Before&After ® BAmagazine.com i U X Our color wheel The color wheel is our tool for understanding which colors go with what Continued Our color wheel 0646 Before&After BAmagazine.com ® i U X Our color wheel Part science, part art, the color wheel is our tool for understanding which colors go with what Visible light Wherever there is light, there is color While we think of colors as independent—this blue, that red—a color is never seen alone but always in the context of other colors Like a musical note, no one color is “good” or “bad.” Rather, it’s one part of a composition that as a whole is pleasing or not The color wheel is our tool for understanding how colors relate to one another Here’s how it works Infra-red Ultraviolet The color wheel is the range of visible light made into a circle Infinity, simplified White light contains all visible colors, which form an infinite spectrum that always appears in the violet-to-red sequence you see in a rainbow (right, top) To make it practical, the color wheel represents this infinity with 12 basic hues pretty much like those in your first box of crayons of 12 Our color wheel 0646 Before&After ® Our color wheel BAmagazine.com of 12 i U X What are the colors? The wheel has 12 basic hues First are the three primary colors of blue, yellow and red Primary colors combine to make secondary colors, which combine to make tertiary colors Primary colors are the wheel’s “parent” colors; they are the only colors not made from other colors The primary colors are positioned around the wheel in thirds Secondary colors are halfway between the primary colors Each is made from equal amounts of the nearest primaries Tertiary colors fill the remaining gaps They are made from equal amounts of the adjacent primary and secondary colors of 12 Our color wheel 0646 Before&After ® Our color wheel BAmagazine.com of 12 i U X Colors in common As you can tell, every color is part of the color next to it, which is part of the next and the next, all the way around the wheel Colors in common are the basis of color relationships Blue is common to all seven colors, which get less blue as they fan out Green and violet are the secondaries that contain blue Yellow is common to all seven colors, which get less yellow as they fan out Green and orange are the secondaries that contain yellow Red is common to all seven colors, which get less red as they fan out Orange and violet are the secondaries that contain red of 12 Our color wheel 0646 Before&After Our color wheel ® i U X BAmagazine.com of 12 Color value Color also has darkness and lightness, or value To show value, the color wheel has more rings; two big rings for the dark shades and two small rings for the light tints The color wheel has five concentric rings from dark to light— shades are the big rings, tints are the small, and hues are the middle Shade Tints and shades (Left) A shade is the hue plus black, and a tint is the hue plus white Shade Hue Tint Infinite gradient (Below) Five steps represent what is actually a continuous gradient from white to black A tint or shade can fall anywhere on the continuum Hue Tint Tints + hue white Shades hue + black of 12 Our color wheel 0646 Before&After ® Our color wheel of 12 BAmagazine.com i U X Color relationships The following pages illustrate the six basic color relationships Each can yield an endless number of color palettes Monochromatic First are the dark, medium and light values of a single color This is a monochromatic palette It has no color depth, but it provides the contrast of dark, medium and light that’s so important to good design Analogous Adjacent colors are called analogous Analogous colors share strong undertones (here, yellow and red), which create pleasing, low-contrast harmony Analogous palettes are rich and always easy to work with of 12 Our color wheel 0646 Before&After ® Our color wheel of 12 BAmagazine.com i U X Any palette can include shades and tints along with the hue The result can be all dark, all light, or any combination Complement Direct opposites on the color wheel are complements—in this case, blue and orange What the complement brings is contrast A color and its complement convey energy, vigor and excitement Typically, the complement is used in a smaller amount as an accent; a spot of orange on a blue field, for example Split complement One step either way are the complement’s own analogous colors This palette is called a split complement Its strength is in the low-contrast beauty of analogous colors, plus the added punctuation of an opposite