A Colour Design Tool Based on Empirical Studies

A colour design tool targeted at both unskilled consumers and professional designers is currently under development, on the basis of psychophysical studies into semantic associations of colour, the cultural influences and colour harmony. From experimental results for single-colour associations, 3 underlying factors were identified: “warm-cool”, “heavy-light” and “active-passive”, which were found to agree well with those identified by earlier research. For colour-combination associations, an “additive property” of colour association was discovered: the semantic score of a colour combination can be determined by averaging semantic scores of each constituent colour in that combination. According to the experimental results, there were 4 general patterns of colour harmony: similarity in hue and chroma, difference in lightness, high lightness and the hue effects. While the proposed colour design tool is still in its development stage and has a number of shortcomings, the system is believed to provide practical assistance and support not only for unskilled users but also for designers. Keywords: colour design; colour harmony; colour association; cross-cultural study; e-shopping; colour decision-making; design process; psychophysical method

[1]  Eleven lessons : managing design in eleven global companies , 2007 .

[2]  L. Rainwater,et al.  The meanings of color. , 1962, The Journal of general psychology.

[3]  D. Spencer,et al.  Geometric Formulation of Classical Color Harmony , 1944 .

[4]  Alain Trémeau,et al.  The Effect of Culture on Colour Emotion and Preference , 2005 .

[5]  G. W. Granger.  Aesthetic Measure Applied to Color Harmony: An Experimental Test , 1955 .

[6]  Wm. R. Wright.  General Intelligence, Objectively Determined and Measured. , 1905 .

[7]  L. Ou,et al.  A study of colour emotion and colour preference. Part I: Colour emotions for single colours , 2004 .

[8]  J. Hogg,et al.  The prediction of semantic differential ratings of color combinations. , 1969, The Journal of general psychology.

[9]  L. Ou,et al.  A study of colour emotion and colour preference. Part II: Colour emotions for two‐colour combinations , 2004 .

[10]  Roy S. Berns,et al.  Methods for characterizing CRT displays , 1996 .

[11]  J. M. Kittross.  The measurement of meaning , 1959 .

[12]  Joseph L. Zinnes,et al.  Theory and Methods of Scaling. , 1958 .

[13]  H. Eysenck.  A critical and experimental study of colour preferences , 1941 .

[14]  Parry Moon,et al.  Aesthetic Measure Applied to Color Harmony , 1944 .

[15]  Shigenobu Kobayashi,et al.  The aim and method of the color image scale , 2009 .

[16]  J Hogg,et al.  Dimensions and determinants of judgements of colour samples and a simulated interior space by architects and non-architects. , 1979, British journal of psychology.

[17]  Arthur R. Pope.  Notes on the Problem of Color Harmony and the Geometry of Color SpaceWith Reference to Articles by Moon and Spencer , 1944 .

[18]  D. Spencer,et al.  Area in color harmony , 1944 .

[19]  Science and art, objective and subjective† , 1985 .

[20]  J. V. Goethe.  Theory of Colours , 1810 .

[21]  K. Burchett.  Color Harmony , 2001 .

[22]  J. Hogg,et al.  A principal components analysis of semantic differential judgements of single colors and color pairs. , 1969, The Journal of general psychology.

[23]  L. B. Archer,et al.  Systematic method for designers , 1963 .

[24]  Johannes Itten,et al.  The art of color , 1961 .

[25]  L. Ou,et al.  A colour harmony model for two-colour combinations , 2006 .