Color Analysis

What's the point?
In this lab, you'll learn a practical strategy for coming up with a decent color scheme...but more importantly, you'll learn a way to tune in to color and become more sophisticated in your use of color.

Step 1: New file

a. Create a file called "colorAnalysis.ai"

b. Create a model layer with this diagram (http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/magazine/17-08/by_media_diet)

Step 2: Inventory the colors

a. Draw a series of rectangles to represent all of the colors used in the visual (hint: use the align tools to make them tidy with minimal effort), and use the eyedropper tool to grab the colors from the visual:

Step 3. Create a new swatch group

a.Open the swatches panel (Window -> Swatches):

b. Select the color rectangles you just created

c. Click on the "add group" button:

d. Name the new group - I named mine "pyramid colors." Keep "Selected Artwork" selected - that tells Illustrator to create a new swatch based upon the colors in the items you've selected:

e. The new group will show up in the Swatches panel:

THis group of swatches is now available for you to use in this file. To be able to use it in other files, you'll need to save it:

f. Click on the Swatch Libraries menu in the lower lefthand corner of the panel. Select "Save Swatches..." and save it as "pyramidColors." This will allow you to reuse this swatch in another file (which you'll do later in this lab).

Step 4. Determine Color Harmonies

In this step, you'll find out about the relationships between the colors used in this visual (the colors that you've captured in your rectangles)

a. Select all of your rectangles, then choose Edit -> Edit Colors -> Recolor Artwork (or you could click on the recolor artwork icon which appears in the Control Panel at the top of the page (if it isn't open, go to WIndows -> Control)

You'll see this dialog box:

b. Choose the "Edit" option and you'll see a color wheel with a bunch of circles on it. Those circles represent the colors in your rectangles:

c. You can toggle between these two choices: , to see levels of brightness or levels of saturation:

d. Paste screenshots of these two color wheels in your file.

e. Compare these images to the color harmony images below to figure out which (if any) is being used:

MONOCHROMATIC (just 1 color, though may be different levels of saturation)

 

COMPLEMENTARY (colors directly across the color wheel)

 

SPLIT COMPLEMENTERY (colors directory across, but spread apart)

 

ANALOGOUS (range of colors in one quadrant of the wheel)

 

TRIADIC

 

TETRAD

 

So what color harmonies are used in this visual? (write your answer in your file, then compare it with my answer to see if you came to the same conclusion).

MY ANSWER: In the example we're using, it's sort of a Split Complementary, but the one bluish color is so gray that it's almost not a color and if you ignore it, what's left is an nalogous. They're all fairly bright (most are twoard the outer edge of the brightness color circle):

...and the colors vary in saturation (all the way from the center to the outer edge):

Step 5. Analyze use of color

a. Examine the visual again and note how the colors are used - consider the uses of color listed in the Biofuels lab:

• to encode (e.g. green means group A, blue means group B)
• to evoke (yellow for energy, blue for water etc)
• to highlight (red in a sea of gray)
• to set a tone (cool calm colors, warm, energetic colors)

b. In your file, write down how color is being used, then compare it to my answers below (your answer may differ from mine, that doesn't mean it's wrong - only the designer could say).

Here are some of my observations for this graphic:

• ENCODING: Colors are associated with different activities (e.g. reddish brown is used for 'new reading/watching').
• EVOKING: These colors appear not to have any natural or conventional meaning (i.e. reddish brown is used for the 'news' section, but there's nothing inherently 'newsish' about reddish brown - it's just a color the artist randomly chose).
• HIGHLIGHTING: Darker, more intense versions of the colors are used for the text bubbles and that seems to make them stand out.
• TONE: The overall tone of the graphic is high-tech, though that has to do with the text and the illustrations more than the color. The color is somewhat subdued, perhaps sophisticated. Not playful or child-friendly by any means.

Step 6: Analyze color values

a. To see your image in grayscale, select the diagram, then choose Edit -> Edit colors -> Convert to grayscale:

This makes it clear that there isn't a lot of difference in value between the colors used for the backgrounds (though the top one is a bit darker). This is fine for this purpose because the use of different colors for different layers isn't crucial for understanding the visual. The text bubbles vary a little, but they're all neutral enough to make either black or white text reasonably legible.

b. Paste a screenshot of this grayscale version in your file and write your own notes about whether the visual works without color, or whether distinctions get blurred.

Step 7: Use this color scheme

a. Open your biofuelsPie.ai file. Save it as "coloredBioFuelsPie.ai"

b. Open the Swatches panel and click on the Swatch Libraries menu in the lower lefthand corner of the panel. Go down to "User defined" and select the swatch you saved earlier listed ("pyramid colors").

c. Make a copy of the entire biofuelsPie.ai (use "Paste Remembers Layers" to retain the layers in the copy - it's found in the menu you get when you click on the drop-down button in the upper righthand corner of the Layers panel).

d. Modify the colors of this copy using the "pyramid colors" color group.

e. Write some comments about which version looks better to you and whether you think either is more effective.

FINAL PRODUCTS: colorAnalysis.ai & coloredBioFuelsPie.ai

Color resource on the web

At this site, you can upload a photo to get a color palette - http://www.degraeve.com/color-palette/