"Our Perception of Color" as seen in Decorati
Decorati , if you don't know, is a brilliant online design magazine and resource founded in San Francisco by the equally brilliant Shane Reilly. I met Shane through Twitter ( @chiefdecorati ) at the beginning of the summer. That I could meet and communicate with Shane Reilly is yet another reason I've become such an advocate of Twitter. I swear, through Twitter I get to interact directly with people I'd never meet under ordinary circumstances. Spend some time poking through Decorati, you will be glad you did. As if Decorati weren't enough, Shane also writes a personal blog and that's always worth a read too. Her blog is called Shane's Studio .
Anyhow, at the beginning of August, someone from Benjamin Moore posted a short piece on Decorati concerning color perception and I'm going to reprint it here.
Defining Color
The belief of coloration is a phenomenon of light - a form of strength with its very own frequency and wavelength. Shine a light thru a prism and also you?Ll see it divide into six coloration families: purple, orange, yellow, inexperienced, blue, and violet. White mild is the combination of all colours, at the same time as black is the absence of all colorations. We perceive shade because of the pigments in a given object. A blue pillow seems blue to our eyes because the pigment inside the pillow is absorbing all of the colors of the light besides for the colour blue reflecting lower back to us.
Color and Light
Have you ever attempted to in shape a shade swatch in a shop only to discover it looks like a completely distinct coloration whilst you bring it domestic? You?Ve simply experienced metamerism, the occurrence of colours apparently converting when viewed underneath exceptional mild sources. Some shades are greater susceptible to this phenomenon than others, inclusive of tans, taupes, grays, grayed-blues, mauves, lilacs, and grayed yellow-veggies including celadon. View colour swatches inside the actual area and lights situations in which they are being used.
Color and Space
Space affects how we understand shade, so preserve percentage and scale in mind while making your colour picks, together with whether you want the room to feel intimate or open. Consider elements including ceiling height, seen wall area, fixtures, and massive portions of paintings, together with the number of windows and doors in a room.
How Colors Affect Other Colors
Colors that surround a given shade have an effect on how we understand that colour. An off-white wall can appear crimson whilst paired with a vibrant red carpet. Complementary colors, including crimson and green, enhance every different?S coloration nice. Two squares of the identical color of grey will seem to differ from each other while one is located towards a white historical past and the alternative towards black.
That's great stuff and every word of it's true. It can be difficult to get accurate information about the science lurking behind the world of color but it's there. Thank you Benjamin Moore for so thorough an explanation and thank you Decorati for running it.
