Color, contrast and dimension play key roles in visual journalism. Each color imbues a unique mood or emotional overtone. When you learn what all these colors mean, you can pair them up with your copy for a dynamic presentation. Color in News Design will show you how the visual elements of color, contrast and dimension complement the written word.Color is one of the most important design techniques for a newspaper designer. It’s important for anyone working in in design to know which colors go well together and which colors are hard to read. There are colors that appear blinding to the eye, such as yellows, and easier colors for reading, such as browns, blues, grays and black. How you apply this to design can be sophisticated, but first you need to know the color groups.
Primary colors - red, blue and yellow
First, we have the primary colors. These are the red, blue and yellow. These are also the colors that can’t be created by any other color. Research has shown that these colors are most recognized by children, and that they also recognize babies more often. In addition, these are the colors composed of everything on a screen. This may be a television, iPhone or a computer. They’re beams of colors that are trapped inside and are first reaching the eye.
Next, we have the secondary colors. These are the greens, oranges and violets. If you mix equal amounts of red and blue, then you reach violet. Likewise, if you mix blue and yellow you’ll get green; yellow and red will give you orange.
Color in design is very subjective. What evokes one reaction in one person may evoke a very different reaction in someone else. Sometimes this is due to personal preference, and other times due to cultural background. Color theory is a science in itself. Studying how colors affect different people, either individually or as a group, is something some people build their careers on. And there’s a lot to it. Something as simple as changing the exact hue or saturation of a color can evoke a completely different feeling. Cultural differences mean that something that’s happy and uplifting in one country can be depressing in another.
WORKING WITH COLORS
Working from these 12 colors, designers often design brochures, newsletters and business cards. It’s not often that you’ll see a newspaper or magazine go outside the primary colors. In addition, there are several steps designers look for when using color.
1. Contrast. Any designer wouldn’t put red text on a violet background. It’s too hard to read, and more than likely, it would not be read at all. Instead, try a light background with dark text. For example, newspapers are classic for using their white background and black text. They don’t need reds and yellows to strain the eyes of their subscribers.
You can also place your photos where you have a dominate ( large) one on top above the fold, and a smaller one on the bottom. Always place the subject of the photo looking inward towards the page. The subscriber’s eyes will follow the photo and you don’t want to lead them off the page.
In addition, contrast your text so dominate headlines are in bold. You want these to catch the reader’s eyes first, instead of a story that may not be on page one. You may consider putting photos in color if it’s a feature story or a prominent person in a regional area. Most of these photos will print in CMYK ( cyan/ magenta/ yellow/black ) because they’re coming off a printing press. These four colors can actually create thousands of colors, but it is cheaper to print black & white.
2. Variation in color - Newspaper designers, or printers, often use split complement colors to create a more effective look. This is where you first choose a color on the color wheel. Next, you look at it’s complement (the color directly across,) and you take the colors on both sides of it. For example, let’s choose red. First it’s complement is green. The tertiary colors on both sides of green (secondary color) are aqua and yellow-green. If used effectively, this can create excellant brochures, newsletters and more.
3. Create shades/tints - First, every basic color is called a hue. If you add white to this color, then you are creating a tint. In contrast, if you add black, you are creating a shade. Keep in mind white and black aren’t real colors. White is the absence of color and black is all the colors combined. This is a way for the designer to make colors lighter or darker, and InDesign allows you to save those colors. There are other programs that you can create these as well. You may use this feature to warm up a color or to cool it down to fit your project better. It’s a great way to help your color stand out.
Color on a page is often what draws the reader to read the document. If the colors match well together, then the reader is more likely to read it until the end. However, yellows and bright colors are often a big turn-off against a light back ground. I am still learning the techniques of color, but I am learning to become a newspaper designer. So far, it’s been so much fun.
