Colour semantics in residential interior architecture on different interior types

Colour meaning is a challenging decision in interior architecture during the design process; however, specific meanings within different interior types have not yet been investigated. This study explored colour meaning in the context of residential interior types (eg, bedroom) under controlled conditions using 42 Munsell colours varying in hues, value, and chroma levels, with 14 adjectives (eg, comfortable, pleasant). The results demonstrate that some colours convey the same meanings (eg, vulgar) regardless of type of room; however, others (eg, beautiful) tend to require more complicated and sophisticated colour applications in different residential interiors. The study findings proved that colour meaning in RITs can be affected by all colour attributes. All colours that are named orange and red are selected for both negative and positive meanings. Colours that are named purple are selected less and only for negative connotations. The findings present an overall colour meaning guide for these residential interior types, which will be beneficial for decision makers (interior architects, designers, users) and colour researchers.     

Color‐person‐environment relationships

Although the nature of color and the person environment relationship are both well‐documented, it is posited that both domains need to be integrated to understand the active role that color plays in the relationship between a person and the surrounding environment. The color person environment relationship (COL‐PE) introduced in this article is an important theoretical concept for designers, and as a consequence, for environmental‐color researchers to investigate. The potential of color to be an active agent in the relationship between people and environments is introduced by drawing upon what is known about color and the person environment relationship from other sources. The nature of transition spaces is used to emphasize how color affects the emotional connection and disconnection between people and spaces. As an example of COL‐PE, transition spaces highlight the nature of the person who is also psychologically in‐transition and color as a potentially important aspect of the transitory experience. In addition, the connections between color and the constructs that we hold of the people who visit, work, or live in particular environments will be discussed briefly. Designers often focus on the object or artifact which is being colored (whether a building or a chair) as an end in itself, without considering in any depth how the designed objects or places can influence how people experience their daily activities and each other. COL‐PE is introduced as a means to address this omission and broaden designers' understandings of the potential impact of their work. The discussion of the aspects of environmental design (with particular reference to architecture and interior design), introduces the foundation of the COL‐PE as a particular way of addressing color in the built environment. The principles of COL‐PE are relevant for a range of disciplines involved in environmental design including urban design, landscape architecture, interior design, industrial design, and architecture. The COL‐PE aims to make explicit what is often an unrecognized or tacit understanding of the role of environmental color, and thereby, the article highlights the need for research to understand the relationship more fully. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 33, 312–319, 2008.     

Color of absence and presence: Reconsidering black in architecture

Abstract: This article explores the effects of using black on spatial experience by means of phenomenological analysis of its architectural examples with a special focus on Serpentine Gallery Pavilion designed by Peter Zumthor. Contrary to the growing interest in the color in contemporary architecture, black rarely found a place in architectural history and in studies on color design. Whereas, the distinct achromatic qualities of the color that appear highly self‐contradictory swinging back and forth from absence to presence cover a wide range of potentials to be used in architectural design. Through insights delved into the spatial experience constructed around these qualities, this paper attempts to analyze how black is used as a design element in built environments. This analysis revolves around Zumthor s pavilion, which stood as a uniform black box on the expanse of green grass of London Kensington Gardens for more than three months in 2011. Encompassing various oppositions, the box built to surround a hortus conclusus, an enclosed garden inside, provided its visitors with a unique spatial experience depending predominantly on the combination of its form, tectonics and the qualities of its color, black. The phenomenological analysis of these qualities manifests that the architect utilized the contradictory characteristics of the color intentionally in order to create a complex and manifold spatial experience for visitors in and outside the box. In an interplay of absence and presence, momentary crystallizations of the vision of black provide architects with uncharted opportunities for creative use of color in the design of built environments. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 42, 378–387, 2017     

Requirements capture for colour information for design professionals

This article presents the results of a study that investigates the status of colour information use in the design process and generates ideas for a colour tool. Face‐to‐face interviews with senior designers and brand managers from the packaging and branding fields were conducted as the primary data collection method. The results are categorized into six topics: colour decision, types of colour information considered to be important in the design process, reasons for considering colour information important in the design process, current use of colour information, design professionals' preferences for existing colour tool types and data types and suggestions for a colour tool. It is concluded that there are problems with existing colour resources and tools regarding their availability and usefulness; there is a strong demand for a colour tool in the packaging design and branding processes. The insight from this work will help researchers, design professionals and colour tool developers to make informed decisions on the areas on which they should focus, how they should do so and why. This will facilitate better provisions and uptake of useful colour information for design professionals in the design process and strategy fields.     

