Analysis of experiments to determine individual colour preference

Finding an efficient way to understand individual colour preference is important to researchers and designers. This article compares three research strategies to test individual colour preference including two research experimental environments (online and laboratory) and two research methods (multiple choice for N‐alternative‐forced‐choice and multiple choice for rank‐order). Three psychophysical experiments have been carried out. Participants were presented with six colour patches (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple) arranged in a random order on a computer display. In the first two experiments (Online experiment and Laboratory experiment I), participants were asked to indicate which colour square they prefer most; in the third experiment (Laboratory experiment II), participants were asked to rank their colour preferences of the six colour patches. The similarity between the results obtained from two experimental environments provides some validation for the online protocol and suggests that online experiments could be used more often. Pairwise comparisons for individual colour preference between genders and nationalities were carried out, and it was found that male and female responses were significantly different; but there was no statistical significance between Chinese and UK participants. The results from Monte Carlo simulations suggested that the rank‐order method should be preferred for individual colour preference studies involving small numbers of participants (especially less than 15 participants).     

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.     

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‐appearance modeling using feedforward networks with Bayesian regularization method. Part II: Reverse model

In Part I of this article, the development of a multilayer perceptrons feedforward artificial neural network model to predict colour appearance from colorimetric values was reported. Bayesian regularization was employed for the training of the network. In this part of the article, the reverse model, that is, the perdition of colorimetric values from the colour appearance attributes is reported using the same neural network design methodology developed in Part I. This study should contribute to the building of an artificial neural network–based colour appearance prediction, both forward and reverse, using the most comprehensive LUTCHI colour appearance data sets for training and testing. Good prediction accuracy and generalization ability were obtained using the neural networks built in the study. Because the neural network approach is of a black‐box type, colour appearance prediction using this method should be easier to apply in practice. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 27, 116–121, 2002; DOI 10.1002/col.10030     

Properties of ink‐jet printed,ultraviolet‐cured pigment prints in comparison with screen‐printed,thermo‐cured pigment prints

A collection of printed fabrics for men’s shirts was designed and prepared using computer‐aided design/computer‐aided manufacturing technology. The colours for designs were ink‐jet printed on cotton fabrics with pigments and ultraviolet‐cured. These prints represented the target colours for subsequent flat‐screen printing, which was performed using pigment printing pastes and thermal curing. For an exact transfer of colours of the ink‐jet‐printed standard into the screen‐printing process, a computer recipe prediction method was used. A comparison of colorimetric parameters of fabrics printed with both printing techniques shows minimal and acceptable differences in the CIELab colour values. A comparison of colour fastness properties proves that very good colour fastness is achieved on the pigment‐printed fabrics produced with both printing techniques. The flat‐screen‐printed fabrics show better colour fastness to washing, perspiration and rubbing, while ink‐jet‐printed fabrics show better colour fastness to dry‐cleaning and light. The fabrics printed with both printing techniques have high rigidity and non‐elastic properties. The mechanical and physical parameters are strongly dependent upon the amount of the dry substance of the printing media applied on the cotton fabric surface, which is higher on screen‐printed fabrics. The ink‐jet‐printed fabrics show better air permeability than flat‐screen‐printed fabrics.     

Colour and ergonomics: On the selection of a “colour of the year”

The key role of colour in ergonomics has been emphasized by a number of researchers and design professionals. Although several research studies have been published regarding the use of colour in ergonomics, there are still some areas that need to be considered. The issue of deciding a “colour of the year” is an example, which represents a new challenge for researchers in the field of ergonomics. This is of particular interest considering the fact that the nature of research on the selection of a “colour of the year” is generally based on user experience. This paper argues that ergonomics should play a more prominent role in this field to ensure better user experience and performance. This paper highlights specific areas that need further study and development.     

Environmental colouration and/or the design process

Environmental colour is multifaceted, playing a variety of roles in our everyday lives. However, is colour considered important in the design of our built environment by those who practice design, such as architects and interior designers? Prototypes and massing models for designs are often presented in white or monochromatic combinations, irrespective of the materials incorporated and the colours that may be applied in the final constructed building, interior, or object. Therefore, questions are raised concerning design professionals' perceptions of the importance of colour in relation to space and form, and to the experience of place. The built environment is understood by the designers and design researchers generally in one of four contexts—as object, as product, as communicator, or as social domain (Smith, Architectural Experience: A Composition of Viewpoints, doctoral dissertation, Queensland University of Technology, Australia; 2000). Designers who consider place as an experience, or as part of a social domain, will address the design task differently than those who treat it as an object to be coloured. In addition, Franz (A Phenomenographic Study of Design in the Interior Context, doctoral dissertation, Queensland university of Technology, Australia; 1997) identified four conceptions of designing held by designers: experiential, structural, production, and retail. Therefore, designers' conceptions of what it is to design in general are related to the manner in which they design in practice. In association with such conceptions, it is assumed that the integration of colour in the built environment is also influenced by these understandings. Explorations into environmental meaning, in addition to colour theory and decorative applications, are hypothesized to be important sources of information for designers involved in colouring the built environment. Discussions of environments in terms of signification and experience may broaden practitioners' understanding of the role that colour plays in place formation. In addition, the findings of a study in which 16 Queensland architects and interior designers were surveyed to ascertain whether colour is considered an integral part of their design process are reported. The study is not conclusive, however; although further investigation is required, the study does identify differences and commonalities among participants that are of interest in light of the aforementioned issues. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 28, 360–365, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/col.10182     

