Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
IN WESTERN CULTURE
,
groupings of reds, golds, and deeper green evoke the winter holiday sea-
son.
BBK Studio
United States
Changing Color, Changing Meaning
Because color so strongly evokes emotional response, its effect on imagery—both ab-
stract and representational—is of great concern to the designer. First, the issue of
“local color” in subject matter—the empirical color of objects—comes into play, in-
fluencing emotional responses in the viewer. For example, a corporate executive in a
blue suit is approachable, but in a dark gray suit, possibly arrogant or shady; wearing a
striped green tie, inexperienced, but wearing a solid red one, commanding and assured.
Second, manipulation of the overall tonal balance of an image—warm or cool, intense
or dull, greenish or blueish—will usually skew an image's feeling in one direction or
another. Last, in considering color application to typography or abstract form elements,
the designer must anticipate the powerful directness of any associations created as the
color is embodied by forms that the mind is attempting to interpret.