color In this case the red, because it’s most different, would likely be used as the accent of 12 Our color wheel 0646 Before&After ® Our color wheel of 12 i U X BAmagazine.com The amount of color matters Palettes can be made warmer/cooler, darker/lighter, stronger/quieter and so on by using more or less of some colors Primary The primary colors are rarely seen as a trio except in children’s products Red and yellow, however, are popular in American culture for everything from fast food to gasoline Red and blue are common but attractive only if separated by open space Rare Popular Clash Secondary Secondary colors have a lot in common—two share blue, two share yellow, and two share red—so harmonize easily As a trio they are soft, inviting and rich, and have pleasing depth and dimension that are hard to get in other ways Separated of 12 Our color wheel 0646 Before&After ® Our color wheel BAmagazine.com of 12 i U X Now for a quiz Train your eye: Each cover uses one of the basic color relationships Can you name them? Hint: Look at the big colors, not the small ones; ignore black & white Answers on page 11 COUNTRY Comfort Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more! Monochromatic Analogous Complement Split complement Primary Secondary COUNTRY Comfort Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more! Monochromatic Analogous Complement Split complement Primary Secondary COUNTRY Comfort COUNTRY Comfort Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Scarves Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more! Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more! Monochromatic Analogous Complement Split complement Primary Secondary Monochromatic Analogous Complement Split complement Primary Secondary of 12 Our color wheel 0646 Before&After ® Our color wheel 10 of 12 BAmagazine.com i U X Download: Before & After color wheel Before&After ® Our color wheel | 748kb www.bamagazine.com/ColorWheel/ This color wheel is exactly the one we use in Before & After magazine It is a reference tool, not an interactive product Its purpose is to help you understand how colors are related Its 12 hues and 48 tints represent the full spectrum of color but are only a tiny fraction of the infinity of colors actually in nature The format is Adobe PDF For everything you want to know about working with PDF, please contact Adobe’s Reader support Web site at www.adobe.com/support/products/acrreader.html 10 of 12 Our color wheel 0646 Before&After ® Our color wheel BAmagazine.com 11 of 12 i U X Article resources 4a COUNTRY Comfort Typefaces COUNTRY Comfort Colors Giza Nine Three 4c Sloop ScriptOne 10 ITC Goudy Sans Bold Italic C50 M0 Y76 K0 11 C30 M0 Y64 K0 10 Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more! Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more! 11 12 17 Images 18 (a–d) iStockphoto.com | 12 C26 M0 Y47 K0 a b c d 16 19 Quiz answers Comfort 13 C60 M25 Y0 K0 14 C50 M15 Y0 K0 15 C15 M5 Y0 K0 COUNTRY 4b C65 M35 Y75 K65 COUNTRY Comfort Monochromatic 16 C0 M55 Y20 K0 17 C30 M85 Y75 K55 4d 18 C20 M80 Y35 K5 Complementary 13 20 Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more! 14 15 16 Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more! 21 19 C60 M28 Y90 K30 20 C0 M75 Y95 K0 Primary 21 C25 M75 Y100 K20 22 22 C0 M30 Y97 K0 23 Analogous 23 C5 M48 Y96 K0 11 of 12 Our color wheel 0646 Before&After ® Our color wheel BAmagazine.com 12 of 12 Subscribe to Before & After Subscribe to Before & After, and become a more capable, confident designer for pennies per article To learn more, go to http://www.bamagazine.com/Subscribe E-mail this article To pass along a free copy of this article to others, click here Join our e-list To be notified by e-mail of new articles as they become available, go to http://www.bamagazine.com/email i U X Before & After magazine Before & After has been sharing its practical approach to graphic design since 1990 Because our modern world has made designers of us all (ready or not), Before & After is dedicated to making graphic design understandable, useful and even fun for everyone John McWade Publisher and creative director Gaye McWade Associate publisher Vincent Pascual Staff designer Dexter Mark Abellera Staff designer Before & After magazine 323 Lincoln Street, Roseville, CA 95678 Telephone 916-784-3880 Fax 916-784-3995 E-mail mailbox@bamagazine.com www http://www.bamagazine.com Copyright ©2006 Before & After magazine ISSN 1049-0035 All rights reserved You may pass along a free copy of this article to others by clicking here You may