colour contrast is another part of the colour theory as used in the
interior design area (probably other fields too, but I got to know them via that course. yep,
noding my homework).
As a brief reference, the socalled colour wheel:
yellow
YO YG
orange green
OR BG
red blue
RP BP
purple
These are the 8
colour contrasts:
-
Achromatic; using the colours black, greys and white. Ok, white contains all colours, but meant is, that you don't see what is generally called a colour.
-
Hue; means the pure colours like combining red and blue.
-
Light and dark; e.g. a light yellow combined with a dark purple, the divider is
chroma (see also the
Munsell system).
-
Temperature; there are "warm" and "cold" colours, which has to do with the
psychology of colours, aka what and how you
feel in a red room will be different from the feeling in a blue-dominated room.
Imagine a vertical line from yellow to purple: the colours on the left are considered
warm, and the right
cold.
-
Complemetary; two colours diametrically
opposite in the colour wheel.
-
Simultaneous; the effects of combining greys with a colour.
-
Saturation; the contrast of a pure colour with its
diluted form (diluted with white, grey and/or black).
-
Extension; this is the most
vague term and deals with the "
visual balance". (use your
imagination, that was sort of the summary of my
teacher.)
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colour theory