Colour as vocation: Werner Spillmann's contribution to environmental colour design

Werner Spillmann is known as a colour consultant, influential pedagogue, and passionate promoter of colour as a primary design issue. This article aims to present Spillmann's important contribution to environmental colour design giving special attention to his noteworthy activities in the context of the International Colour Association (AIC). Since 1960, beginning with the period when he became a lecturer and subsequently professor in the Department of Architecture at the Winterthur Polytechnic in Switzerland, Spillmann has successfully introduced colour as a basic element of architectural education and also developed a method for using colour in environmental design. During the initial years of the AIC, Spillmann attended the association's rather sporadic events beginning with its first Congress in 1969. Spillmann's influence on the AIC grew with the association's own consolidation and increasing international importance. He presented his first AIC paper in 1976 and by 1977, when the AIC began to consequently fulfill its constitutional aim of realizing an annual program and had become an internationally renowned organization in the field of colour studies, Spillmann began to play a key role in the leadership of the association. In 1982, Spillmann became a member of the AIC Study Group on Environmental Colour Design. In 1983, he was invited to give a presentation at the AIC Midterm Meeting in Sweden, and, in 1985, he was elected to the AIC Executive Committee for the period 1986–1989. In serving the AIC during this time period, he organized the Interim Meeting on Colour in Environmental Design, which took place in 1988 at the Winterthur Polytechnic. Spillmann's contribution to the AIC represents the crystalization of the theoretical and practical lines of development that he pursued through his own teaching and professional design practice. During this same time period that he was intensely involved in the AIC, his importance and influence as a teacher and design professional increased as well. The intense courses he developed for architects, designers, and planners and taught in Winterthur between 1982 and 1995 were highly successful. As a teacher, Spillmann was acclaimed not only because of his consistent methodological approach and comprehensive content of his courses but especially for his charisma. Spillmann's involvement in the AIC and his teaching and personal professional development demonstrate how his assiduous striving toward a greater appreciation of colour as an imminent element in contemporary architectural design resulted in raising awareness of the psychological, social, and cultural value of colour within the related fields of architectural history and theory, cultural studies, design, and urbanism. Especially Spillmann's special contribution is underscored by his capacity to take up new approaches adapting and testing these through application in architectural education and design practice. Spillmann has published several essays on colour in environmental design and colour order systems. He presently lives in Basel, Switzerland. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 30, 53–65, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.20075     

Colour harmony revisited

A plethora of theories and studies exist that focus on the relationship between colour and esthetic response as well as the construction of colour harmony. However, consensus regarding colour harmony is lacking in the literature leaving designers and architects with colour harmony information that is contradictory and ambiguous. This article examines both early and more recent theories and definitions of colour harmony. The diverse theoretical paradigms and disparate assumptions embedded within these theories are discussed in some depth, and the validity and veracity of predictive colour harmony theories are discussed from a current theoretical perspective. An updated definition of colour harmony is providedalong with a conceptual model that represents an attempt to revise colour harmony in line with current theoretical paradigms. This conceptual model acknowledges that the interface between colour and esthetic response is less deterministic and predictable, and more idiographic than previous theories allow. In addition, the conceptual model suggests that colour harmony is contingent on factors that may influence the relationship between colour and esthetic response such as individual and cultural differences as well as perceptual, contextual, and temporal factors. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 2010     

Colour,contrast and gestalt theories of perception: The impact in contemporary visual communications design

Visual communications design, which generally relates to design projects with specific communication objectives, includes most forms of graphic and digital design that have a commercial or an educational purpose. The effectiveness of such design projects rests on how well the embedded communications objectives are met from the perspective of the target audience. In advertising as in education, various post‐campaign evaluation techniques are used to measure effectiveness. The challenge for designers is to create designs that are aesthetically appropriate and visually engaging for the target audience, but which are also functionally‐legible and support the encoding of communication messages so that these are effectively decoded as intended. This is particularly important given that the effectiveness of visual communications is not guaranteed in the visually‐cluttered environment of the 21st century. Of the design elements available to the designer of visual communications, colour and contrast play key roles in visual perception, and the strategic use of these can contribute to the effectiveness of visual communications design. Examining the roles that colour and contrast within the context of Gestalt theories of perception provides additional insight into the ways in which these design elements can be harnessed to improve the effectiveness of visual communications design. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 40, 85–92, 2015     

Colour here,there, and in‐between—Placemaking and wayfinding in mental health environments

Colour design in mental healthcare environments is acutely significant. Sensory acuity may be impaired through age, illness, or heightened stress and anxiety. While research has played a role in the development of guidance on the use of colour in such environments, this article suggests that this tends to be followed in a dogmatic, risk‐averse manner and predominately without professional design input, leading to monotonous and under‐stimulating environments. The article reports on two case study projects by the authors, involving user participation and student volunteers. These colour design installations provide examples of practice‐led applied research within occupied healthcare facilities. The article discusses the significance of site‐specific colour design in relation to place‐making and wayfinding with reference to previous research that considers the role of colour as part of the everyday experience of all users, in contrast to an approach focused solely on the behavior of patients. It concludes that colour design knowledge developed and applied through “real world” live projects, involving students as part of their architectural education can address some of the shortcomings of laboratory or staged colour research.     