not alter this article, and you may not charge for it You may quote brief sections for review; please credit Before & After magazine, and let us know To link Before & After magazine to your Web site, use this URL: http://www.bamagazine.com For all other permissions, please contact us 12 of 12 | Printing formats Our color wheel 0646 Before&After BAmagazine.com ® i U X Before & After is made to fit your binder Before & After articles are intended for permanent reference All are titled and numbered For the current table of contents, click here To save time and paper, a paper-saver format of this article, suitable for one- or two-sided printing, is provided on the following pages For presentation format Print: (Specify pages 1–12) For paper-saver format Print: (Specify pages 14–19) Print Format: Landscape Page Size: Fit to Page Save Presentation format or Paper-saver format Back | Paper-saver format Our color wheel 0646 Visible light Infra-red Our color wheel The color wheel is the range of visible light made into a circle Ultraviolet The color wheel is our tool for understanding which colors go with what Wherever there is light, there is color While we think of colors as independent—this blue, that red—a color is never seen alone but always in the context of other colors Like a musical note, no one color is “good” or “bad.” Rather, it’s one part of a composition that as a whole is pleasing or not The color wheel is our tool for understanding how colors relate to one another Here’s how it works of Before&After | www.bamagazine.com Infinity, simplified White light contains all visible colors, which form an infinite spectrum that always appears in the violet-to-red sequence you see in a rainbow (right, top) To make it practical, the color wheel represents this infinity with 12 basic hues pretty much like those in your first box of crayons 0646 Our color wheel What are the colors? 0646 Tertiary colors fill the remaining gaps They are made from equal amounts of the adjacent primary and secondary colors Red is common to all seven colors, which get less red as they fan out Orange and violet are the secondaries that contain red Our color wheel Secondary colors are halfway between the primary colors Each is made from equal amounts of the nearest primaries The wheel has 12 basic hues First are the three primary colors of blue, yellow and red Primary colors combine to make secondary colors, which combine to make tertiary colors Primary colors are the wheel’s “parent” colors; they are the only colors not made from other colors The primary colors are positioned around the wheel in thirds Colors in common of Before&After | www.bamagazine.com Yellow is common to all seven colors, which get less yellow as they fan out Green and orange are the secondaries that contain yellow As you can tell, every color is part of the color next to it, which is part of the next and the next, all the way around the wheel Colors in common are the basis of color relationships Blue is common to all seven colors, which get less blue as they fan out Green and violet are the secondaries that contain blue 0646 Our color wheel Color value Hue Shades hue + black Tints and shades (Left) A shade is the hue plus black, and a tint is the hue plus white Infinite gradient (Below) Five steps represent what is actually a continuous gradient from white to black A tint or shade can fall anywhere on the continuum Analogous Adjacent colors are called analogous Analogous colors share strong undertones (here, yellow and red), which create pleasing, low-contrast harmony Analogous palettes are rich and always easy to work with Our color wheel 0646 Tints hue + white Color also has darkness and lightness, or value To show value, the color wheel has more rings; two big rings for the dark shades and two small rings for the light tints The color wheel has five concentric rings from dark to light— shades are the big rings, tints are the small, and hues are the middle of Before&After | www.bamagazine.com Monochromatic First are the dark, medium and light values of a single color This is a monochromatic palette It has no color depth, but it provides the contrast of dark, medium and light that’s so important to good design The following pages illustrate the six basic color relationships Each can yield an endless number of color palettes Color relationships Shade Shade Hue Tint Tint 0646 Our color wheel Rare Split complement One step either way are the complement’s own analogous colors This palette is called a split complement Its strength is in the