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Design TheoryElements Reading Assignment 1COLOR Reading Assignment 2 COLOR PERCEPTION Reading Assignment 2 Color Terms Reading Assignment 2Other Definitions Reading Assignment 2 Some quotations: Reading Assignment 2
Design Theory: The Basics Janet M. Schrock A review of the vocabulary and theory of visual design is essential to any discussion about the aesthetic aspects of the designed environment . The vocabulary includes color and light, line, texture and pattern, form and space. These are often referred to as the elements of design. The principles of design are also important in evaluating the designed environment. The principles include balance, proportion and scale, rhythm, contrast, function, emphasis and harmony. The purpose of this chapter is to define and discuss these elements and principles as an introduction to their use in interior design and housing.
THE ELEMENTS Color and Light
Color is the most salient element. When people think of interior design they often think only in terms of color. Color is important in many ways. It can set the mood of an environment. Dark colors can make us feel gloomy while bright colors can give an atmosphere of excitement. It can establish a sense of style. A stark white interior with only sparsely placed splashes of subtly contrasting color can suggest sophistication while lacquered reds and blacks provide a look of oriental grandeur. Color can affect us physically. We feel warmer in an environment with reds and oranges than we do in one with greens and blues. Looking at the color red can increase our heart rates. We, as Homo Sapiens, are a visually oriented species and the importance of color in habitats should not be underestimated. Color and light must be discussed together because the theory of color and light states that color exists only in the presence of light. In essence, color is light. The visible spectrum (the light we see) consists of light waves of varying lengths and frequencies that are seen as various colors. Objects that we see have the ability to absorb certain wave length and to reflect other wave lengths. We see the reflected light as color. Stated differently, white light contains all colors. As this light strikes an object that appears red, all colors other than red are absorbed. The red is reflected and that is what we see. Artificial light is not color balanced like natural, white light. The balance of colors in light determines how we see color. For example, incandescent light bulbs give a reddish cast to everything we see. Some fluorescent light tubes provide a greenish-blue light. In general, incandescent light is considered to be more flattering to human skin and so is used in areas of our habitats where "looking good" is important, places where we meet the public. Where work is the first priority we more frequently use fluorescent lighting. Because of the differing quality of light, color selections for interior should be made using the same lighting conditions under which they will be viewed when installed. The amount and quality of light are perhaps more important in the design of the interiors of energy efficient buildings than in traditional structures. When we select colors for interiors, we need to consider not just the hue, but also the other dimensions of value and intensity. Hue is defined as the color itself. The value is the lightness or the darkness of the color. And intensity is brightness or dullness of the color. Sometimes hues, values and intensities are chosen to visually expand the size of a space, often to enhance intimacy. This is possible because warm colors such as red and orange appear to advance and cool colors, such as blue and green, appear to recede. In a restaurant it is important to have large, functional spaces but it is also important to create an atmosphere of privacy and intimacy. This contradiction is often resolved by maintaining the large spaces and using intense, advancing colors, such as bright red. These advancing colors help to reduce the visual size of the space. In homes it is more likely that small spaces need to be visually enlarged. In this case light, receding colors, such as very light pastel blues and greens, are used. Another quality of color important in structures is its reflectance factor. Darker values absorb more light and heat than lighter ones and lighter values reflect more light and heat than darker values. We wear light colors in the summer to keep cool and dark colors in the winter to stay warm. Similarly, in geographical areas where we want a house to absorb the heat of the sum, dark colors should be used on the exterior surfaces and on sunlit interior surfaces. In warm climates we want to reflect heat, so light colors would be used. Volumes can be and have been written on color. The discussion here serves only as an introduction.
The use of line can also serve functional purposes. Lines can give direction as in a sign that uses an arrow to point the way to a garage sale. Lines painted on the floor lead strangers to the right destination in an unfamiliar building. Lines are also used to define and emphasize form. Then can also be used to make some spaces appear wider. For example, stripes painted vertically on the walls and across the floors of a hallway make it look wider and shorter. Buildings can be made to look taller by emphasizing the vertical line through the use of columns spaced regularly around its perimeter. Lines create illusions. An artist uses linear perspective to give a two dimensional surface the appearance of having three dimensions. Simple illusions are often used in buildings to create a greater appearance of height. The columns mentions above can be made to look even taller by placing a V shape at the top. Line is just as important as color in housing design. It can affect us psychologically and physically. It can be a very useful element in creating harmonious and beautiful interiors.