Color loci placemaking: The urban color between needs of continuity and renewal

The article presents the theoretical framework and the operational concepts of a research, finalized to explore and verify the prerequisites of an approach to urban color that, while recognizing to color the flexible as well as transient capacity to respond to the successive and multiple demands that characterize the urban space, sees a possible way of coexisting between the needs of continuity and renewal. Searching to understand the modalities and possibilities through which colour can intervene in the processes of transformation of the city to support both the needs of resignification and reappropriation and those of conservation and enhancement of the vital identity of each single place, the research looked on one side to the experiences gained within the colour plans and Lenclos' geography of colour and on the other side to the different and diversified experiences developed within the idea and practice of placemaking, aimed at the recognition and enhancement of the collective and plural creative dimension that colour seems effectively able to interpret. The term “color loci placemaking” was introduced to summarize this mode/possibility of understanding and approaching urban color, characterized especially by the attention for the specificity of each single place and the human factor underpinning place‐experience.     

On the colours dichromats see

Dichromatic colour vision is commonly believed to be a reduced form of trichromatic colour vision (referred to as the reductionist principle). In particular, the colour palette of the dichromats is believed to be a part of the colour palette of the trichromats. As the light‐colour palette differs from the object‐colour palette, the dichromatic colour palettes have been derived separately for light‐colours and object‐colours in this report. As to light‐colours, the results are in line with the widely accepted view that the dichromatic colour palettes contain only two hues. However, the dichromatic object‐colour palettes have proved to contain the same six component colours which constitute the trichromatic object‐colour palette (yellow, blue, red, green, black and white). Moreover, all the binary and tertiary combinations of the six component colours present in the trichromatic object‐colour palette also occur in the dichromatic object‐colour palettes. Yet, only five of the six component colours are experienced by dichromats as unitary (unique) object‐colours. The green unitary colour is absent in the dichromatic object‐colour palettes. The difference between the dichromatic and trichromatic object‐colour palettes arises from the fact that not every combination of the component‐colour magnitudes occurs in the dichromatic object‐colour palettes. For instance, in the dichromatic object‐colour palettes there is no colour with the strong green component colour. Furthermore, each achromatic (black or white) component colour of a particular magnitude is combined with the only combination of the chromatic components. In other words, the achromatic component colours are bound with the chromatic component combinations in dichromats. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 39, 112–124, 2014     

Computational production of colour harmony. Part 2: Experimental evaluation of a tool for gui colour scheme creation

Although webpage and computer interface designers generally have little experience at generating effective colour schemes, colour selection appears only rarely in user interface design literature. This article describes the experimental evaluation of an algorithmic technique that applies colour harmony rules to the selection of colour schemes for computer interfaces and web pages. The technique uses a genetic algorithm to evolve colour schemes; the evolutionary path is determined by a quantitative colour harmony evaluation function. Our technique first creates abstract colour schemes by applying those rules to specific features of the interface or web page; the user then holistically modifies the scheme's overall colour cast, overall saturation, and light–dark distribution, producing colourings that are both harmonious and usable. We demonstrate experimentally that the software is relatively simple to use and produces colourings that are well‐received by humans. In an earlier article, the criteria for a colour harmony tool for computer interfaces and websites were described and used in the design of the Colour Harmoniser, our software implementation of a system that is based on classical rules of colour harmony, adapted and extended to suit graphical user interfaces. In this article, we describe two sets of experiments that have demonstrated the usability and effectiveness of the Colour Harmoniser tool, compared with standard methods of colour selection. These experiments suggest that the tool functions somewhat more effectively than we originally anticipated, producing colour schemes that were rated more highly on several quality scales than those produced by random choice, by humans who self‐classify as nonartists, and by humans who self‐classify as artists. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 38, 218–228, 2013.     

Determining key colors from a design perspective using dE-means color clustering

Designing a mood board is a creative tool designers often employ at the start of a new (interior) design project. The colors of a mood board represent important information about the envisioned interior designs. In this article, we focus on digital mood boards and we propose a novel method to determine the mood boards' key colors from a design perspective using dE-means color clustering. This proposed algorithm includes a fixed initialization to overcome the non-deterministic nature of traditional k-means, and a merging step to ensure all colors in the calculated palette are at least a dE-threshold apart. Quantitative and qualitative results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms existing methods in determining the key colors from a design perspective. Additionally, we introduce a novel method to visualize the calculated color palettes that takes into account the contribution of individual pixels to the construction of the calculated color palettes. Finally, we demonstrate how the proposed algorithm can be used to characterize color palettes for various design styles like modern, industrial and art deco.     

