Understanding color : an introduction for designers

273 Pages·2011·40.99 MB·English

by  Linda Holtzschue

UNDERSTANDING COLOR
An Introduction for Designers
Fourth Edition
Linda Holtzschue
John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Copyright © 2011 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Holtzschue, Linda.
Understanding color : an introduction for designers / Linda Holtzschue. —
4th ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-470-38135-9 (pbk.); 978-0-470-95066-1 (ebk.); 978-0-470-95078-4 (ebk.);
978-1-118-00575-0 (ebk.), 978-1-118-00576-7 (ebk.); 978-1-118-00577-4 (ebk.)
1. Color in design. I. Title.
NK1548.H66 2011
701’.85—dc22
2010041034
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
DEDICATION
To my children Alison, Adam, and Sara, and the wonderful partners they have brought
into our lives; to my grandchildren Amanda Carrico Schloss, Katherine Rose Schloss, and
Daniel Elias Holtzschue; and most of all to my husband Karl, whose patience and support
made this book possible.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This fourth edition of Understanding Color would not have been possible without the generosity
of friends and colleagues, both old and new. I was delighted that Jennifer Perman, who
designed the second and third editions and created many of the illustrations, was available
to design this edition as well, and that my editor Margaret Cummins, who cheered me on
through the two last editions, continued in that role for this one. I could not have done this
book without the contributions, guidance, and support of Steven King, Bob Stein,
Laurent de Brunhoff, Phyllis Rose, Carin Goldberg, Ron Lubman, Emily Garner,
Kenneth Charbonneau, Wilsonart, Mark Stevenson, Stephen Gerould, Dan Brammer,
Jamie Drake, Adobe Systems, Farrow and Ball, David Setlow and Stark Carpets, Edward
Fields Carpets, Tai Ping Carpets, Safavieh Carpets, The Color Association of the United
States, Color Marketing Group, Elizabeth Eakins, Sanderson, First Editions, Erika Woelfel
of Colwell Industries, X-Rite Corporation, Alison Holtzschue, Gwen Harris, my friends at
Benjamin Moore, and anyone I may inadvertently have missed. Thank you, all.
PREFACE
More changes have taken place in the way that designers work with color in the last few
decades than have occurred over the last few centuries. Technology has created a tectonic
shift in the everyday experience of color. Colored light, once a limited area of interest
to designers, is now the primary medium of the studio workplace. Color is a whole new
world, and at times a very confusing one.
This is a book for everyone who uses color. It is written for design students and sign
painters, architects and carpet salespeople, graphic designers and magicians. It is a road
map to the relationships between colors, and even more, to the relationships between
real colors and virtual colors. It is guide to using color freely, comfortably, and creatively
without dependence on complicated theories or systems. This is a book about learning to
see—in the new way as well as the old.
This book includes a workbook component that is available online at www.wiley.com/go/
understandingcolor4e.

CONTENTS
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Preface
Contents
Chapter 1 An Introduction to Color Study
The Experience of Color 2
Color Awareness 4
The Uses of Color 7
Color-Order Systems 8
Color Study 12
Chapter 2 A Little Light on the Subject
Light 18
Additive Color: Mixing Light 20
Lamps 22
Lighting Level 25
Vision 26
The Illuminant Mode of Vision 27
The Object Mode of Vision 27
Subtractive Color: Colorants 28
Lamps and Color Rendition 31
Metamerism and Matching 32
Modifying Light: Surface 33
Transparent, Opaque, and Translucent 36
Iridescence 36
Luminosity 37
Indirect Light, Indirect Color 37
Modifying Light: Filters 38
Chapter 3 The Human Element
The Sensation of Color 44
Threshold 46
Intervals 46
The Perception of Color 49
Physiology: Responding to Light 50
Healing and Color 53
Synaesthesia 54
Psychology: Responding to Light 54
Naming Colors 55
Color as Language: From Name to Meaning 57
Impressional Color 61
Color as Words Alone 61
Chapter 4 The Vocabulary of Color
Hue 69
The Artists’ Spectrum 71

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