Texture and pattern
In general, texture refers to what we can feel through the nerve endings of our skin. However, it appeals to both the visual and the tactile senses. A purely visual texture would be one that we can see, but not feel. For example, the case on a television might have the texture of wood, but the feel of plastic. The wood texture is only visual and tries to disguise the plastic texture. We can both see and feel the texture of unfinished wood. fabric, glass and carpet. All objects and surfaces have texture that can be felt. We have a very large vocabulary to describe those textures. Smooth, rough, bumpy, soft, bubbly, grainy, glazed are just a few of the word used. Textures can formal or informal. Smooth glass, highly polished chrome, and finely woven fabrics are much more formal than rough oak wood, burlap like fabrics and uncovered brick. Pattern can be thought of as enlarged texture except it is only visual in nature. It is sometimes organic in the form it takes, as in a flowered wall covering. Or it can be abstract or non-representational, as in striped or checked patterns. Different patterns can be combined within one space, but usually to be effective, they must be related through the use of the same colors and/or forms. Pattern, like texture, can be formal or informal. Small rooms require that small patterns be used. Large rooms can have large patterns. Large patterns can visually reduce the size of a space. The same can be said for texture. Generally, very rough textures should only be used in large spaces. Small spaces look best with smoother textures.
Form and space Form (sometimes referred to as shape must be discussed in term of space. One defines the other. The form of the sofa defines the space where people will interact. In looking at an interior, we often tend to dwell on its forms rather than its spaces. The picture on the wall draws the eye to it. The blank wall is over looked. In interior design it is just as important to focus on the space as on the forms. Forms must be balanced, but so must spaces. Forms are defined by line. The linear aspects of form and space can affect us just as line does. For example, a long, Low form is more restful than a high vertical form. A pyramid shape with a wide base that clings to the earth appears much more stable than a thin obelisk that shoots vertically into the sky. Angular forms are considered masculine, while rounded forms are thought of as feminine.  Top of Page
THE PRINCIPLES Balance
Balance in design is the arrangement of the parts so that visual weight is distributed equally from one side of a space to another. A sense of equilibrium is created through the judicious use of the elements of design. There are three types of balance to be considered when designing a space, symmetrical, asymmetrical and radial. A designer creates symmetrical balance by arranging objects so that they look the same on both sides of a composition causing a mirror image. The human form is symmetrical. A fireplace with identical candlesticks and picture on both sides is symmetrical. This type of balance is easy to achieve and is often referred to as formal balance. However, because of its repetition, it can appear stilted and dull. Asymmetrical balance is referred to as informal balance. A designer use form, color, texture and line to create a sense of equilibrium, but objects differ from one side of a composition to the other. A cubical form can balance a spherical form of the same visual weight. Most compositions and interior designs that we see are asymmetrical. Radial balance is achieved through the dispersion of forms from a central point or fulcrum. Form, line, texture and color radiate from a core. A daisy is a good example from nature of radial balance; the petals grow out from the center like the rays of the sum. Spiral staircases and chandeliers are man-made examples in interiors. Proportion and scale
Rhythm is defined as a repetition. In music sounds are repeated to create a rhythm. In design the elements are repeated. Repeated lines, as in a picket fence, produce a visual rhythm. Splashes of the same color throughout a room is another way to provide a sense of rhythm. Rhythm can also be progressive in form, A shape that increases gradually in size as it is said to create a progressive rhythm. A color that decreases in value as it id repeated produces a progressive rhythm. Visual progressions can be from light to dark, large to small, rough to smooth, and old to new.
To create interest in an interior, a designer must use contrast. Contrast refers to differences in textures (rough and smooth), color (dark to light), line (curves and angular), and form (large and small). Contrast is often used to attract attention. Product package designers use contrast so that consumers will notice a particular product on store shelves. Red and white stop signs are highly visible to motorists. Great contrast can add emphasis to an object in an interior. However, contrast must be controlled. Too great a disparity produces discord. Too little difference is dull. Too much contrast used over a large area can be tiring to the eyes. High contrast in light can especially be a problem in passive solar interiors and may be overcome in part by color choices. Function
mphasis Designers strive to have a point of emphasis in a space. Emphasis is often referred to as the focal point of an area or composition. The focal point automatically draws the eye of an observer toward it and provides a place to begin an exploration of a creation. Furniture in a den is usually grouped around the fireplace, the obvious focal point in the space. A focal point can be created by weight or mass, by a concentration of detail, by intense color, or by increased contrast. Sometimes there are secondary and even tertiary points of emphasis. Too many points of emphasis create a sense of confusion.