Colour harmony of two‐colour combinations using a 3D colour configuration

Over the past few years, although many studies have investigated colour harmony, most of those used the planar colour configuration, which is not in line with the design requirements of real‐life products. Therefore, this study used 11 basic colours and five types of colour scheme techniques to derive 141 colour combinations applied upon a physical 3D colour configuration to observe the phenomena of colour harmony. The results show that colour harmony on a 3D colour configuration is different from that on a planar colour configuration, and can be divided into four phenomena: (i) lightness difference was found to determine the colour harmony while achromatic colour was configured with achromatic colour; (ii) lightness sum prompted colour harmony while chromatic colour was configured with achromatic colour; (iii) lightness sum and chroma sum were found to determine colour harmony while chromatic colour was configured with chromatic colour with a two‐colour hue angle difference >90°; and (iv) lightness sum and hue difference were a determination of colour harmony while chromatic colour was configured with chromatic colour with a two‐colour hue angle difference of ≤90°. On the basis of these phenomena, this study develops a colour harmony model based on the colour parameters, most of which are derived from the addition of the colour attributes of two colours.     

Four‐transition 0‐1 functions for reflectance spectra

It is known that a reflectance spectrum for an optimal colour takes on the value 0 or 1 at every wavelength, with at most two transitions between those values. This article shows that any non‐optimal colour can be produced by a reflectance spectrum that takes on the value 0 or 1 at every wavelength, with at most four transitions. While the two‐transition optimal spectrum is unique, the four‐transition non‐optimal spectrum is not unique.     

Revisiting the Optical Society of America Uniform Color Scales system: past,present and future challenges

As a tribute to Claudio Oleari (1944‐2018), in this article we remember some of his ideas about the role of physics and engineering in modern colour science. In particular, we consider his emphasis on the strong content of the work carried out during 1947‐1974 by the Committee on Uniform Scales of the Optical Society of America. Oleari considered the Optical Society of America Uniform Color Scales system a very useful basis for new developments in colour science, including approximately uniform colour spaces, colour difference formulae and chromatic adaptation transforms. Papers published by Oleari and colleagues constitute an original alternative approach to the current generalised assumption of CIELAB made by most researchers and practitioners of colour science. We should seek a deeper understanding of colour vision to allow the development of new colour spaces, in which colour appearance could be more neatly expressed.     

A classification system to enhance light‐fastness data interpretation based on microfading tests and rate of colour change

In general light‐fastness tests are carried out by comparing the colour change of a sample to the colour change of Blue Wool Standards in the same illumination conditions. With the microfading technique, developed to test the light fastness of a tiny test area on objects of cultural value, this comparison is made by absolute colour change after exposure. This article presents a new approach to enhance data interpretation of light‐fastness tests by the use of the rate of colour change. The procedure is combined with the conventional classification process using absolute colour change. The new classification system with the rate of colour change was applied to 44 samples, 13 of them were classified in more sensitive Blue Wool categories when analysing the rate of colour change. The perspective of rate of colour change helps to enhance data interpretation especially of samples showing fading characteristics different from the light‐fastness standards.     

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.     

Design of multi‐actor distributed processing systems: A game‐theoretical approach

The manufacturing of a final product could be the result of a value chain involving several processing plants distributed across several distinct owners; a feature that may prevent the application of classical process design approaches that depend on a centralized treatment of the complete processing network. In this article we propose and develop a game‐theoretical framework and specific methodologies, which allow the optimal design of distributed processing systems, through the decentralized strategies of independent actors. The resulting process design corresponds to a Nash Equilibrium point among the interacting actors. Its optimality and the justification of the independent strategies that led to it, are theoretically based on (and constrained by) the properties of the 2‐level Lagrangian approach. The article also discusses the use of penalty‐term approaches, which can extend the applicability of the proposed framework and design methodologies to problems for which the underlying convexity assumptions of the 2‐level Lagrangian approach may not be possible to ascertain. A series of case studies illustrate the application of the proposed ideas to distributed processing networks of various structures. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 3369–3391, 2016     

How colour‐deficient observers see things,or not.