low-contrast beauty of analogous colors, plus the added punctuation of an opposite color In this case the red, because it’s most different, would likely be used as the accent Any palette can include shades and tints along with the hue The result can be all dark, all light, or any combination Complement Direct opposites on the color wheel are complements—in this case, blue and orange What the complement brings is contrast A color and its complement convey energy, vigor and excitement Typically, the complement is used in a smaller amount as an accent; a spot of orange on a blue field, for example Separated Our color wheel Secondary Secondary colors have a lot in common—two share blue, two share yellow, and two share red—so harmonize easily As a trio they are soft, inviting and rich, and have pleasing depth and dimension that are hard to get in other ways The amount of color matters Palettes can be made warmer/cooler, darker/lighter, stronger/quieter and so on by using more or less of some colors Clash Primary The primary colors are rarely seen as a trio except in children’s products Red and yellow, however, are popular in American culture for everything from fast food to gasoline Red and blue are common but attractive only if separated by open space Popular of Before&After | www.bamagazine.com 0646 0646 Our color wheel Now for a quiz Comfort Monochromatic Analogous Complement Split complement Primary Secondary Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more! COUNTRY Monochromatic Analogous Complement Split complement Primary Secondary Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Scarves Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more! Comfort COUNTRY ® Before&After Our color wheel | 748kb www.bamagazine.com/ColorWheel/ This color wheel is exactly the one we use in Before & After magazine It is a reference tool, not an interactive product Its purpose is to help you understand how colors are related Its 12 hues and 48 tints represent the full spectrum of color but are only a tiny fraction of the infinity of colors actually in nature The format is Adobe PDF For everything you want to know about working with PDF, please contact Adobe’s Reader support Web site at www.adobe.com/support/products/acrreader.html Our color wheel 0646 Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more! Comfort COUNTRY Train your eye: Each cover uses one of the basic color relationships Can you name them? Hint: Look at the big colors, not the small ones; ignore black & white Answers on page Comfort COUNTRY Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more! Monochromatic Analogous Complement Split complement Primary Secondary of Before&After | www.bamagazine.com Download: Before & After color wheel Monochromatic Analogous Complement Split complement Primary Secondary 0646 Our color wheel Comfort Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more! Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more! Comfort COUNTRY COUNTRY Article resources Comfort Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more! COUNTRY Comfort Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more! COUNTRY Subscribe to Before & After 4c 17 18 16 19 4d 20 21 22 23 Subscribe to Before & After, and become a more capable, confident designer for pennies http://www.bamagazine.com/Subscribe per article To learn more, go to E-mail this article To pass along a free copy of this article to others, click here Join our e-list To be notified by e-mail of new articles as they become available, go to http://www.bamagazine.com/email Typefaces Giza Nine Three Sloop ScriptOne ITC Goudy Sans Bold Italic Images (a–d) iStockphoto.com | a b c d C50 M0 Y76 K0 C65 M35 Y75 K65 Colors 10 11 C30 M0 Y64 K0 12 C26 M0 Y47 K0 13 C60 M25 Y0 K0 14 C50 M15 Y0 K0 15 C15 M5 Y0 K0 16 C0 M55 Y20 K0 17 C30 M85 Y75 K55 18 C20 M80 Y35 K5 19 C60 M28 Y90 K30 20 C0 M75 Y95 K0 21 C25 M75 Y100 K20 22 C0 M30 Y97 K0 23 C5 M48 Y96 K0 Our color wheel You may pass along a free copy of this article to others by clicking here You may not alter this article, and you may not charge for it You may quote brief sections for review; please credit Before & After magazine, and let us know To link Before & After magazine to your Web site, use this URL: http://www.bamagazine.com For all other permissions, please contact us Copyright ©2006 Before & After magazine ISSN 1049-0035 All rights reserved Before & After magazine 323 Lincoln Street, Roseville, CA 95678 Telephone 916-784-3880 Fax 916-784-3995 E-mail mailbox@bamagazine.com www http://www.bamagazine.com John McWade Publisher and creative director Gaye McWade Associate publisher Vincent Pascual Staff designer Dexter Mark Abellera Staff designer Before & After magazine Before & After has been sharing its practical approach to graphic design since 1990 Because our modern world has made designers of us all (ready or not), Before & After is dedicated to making graphic design understandable, useful and even fun for everyone Analogous Primary Complementary Monochromatic Quiz answers of Before&After | www.bamagazine.com 0646 4a 10 11 12 4b 13 14 16 15 0646 Our color wheel [...]