All three of these principles relate to the sense of wholeness of a design. We need unity in an interior but it must be tempered by variety to provide interest. Harmony is the feeling that all the elements are working well together. Continuity incorporates the feeling that a design flows smoothly from one part to another. If any of the three attributes are missing from a design, a trained observer has the feeling that the design is about to "fall apart" or that a central theme cannot be identified. Evaluating design The principles are used as criteria to evaluate the visual effectiveness of the use of the elements. By examining the elements in terms of the principles we can establish a list of design questions. These could include:
We can also ask these questions in terms of the whole design, not just its parts. However, it may become easier to see and then evaluate the whole after examining the parts. In conclusion, anything written on interiors should include a discussion of the principles and elements of design.
OTHER READINGS The Software Toolworks Illustrated Encyclopedia ™ © 1990 Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc.
Color is a sensation that is aroused when light falls on the retina of the eye. Light may be perceived either as originating directly from a light source or as reflected light. White light is perceived as colorless because the eye is completely attuned to the characteristics of such light, and only a neutral color sensation is aroused by it. COLOR PERCEPTION depends on the different degrees to which various wavelengths of light stimulate the eye. Spectral Colors White light can be dispersed by a prism, which resolves a beam of white light into its colored components, the SPECTRUM. Visible LIGHT is ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION within a wavelength range of about 410 nm (nanometers) to about 770 nm. The various spectral colors may be characterized by their wavelengths within this range. An object that reflects only the part of white light between 540 nm and 600 nm will appear yellow. Yellow light may also be generated by combining green and orange-red light (the colors adjacent to yellow in the spectrum) or by combining all colors except blue. Blue is called the complementary color of yellow; the other colors also have complements. Colored light mixed with light of its complementary color appears white. The actual color sensation produced by an object is determined by a combination of the composition of the incident light and the object’s reflective properties. An object illuminated by blue light can, of course, reflect only blue light. The color of the object will then be observed only as shades of blue or black. For example, yellow and orange objects reflect almost no blue light and, under these circumstances, will appear black. Definition and Classification To a variety of observers, color has such a broad meaning that a strict definition is difficult, if not impossible. The chemist is conscious of color as a quality concerning a pigment or a dye; the psychologist describes color in terms of visual perception; and the physicist may define color in terms of qualities such as the wavelength of light and its intensity. A description of color has its foundations in attempts to classify colors. The basic distinction is made between those colors with hue and those without it. The members of the first group—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and so on—are termed chromatic colors; those of the second group—black, gray, and white—are called achromatic colors. The next classification divides the chromatic colors into groups by hue, that is, all reds are together, all blues are together, and so on. In doing so a continuous circle of overlapping hues is formed, ranging from red through orange to yellow, and then through green to blue and violet. Violet overlaps red, thus completing the circle. Achromatic colors are arranged in a single series from black through the grays to white. Some of the chromatic colors of a single hue are darker or lighter than others, and it is possible to match each degree of lightness to gray of the achromatic colors. This classification is known as brightness, or luminance. If a particularly vivid hue is mixed with an achromatic color of the same brightness, the resulting stimulus depends on the relative amounts of these two components. This characteristic of color is called saturation. The achromatic colors have zero saturation; the saturation of chromatic colors has a value between zero and one. All the colors can be classified to form a color tree by placing colors of the same brightness on a disk, with the hues placed consecutively around the disk and with the saturation increasing outwardly from the center. Similar disks of different degrees of brightness are placed in order of their brightness above and below. In this manner a color solid is evolved. Primary Colors The eye is not a selective instrument; it cannot distinguish two superimposed colors as such. Taking advantage of this fact, in 1801 Thomas YOUNG, and later Hermann von HELMHOLTZ, found that it was possible to match any given colored light using a combination of three primary light sources. Occasionally one color was found that could not be matched by direct addition of the three primaries. It was always found, however, that if one of the primaries was added to the given color, the other two primaries could produce a color match with the combination of the sample and the third primary. The amounts of the three primaries required to produce a given spectrum color as a function of wavelength are called tristimulus values. In determining these values, the use of negative values of the primary are occasionally required. The selection of the three primaries is arbitrary, and the primaries need not be monochromatic sources. It is convenient, of course, to use primaries yielding tristimulus values that are positive throughout the spectral region, but no so such curves can be found experimentally. Artists choose red, blue, and yellow pigments as their three primary colors, but red, blue, and green light is used in color television.
