Colour Harmonies

Colour Harmonies

There a 6 different ways that colours can work/mix together. As you can see in the pictures above. The 6 ways are as follows:

Complementary

As the picture shows, Complementary colours oppose each other. For example, Red and Green. Or Blue and Orange etc... 

A high contrast of these colours can create a vibrant look. From my research, complimentary colours are very hard to use in large masses. But they work well when you want something to stand out. They are also really bad for text. This makes a lot of sense, when making posted in the past, colours such as Red or Green as text just don't work, they seem too 'harsh' on the eyes, for me anyway. But when I want something to stand out they always work really well.

Analogous

Analogous colours schemes basically use colours that are next to each other on a colour wheel, as the picture shows above. They would normally match quite well and would feel/fit with designs. Analogous colours are known for being pleasing to the eye, as well as found in nature colour schemes.  

Triad

Triad colour schemes are typically know for their use of colours that have been used evenly around the colour wheel. They are usually vibrant too. I have also found out that for the use of triadic harmony to be successful it would require a carefully balanced use of colour. 

Split-Complimentary

 This harmonic scheme known as the Split-Complimentary is a variation that has been based off of the complementary colour scheme. As well as the main base colour it also uses two other colours that are adjacent to it. Typically, it has the same strong visual contrast as the complementary colour scheme.

Rectangle/Tetradic

This colour scheme typically uses four colours that are arranged into pairs, as the picture above shows, Red with Orange and Green with Blue. Because the colours are so rich it offers a broad range of variation. With some research I have found out that this colour scheme only works best if one colour is dominant. As well as a balance to warm and cool colours. 

Square

The diagram above looks similar to the rectangular harmony. That's because it is similar, it's just that the colours used have been selected more evenly around the colour chart. Just as the rectangle, the colour scheme works best if you allow one colour to become dominant. And again, a balance to warm a cool colours, such as Red, Bue, Orange and Green.  


We were also assigned a task to design 3 small posters just using text and shapes based around 3 different colour harmonies but using red as the starting colour. A perfect way to show this I thought was to have the background as red. Below are my three examples:

Rectangle:

Split Complementary:

Triad: 

There is something very clear about these posters, and that is that red really doesn't work very well with any of them, it probably works best with 'Rectangle' but even then it could be better in terms of colour-use. The other two just irritate my eyes. It looks almost blurry, yet they aren't. Interesting.

What have I learnt? 
Over this short brief I have actually learned quite a lot about colour. I was never aware of the 6 different harmonies and how colours work inside the colour-chart before, it is quite fascinating actually. I have also learnt that some colours used in the digital world are not possible to make in real life and some colours in real life are not possible when it comes to digital use/world - something I never even thought about before and when I first heard about it, thought it was a ridiculous idea. But now I know. I have also learnt about the difference in RGB and CMYK