Colour deficiency or, colloquially, colour blindness, is common and has been observed and described in the scientific literature for ca. 200 years. In more recent times, algorithms have been developed that simulate the effect of colour deficiency to a colour‐normal observer. Sometimes these algorithms are used to indicate potential problems in the colour design, but often the implicit assumption is that a colour‐deficient observer actually sees things that way. But do they? This paper questions some of the underlying assumptions of the algorithms.     

Ecommerce interface colour and consumer decision making: Two routes of influence

This article reports an empirical study of the effects of interface colour (blue vs. grey) on ecommerce decision making. Participants viewed a set of products and information on the attributes of each and then made a series of purchase decisions that provided the basis for individual rankings of this set. Results support two proposed ‘routes of influence’. In the first, interface colour influences the cognitive capacities and strategies of consumers. This was evident as participants considered more attributes in the grey interface condition. Importantly, this was not mediated by participants' affective state. In the second, interface colour exerts influence via participants' aesthetic judgements. This was evident at a product‐specific level—with colour‐related differences in product selection decisions mediated (for two product alternatives) by participants' assessments of product aesthetics. There was also some support for a product‐generic effect of interface colour—with product aesthetics tending to be more influential in the grey condition. Overall, the results demonstrate the multifacetted nature of the influence of interface colour on consumer decision making in retail environments. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 2011;     

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.     

A cross‐cultural comparison of colour emotion for two‐colour combinations

Psychophysical experiments were conducted in the UK, Taiwan, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Argentina, and Iran to assess colour emotion for two‐colour combinations using semantic scales warm/cool, heavy/light, active/passive, and like/dislike. A total of 223 observers participated, each presented with 190 colour pairs as the stimuli, shown individually on a cathode ray tube display. The results show consistent responses across cultures only for warm/cool, heavy/light, and active/passive. The like/dislike scale, however, showed some differences between the observer groups, in particular between the Argentinian responses and those obtained from the other observers. Factor analysis reveals that the Argentinian observers preferred passive colour pairs to active ones more than the other observers. In addition to the cultural difference in like/dislike, the experimental results show some effects of gender, professional background (design vs. nondesign), and age. Female observers were found to prefer colour pairs with high‐lightness or low‐chroma values more than their male counterparts. Observers with a design background liked low‐chroma colour pairs or those containing colours of similar hue more than nondesign observers. Older observers liked colour pairs with high‐lightness or high‐chroma values more than young observers did. Based on the findings, a two‐level theory of colour emotion is proposed, in which warm/cool, heavy/light, and active/passive are identified as the reactive‐level responses and like/dislike the reflective‐level response. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 2012     

Colour management in digital textile printing

On the basis of simulated prints, a customer can decide on the colour appropriateness for a selected pattern. This article presents the possibilities and correct procedure for colour management application in the field of digital printing onto a textile substrate. The aim of the research was to establish whether long‐term and expensive pre‐ and after‐treatments can be avoided with the help of an appropriate development of printer profiles. The latter would be conducted through a print simulation on paper printed with a Canon laser or ink‐jet printer. The results have confirmed that a print simulation on paper can be conducted with both printers, while a Canon ink‐jet printer offers better results. In addition, by calculating the colour inconstancy index CMCCON02, the illuminant influence on the colour change of substrates under five different illuminations was determined. The results showed that simulated colours should be compared with original colours under daylight illuminants (D50, D55 and D75), while indoor illuminants A and F2 are not appropriate for a comparison, especially in the case of simulation with a Canon ink‐jet printer (CMCCON02 index >5).     

Colour meaning and context

This study compares semantic ratings of colour samples (chips) with those of the same colours applied to a variety of objects. In total, 25 participants took part in the colour‐meaning experiment, and assessed 54 images using five semantic scales. In Experiment 1, simplified images (coloured silhouettes) were used whereas in Experiment 2 real images were used. In this article, the terms “chip meaning” and “context meaning” are used for convenience. Chip meaning refers to the associated meanings when only isolated colour chips were evaluated while context meaning refers to colour meanings evaluated when colours were applied to a variety of product categories. Analyses were performed on the data for the two experiments individually. The results of Experiment 1 show relatively few significant differences (28%) between chip meaning and context meaning. However, differences were found for a number of colours, objects, and semantic scales i.e., red and black; hand wash and medicine; and masculine‐feminine and elegant‐vulgar. The results of Experiment 2 show more significant differences (43%) between chip meaning and context meaning. In summary, the context sometimes affects the colour meaning; however, the degree to which colour meanings are invariant to context is perhaps slightly surprising. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 42, 450–459, 2017