Color PERCEPTION is the process of distinguishing varying ways in which points or homogeneous patches of light appear to a subject. The appearance may be described in terms of hue (red, orange, green, blue, indigo, and violet being the spectral colors); saturation (from pure, through pastels or brown, to unsaturated, hueless grays); and lightness or brightness (blacks, through grays, to white). Other things being equal, the hue of an isolated patch varies with the wavelength of the light at the eye; the lightness varies with the intensity of the light’s energy; and the saturation varies with the purity of any wavelength mixture: if all the wavelengths are represented, the mixture is achromatic—black, grays, or white. Wavelength and hue are not in one-to-one correspondence, however. The same hue can be evoked by very different wavelengths if the mixture of wavelengths in a single patch is suitably selected, or if the context is suitably arranged. Color-mixture research measures the viewer’s ability to tell whether two adjacent patches of color are the same or different—a discrimination decision similar to those studied in PSYCHOPHYSICS. The normal viewer can match any color by using a mixture of three wavelengths. Viewers who have defective color vision, or color blindness, may require abnormal proportions of the three wavelengths (anomalous trichromatism); may use only two wavelengths to match all others (dichromatism), confusing reds and greens with each other (deuteranopia and protanopia) or confusing yellows, blues, and grays (tritanopia); or may match any wavelength with any other (monochromatism). Even the normal viewer has normal color vision only in the central part of the retina; in the other parts of the retina the predominant photoreceptors are rods, which are sensitive to weak light but which are all alike in their response to wavelength—that is, they are monochromats. Rods predominate in peripheral vision. The Young-HELMHOLTZ theory of color posits three different classes of cones in the central retina, which yield SENSATIONS of blue, green, and red from mixtures of which all other colors would presumably be perceived. Direct physiological measurement has found different kinds of cones, with peak sensitivities at wavelengths of about 450 nanometers (reddish blue), 530 nm (green), and 570 nm (greenish yellow), respectively. (A nanometer is 1 X (10 to the power of - 9) meter.) Because light at these wavelengths does not look pure, and because one cannot predict from the appearance of one such wavelength what a mixture of two or more will look like, the opponent-process theory, originally proposed by Ewald Hering and revised (1974) by Hurvich and Jameson, has gained widespread support. This theory states that the output of the cones is received by cells that occur in sets of three kinds of opponent-process pairs. One responds with the sensation red or with its complementary, green, depending on how it is stimulated; one responds with blue or yellow; one responds with white or black. All colors would be mixed from these. Cells that are consistent with this theory have been found in the visual systems of fish and mammals. Context also affects color perception. In the phenomenon of simultaneous contrast, the hue that is the complementary of the hue that surrounds a patch is added to the appearance of the patch. This phenomenon is of great practical and theoretical importance. Julian Hochberg Bibliography: Boynton, R., "Color Vision," in Kling, J. A., and Riggs, L. A., eds., Woodworth and Schlosberg’s Experimental Psychology (1971); Evans, Ralph M., The Perception of Color (1974); Hochberg, Julian, Perception, 2d ed. (1978); Mollon, John, and Sharpe, Ted, eds., Colour Vision: Physiology and Psychophysics (1983).
Achromatic: Not on the color wheel. Black, white and metallic colors are achromatic.
Additive: In light, primary colors combine to produce optical sensation of color. Analogous color: Colors next to each other on the color wheel. Arbitrary color: Colors in a painting or other art work that are not based on natural appearance. Chromatic aberration: The human eye focuses various hues at different points along a line perpendicular to the retina. Some colors are focused in front of the retina, others are focused behind it. Cold colors: The blue and green spectrum of hues. They recede visually. Color wheel: A spectrum of colors joined in a circle Complementary colors: Colors opposite each other on the color wheel, for example red and green. Hue: Name of color defining its location on a color wheel Monochromatic: A single hue in a range of value and/or intensities. Neutrals: Colors of low intensity such as gray, beige and brown. Optical color: Colors in a painting or other art work that are based on light as observed at a particular time of day. Primary color: Colors in a color system from which all other colors are derived. In light these colors are red, blue and green, the additive primaries. In pigment these colors are red yellow and blue, the subtractive primaries. Saturation, intensity or chroma: relative purity or brightness of color. The amount of hue in a pigment. Secondary colors: The color resulting from two primary colors being mixed, for example orange and violet. Shade: The color resulting from mixing a hue with black, for example "navy blue." Simultaneous contrast: Adjacent colors affect the apparent hue of each other. Subtractive: In pigments primary colors absorb or subtract color from the light spectrum. Tertiary colors: The color resulting from mixing a primary and a secondary color, for example orange-yellow and red-orange. Tint: The color resulting from mixing a hue with white, for example pink. Tone: The color resulting from mixing a hue with gray. Value: The degree of lightness or darkness of a color from white to black. Visible spectrum: the range of light rays that can be discerned by the human eye. Warm colors: The red and orange spectrum of hues. They advance visually. Some Other Definitions: de·sign (dî-zìn¹) verb de·signed, de·sign·ing, de·signs verb, transitive
verb, intransitive
noun
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Color http://www.asphodel.com/releases/0954/index.shtml
(an interesting web site devoted to color.)