... Our color wheel Secondary colors are halfway between the primary colors Each is made from equal amounts of the nearest primaries The wheel has 12 basic hues First are the three primary colors of blue, yellow and red Primary colors combine to make secondary colors, which combine to make tertiary colors Primary colors are the wheel s “parent” colors; they are the only colors not made from other colors. .. Paper-saver format Our color wheel 0646 Visible light Infra-red Our color wheel The color wheel is the range of visible light made into a circle Ultraviolet The color wheel is our tool for understanding which colors go with what Wherever there is light, there is color While we think of colors as independent—this blue, that red—a color is never seen alone but always in the context of other colors Like a... the color wheel represents this infinity with 12 basic hues pretty much like those in your first box of crayons 0646 Our color wheel What are the colors? 0646 Tertiary colors fill the remaining gaps They are made from equal amounts of the adjacent primary and secondary colors Red is common to all seven colors, which get less red as they fan out Orange and violet are the secondaries that contain red Our. .. can fall anywhere on the continuum Analogous Adjacent colors are called analogous Analogous colors share strong undertones (here, yellow and red), which create pleasing, low-contrast harmony Analogous palettes are rich and always easy to work with Our color wheel 0646 Tints hue + white Color also has darkness and lightness, or value To show value, the color wheel has more rings; two big rings for... colors The primary colors are positioned around the wheel in thirds Colors in common 2 of 6 Before&After | www.bamagazine.com Yellow is common to all seven colors, which get less yellow as they fan out Green and orange are the secondaries that contain yellow As you can tell, every color is part of the color next to it, which is part of the next and the next, all the way around the wheel Colors in common... the six basic color relationships Each can yield an endless number of color palettes Color relationships Shade Shade Hue Tint Tint 0646 Our color wheel Rare Split complement One step either way are the complement’s own analogous colors This palette is called a split complement Its strength is in the low-contrast beauty of analogous colors, plus the added punctuation of an opposite color In this case... ® Before&After Our color wheel | 748kb www.bamagazine.com/ColorWheel/ This color wheel is exactly the one we use in Before & After magazine It is a reference tool, not an interactive product Its purpose is to help you understand how colors are related Its 12 hues and 48 tints represent the full spectrum of color but are only a tiny fraction of the infinity of colors actually in nature The... Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more! 14 15 16 7 Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more! 8 21 19 C60 M28 Y90 K30 20 C0 M75 Y95 K0 7 Primary 21 C25 M75 Y100 K20 22 22 C0 M30 Y97 K0 23 8 Analogous 23 C5 M48 Y96 K0 11 of 12 Our color wheel 0646 Before&After ® Our color wheel BAmagazine.com...Before&After ® Our color wheel BAmagazine.com 11 of 12 i U X Article resources 1 2 4a COUNTRY Comfort Typefaces COUNTRY Comfort Colors 1 Giza Nine Three 4c 9 2 Sloop ScriptOne 10 3 ITC Goudy Sans Bold Italic C50 M0 Y76 K0 11 C30 M0 Y64 K0 9 10 Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple Gifts Stovetop Treats Plush Pullover And more! Garden Greens Great Gourds A Perfect Porch Simple... context of other colors Like a musical note, no one color is “good” or “bad.” Rather, it’s one part of a composition that as a whole is pleasing or not The color wheel is our tool for understanding how colors relate to one another Here’s how it works 1 of 6 Before&After | www.bamagazine.com Infinity, simplified White light contains all visible colors, which form an infinite spectrum that always appears