Logo colour and differentiation: A new application of environmental colour mapping

Creating a logo design is an important task for a new company wishing to gain entry in a particular industry sector. It requires an initial situation analysis that examines existing logos within the sector, and this information is then used to inform creation of a new logo design. Colour, one of a number of design elements used to create a new logo, is a key element in creating a unique logo and in terms of enabling a logo achieve differentiation in a competitive environment. This article discusses the application of the environmental colour mapping process during the initial situation analysis phase of logo design. The process, which has been applied in urban design studies in Japan, America, France, England, and Norway has recently been augmented with the addition of digital technology. Using a case study approach, the ‘environment’ for the purpose of this study represented the logo designs of organizations within a specific industry sector. The main outcome from the process (colour data presented in the form of a colour map) was examined for patterns of similarity and dissimilarity and an attempt was made to identify new options for logo colours within the sector based on colour differentiation. This study represents a new application of the environmental colour mapping process and a number of limitations and benefits are discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 2011     

A design-oriented approach for managing colored light sources in lighting design software

In the last decade, the extensive introduction of LED lighting sources has brought elements of innovation to interior lighting design in terms of color. Besides the new tunable white LED source, lighting is no longer exclusively white; indeed, colored lighting has entered the design practice thanks to the positive effects on people's health and mood. Unfortunately, this element of lighting innovation, color, cannot be computed correctly in commercial lighting design software. These computations are based on the assumption that light is only white or defined in terms of RGB triplets in the relative digital color space of computer graphics, which does not have a physically correct relationship with the actual spectral power distribution (SPD) of luminaires. In this paper, attention is focused on a practical design-oriented approach for describing luminaires in lighting design software that also considers the real SPD and the luminous intensity distribution. The focus is on information available to lighting designers who do not have a laboratory to measure light sources and luminaires. This information could be available in online datasheets or as a Cartesian graph from luminaires and light sources manufacturers. Following this approach, a set of functions is proposed that can be easily implemented in lighting design software to improve light sources' color management and allow lighting designers to add SPD data to luminaires.     

Investigating seasonal color change in the environment by color analysis and information visualization

Color, as one of the most important dimensions of vision, plays a key role in place identity and people's experience in the environment. This study aims to investigate people's visual experience of seasonal color change in the environment, and proposes an approach for analyzing and communicating environmental colors by combining color analysis and information visualization. Employing crowdsourced Flickr photos, the approach is tested in four gardens: the Humble Administrator's Garden, Ryoanji, the Garden of Versailles, and Central Park in New York. The results show direct comparisons of seasonal color change patterns in different environments, and reflect characteristics of the environments as well as people's experience of color during the four seasons. The primary contribution of this study is to provide a way of communicating colors in landscape design and color research.     

Colour and appearance in nature

General Introduction After spending many years working on colour and appearance in industry, I became aware of a gross ignorance of the origin of the colour and beauty existing around me in nature. The results of the succeeding awakening formed the theme of my retiring address as Chairman of The Colour Group (Great Britain) on 13th May, 1981, at the Royal Institution, London. Life, it seems, was destined to become coloured from the start and it has become a more and more colourful place as evolution has continued. Colour and design are vital, in different ways, to the life and perpetuation of different biological systems. I have attempted to amalgamate the views of the biologist, biochemist, anthropologist, and physicist (among others), to give a personal overall view of the driving forces and principles of appearance and colouration in the world of nature. The three articles to follow consider, first, the mechanisms which result in the colour of primary producers using the photosynthetic process; second, the mechanisms which produce colouration and total appearance in flowering plants and animals; and third, human colouration and man's use of colour, stopping short of modern technology. I hope that these findings will add to the everyday joy which you can experience in your natural environment.     

化工企业汽车装卸站工艺设计

装卸站作为一个项目的设计子项,几乎会出现在每个项目中。而作非主装置,一般并不被业主重视,作为业主的输入条件,往往也只有一到两句话,在这种情况下如何做好设计,就需要设计人员有较扎实的业务基础和工程概念。笔者结合多年设计经验,从各专业统筹规划出发,与大家交流一些心得。     

The role of gamut,intuition and engagement in colour management in a design context

Colour management is ubiquitous in the digital world. However, despite the many advances in colour management over the last couple of decades, it remains an imperfect process. In the art and design community there is often a level of dissatisfaction and deep cynicism about colour management that can lead to lac of engagement with the process. This research explores colour management in a design context though three issues: the gamut issue, the intuitive issue and the engagement issue; each relates to areas where colour management could better connect with tacit design knowhow. The work focusses on the selection of colour in a digital context since for many users this is the first touch point that they have with colour management. Psychophysical studies have been carried out in both laboratory and design‐studio settings. It is shown that users can better predict the results from subtractive colour mixing than from additive colour mixing. The performance of various types of colour picker are explored and consequences for the design of user interfaces are discussed.