White . . . is not a mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black. . . . God paints in many colours; but He never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when He paints in white. G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936), British author. Tremendous Trifles, "A Piece of Chalk" (1909).Green how I want you green. Green wind. Green branches. Federico García Lorca (1898-1936), Spanish poet, playwright. Romance Sonámbulo.Blueness doth express trueness. Ben Jonson (1573-1637), English dramatist, poet. Amorphus, in Cynthia’s Revels, act 5, sc. 2.Color possesses me. I don’t have to pursue it. It will possess me always, I know it. That is the meaning of this happy hour: Color and I are one. I am a painter. Paul Klee (1879-1940), Swiss artist. The Diaries of Paul Klee 1898-1918 (1957: tr. 1965), entry for 16 April 1914, written in Tunisia.Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment. To such an extent indeed that one day, finding myself at the deathbed of a woman who had been and still was very dear to me, I caught myself in the act of focusing on her temples and automatically analyzing the succession of appropriately graded colors which death was imposing on her motionless face. Claude Monet (1840-1926), French painter. Remark to Georges Clemenceau. Quoted in: Claude Monet: Les Nymphéas, ch. 2 (1926).Why do two colors, put one next to the other, sing? Can one really explain this? no. Just as one can never learn how to paint. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Spanish artist. Arts de France, no. 6 (Paris; 1946; tr. in Dore Ashton, Picasso on Art, 1972).The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love colour the most. John Ruskin (1819-1900), English art critic and author. The Stones of Venice, vol. 2, ch. 5, sct. 30 (1852). There is no blue without yellow and without orange. Vincent Van Gogh (1853-90), Dutch painter. Letter, June 1888 (published in The Complete Letters of Vincent Van Gogh, vol. 3, no. B6, 1958).Mere colour, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright, author. Gilbert, in The Critic as Artist, pt. 2 (published in Intentions, 1891).The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations is licensed from Columbia University Press. Copyright © 1993 by Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. Design Interior design is a travesty of the architectural process and a frightening condemnation of the credulity, helplessness and gullibilty of the most formidable consumers—the rich. Stephen Bayley (b. 1951), British design critic. Taste, pt. 2, "Interiors: Vacuums of Taste" (1991). Perhaps believing in good design is like believing in God, it makes you an optimist. Sir Terence Conran (b. 1931), British businessman, designer. Daily Telegraph (London, 12 June 1989). Art has to move you and design does not, unless it’s a good design for a bus. David Hockney (b. 1937), British artist. Guardian (London, 26 Oct. 1988). Design in art, is a recognition of the relation between various things, various elements in the creative flux. You can’t invent a design. You recognise it, in the fourth dimension. That is, with your blood and your bones, as well as with your eyes. D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930), British author. Phoenix: The Posthumous Papers of D. H. Lawrence, pt. 4, "Art and Morality" (ed. by E. McDonald, 1936). The complaint . . . about modern steel furniture, modern glass houses, modern red bars and modern streamlined trains and cars is that all these objets modernes, while adequate and amusing in themselves, tend to make the people who use them look dated. It is an honest criticism. The human race has done nothing much about changing its own appearance to conform to the form and texture of its appurtenances. E. B. White (1899-1985), U.S. author, editor. "Fitting In," in New Yorker (9 June 1934; repr. in Writings from the New Yorker 1927-1976, ed. by Rebecca M. Dale, 1991). In my experience, if you have to keep the lavatory door shut by extending your left leg, it’s modern architecture. Nancy Banks-Smith , British columnist. Guardian (London, 20 Feb. 1979). Designs in connection with postage stamps and coinage may be described, I think, as the silent ambassadors on national taste. W. B. Yeats (1865-1939), Irish poet, playwright. Speech, 3 March 1926, to the Seanad Eireann, the Irish Senate, on the Coinage Bill. The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations is licensed from Columbia University Press. Copyright © 1993 by Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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