and familiar. It is also hierarchical and defines areas of operation within the site.
The Powerful Emotional Affect of Color!
Color theory is not new. Goethe first expounded a printed theory of color many centuries ago, and the Greek and Romans had symbolic meanings for color in earlier millennia, some of which are at the basics of the theories of color mentioned by Charlene in her article. In theory every web designer who has formal training and every designer with a degree should understand the basic rules of color theory which translates into knowing how it should be applied to typography and design.
Color is far too important a tool to be treated in an amateur fashion and should definitely be taken into account by webmasters and designers alike. Why then do designers persist in using colors in combination that are not only barely legible to the general public, but are totally illegible to the poorly or partially sighted, and fly in the face of evidence formalized in tests such as the Ishihara color test?
Color Blindness & Tonality
We know for instance that red/green color blindness is extremely common – some authorities maintain that over 20% of the population are red/green color blind to some degree. When it comes to a traffic light it doesn’t matter since green is on the bottom worldwide, but for typography, that’s a different story. Red and green also happen to be complimentary colors – i.e. on the color wheel they sit opposite each other therefore combining them together in light terms achieves white. So if their tonality is the same, and it often will be on a CRT tube, these colors will clash horribly as will the other complimentary pairs, orange:blue and violet:yellow. In all these instances the tonality of the color is critically important, and if they are atonal, even those of us with perfect vision will find reading them uncomfortable. If they are exactly atonal they will be impossible to read.
Common Designer Mistakes!
This data has been known for decades, so why are these mistakes still made in web site design? I have often read opinions by so called experts that few colors should be used in a web site, yet in my professional opinion, this is the coward’s way of avoiding the issue. However, the colors that are used should be carefully chosen so that they are harmonious, plus as Charlene suggests, harmonious colors underline the design message you are getting across for your identity.
Basic Art Courses & Principles of Art & Design!
There is a course in English art schools, a diagnostic course that all students are advised to take before they start a three-year degree program. It is diagnostic in terms of art and design, primarily because art teaching in secondary schools (the English equivalent of high schools) is restricted by very poor exam structures. A catch up program has been necessary for over 40 years and is called the Foundation course, or Pre -degree program. I believe a similar course is used in most countries.
As a diagnostic program it introduces students to the first principles of art and design, and gives them enough experience of the broad disciplines of Graphics, Fine Art, Three Dimensional Design and Fashion/Textiles to help students understand their relationship to the basic creative urge. This enables the student to make an informed choice of specialization at a degree level. Plus there are over 140 different specialist design programs to choose from, ranging from contour fashion through automotive design to sculpture.
If designers don’t know the importance of color perhaps they should repeat a Foundation Course and perform the color theory exercises again. My favorite while teaching color theory was asking students to make a color progression from a primary to white through 200 even steps. Difficult? No, because this is an exercise in intellect and control – exactly as the color on a web site should be implemented.
Patrick Goff brings 30 years of experience as an artist, designer and web marketer. Thriving on supporting other design entrepreneurs through effective marketing tools, Patrick strongly believes that the key strategy for getting the most out of a web site is updating content regularly. Patrick can be reached at office@hoteldesigns.co.uk or contacted at +44 (0) 1883 371722.