Warm and Cool Colors
Warm colors are based on yellows, oranges, browns, yellow-greens, and orange-reds, colors commonly associated with fall or autumn. Generally, warm colors tend to be more exciting and aggressive. Many people prefer them in small doses. Purples and greens are intermediary colors, being either warm or cool, depending on how much red or yellow they contain in relation to blue. If the color contains less blue then it is more likely to be a warm hue.
Cool colors are based on blues, greens, pinks, purples, blue-greens, magentas, and blue-reds, colors more commonly associated with spring and summer. Cool colors are soothing, calming colors and tend to be more popular than warm colors.
Creating a site with a combination of warm and cool colors confuses the viewer. It will often make the site seem busy, dirty, and untrustworthy. Site designers do not always realize that their color combinations are warm and cool. The use of a color wheel can be helpful. It shows the Primary (red, yellow, and blue) and Secondary (orange, green, and purple) colors. Combining two primary colors creates secondary colors. All colors are made from some combination of white, black, and the primary colors.
The Psychology of Color
Color Associations
Reds Energy, Passion, Power, Excitement
Oranges Happy, Confident, Creative, Adventurous
Yellows Wisdom, Playful, Satisfying, Optimistic
Greens Health, Regeneration, Contentment, Harmony
Blues Honesty, Integrity, Trustworthiness
Violets Regal, Mystic, Beauty, Inspiration
Browns Easiness, Passivity
Blacks Finality, Transitional Color
PROCESS COLORS - CMYK
The CMYK color model ( process color, four color) is a subtractive color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself.CMYK refers to the four inks used in some color printing: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black). Though it varies by print house, press operator, press manufacturer and press run, ink is typically applied in the order of the abbreviation.
The "K" in CMYK stands for key since in four-color printing cyan, magenta, and yellow printing plates are carefully keyed or aligned with the key of the black key plate. Some sources suggest that the "K" in CMYK comes from the last letter in "black" and was chosen because B already means blue. However, this explanation, though plausible and useful as a mnemonic, is incorrect.
The CMYK model works by partially or entirely masking colors on a lighter, usually white, background. The ink reduces the light that would otherwise be reflected. Such a model is called subtractive because inks "subtract" brightness from white.
Additive color models
In additive color models such as RGB ( Red, green, Blue ) white is the "additive" combination of all primary colored lights, while black is the absence of light. In the CMYK model, it is the opposite: white is the natural color of the paper or other background, while black results from a full combination of colored inks. To save money on ink, and to produce deeper black tones,unsaturated and dark colors are produced by using black ink instead of the combination of cyan, magenta and yellow.
RGB color model
The RGB color model is an additive color model in which red, green, and blue light is added together in various ways to reproduce a broad array of colors. The name of the model comes from the initials of the three additive primary colors, red, green, and blue.
The main purpose of the RGB color model is for the sensing, representation, and display of images in electronic systems, such as televisions and computers, though it has also been used in conventional photography. Before the electronic age, the RGB
color model already had a solid theory behind it, based in human perception of colors.
RGB is a device-dependent color model: different devices detect or reproduce a given RGB value differently, since the color elements (such as phosphors or dyes) and their response to the individual R, G, and B levels vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, or even in the same device over time. Thus an RGB value does not define the same color across devices without some kind of color management.
Typical RGB input devices are color TV and video cameras, image scanners, and digital cameras. Typical RGB output devices are TV sets of various technologies (CRT, LCD, plasma, etc.), computer and mobile phone displays, video projectors, multicolor LED displays.
IMPACT OF COLOR on WEBSITE
Color affects how we feel, our perceptions, and our interactions. A visitor has already made a conscious choice to visit your site, now you have to keep his or her interest. You have between 8 to 10 seconds to visually appeal to the surfer. Through color you can make a surfer feel welcome, comfortable, relaxed, and trusting. If you take existing graphics on a site and change the color you change the way the site is perceived, thus changing a person’s reaction.
In a face-to-face meeting our bodies and faces portray unspoken meanings. We smile, gesture, laugh, and become nervous. It’s these little nuances that help us communicate. A website does exactly the same thing. The difference is: a website does it with color. Colors themselves contain a cornucopia of meaning. They can make us happy, sad, angry, comfortable, nervous, and even trusting. While it seems simple enough to choose a graphic and then design a site around that graphic, you may unintentionally be presenting a derogatory impression. The colors may contradict the content in unintended ways.
Colors and their meanings
Importance of Color Web in Design
There’s more to websites than just images and text. A website is a marketing tool, representing the company, owner, employees and products. Beyond that, it is a personality. A website is a personality? Yes. It portrays a positive or negative symbolism and/or emotion.
Green and white work well together, but in Japan a white carnation signifies death and a green hat in China means a man’s wife is cheating on him. A green hat with a white carnation in the brim wouldn’t be a good choice for a company logo. However, green is the easiest color on the eye; it has a calming effect which is why it is most used in hospitals. It relaxes the patients. Different shades of green have different meanings: yellow-greens are the least preferred colors by consumers.
Red has been shown to increase blood pressure and heart rate. People working in a red environment work faster, but they also make more mistakes. It increases appetite, restlessness and nervous tension. Creating a site with bright red and bright blue is a very poor idea! Bright red has the longest wavelength and bright blue has the shortest. When viewing these colors the human lens has to adjust to focus, and it tries to focus on both. This tires the eyes very quickly and will give the viewer a headache.
Websites that contain different shades of blue, or a blue and white combination tend to be more popular. Why? Blue represents calm, stability, hope, wisdom and generosity. People inherently trust blue websites faster. Add blue text and people will retain more information from your site. Combine blue, purple, and white and you have nobility.
Thankfully you do not see many yellow sites. While yellow can increase concentration, it is the hardest on the eyes. Paint a room yellow and you will make babies cry and adults lose their temper. Yellow is a very spiritual color and eye catching. Used in small amounts it is very inviting, cheerful and the number one attention getter. Forget blinking animations, just use a small, nicely designed yellow graphic.
Let’s talk orange for a minute. As a fruit, I love it. As a color, I don’t love it. It always reminds me of Jell-O and that reminds me that the EEG of Jell-O is the same as the human brain. Orange does have its pluses though. It tends to make more expensive products seem affordable and suitable for everyone, almost like a natural sales pitch. Brighter orange is hard on the eyes and is not recommended for text or background images. Small amounts of bright orange can help create a “fun and interesting” site.
Action and Reaction
Taking a water-based product and placing it on a purple or orange site decreases marketability. Purple and orange are not immediately associated with water or nature and will give the site and product a “false” impression. Placing that same product on a blue or green site will increase the desire for that product. While we naturally associate water with the colors blue and green, not all site designs adhere to this thought process. Sites that are nature related receive better responses when multiple colors of green are used then any other color or combination.
Multi-colored sites, or “rainbow sites,” have the lowest visitation time. This is not the case if the site is predominantly white, while displaying only small amounts of various colors. As the multiple colors decrease, the time of visitation increases. Sites aimed at children, such as toy sites, often use a wide range of color to “entertain” the visitor. While this is smart marketing, displaying large quantities of multiple colors decreases the “fun” aspect as the eye tries to focus and concentrate on the overly busy page. A smart rule of thumb when using multiple colors: do not use more than 5 colors, keep them either “warm” or “cool,” and make the background white. Fun is more fun when it is easy on the eyes.
What does all of this mean to site designers? If you want your site to be marketable, remember that there is more to it than just graphic placement and text. Every color tells a story and it may not always fit the one you are trying to portray. In informational design, distinguish functional color from decorative color. Decorative color enhances the layout by making it more aesthetically appealing, creating a mood, or establishing a style. Functional color conveys information explicitly.
A few rules of thumb
1. Make sure the choice of colors for a site fits the intended content, and the users’ expectations.
2. Never use more colors than are necessary.
3. Do not use colors that do not support or add to the information being displayed.
4. Remain consistent throughout the site with your color choices, and leave the rainbows for rainy days and for chasing pots of gold.
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