Product Description

Color Harmony 2 is an invaluable tool for anyone working with color. From graphic designers to interior decorators, from fashion designers to floral arrangers, this book can help anyone create effective color schemes for any project.

Colors and color schemes matched to specific moods provide unique color and design possibilities. 12 basic hues with 94 tints and shades give over 1400 color combinations in single, two, and three-color schemes. Vivid color photographs illustrate many different color combinations. Color swatches and a color conversion chart assure easy and accurate color matching. Easy-to-follow lessons in basic color theory.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #156653 in Books
• Published on: 1994-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

About the Author
Bride M Whelan, an instructor at Parsons School of Design, New York City, teaches basic and advanced courses in color theory. For many years she taught graphic design at Paier College of Art, New Haven, Connecticut, and lectures extensively on an variety of design-related topics.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The twelve segments of the color wheel consist of primary, secondary, and tertiary hues and their specific titnts and shades. With red at the top, the color wheel identifies the three primary hues of red, yellow and blue...

Aspects of color: The aspects, or qualities of color, refer to colors and color combinations that evoke certain emotional responses. We use many words to describe the properties of individual colors and to compare and contrast them, but "light" and "dark" is the basic distinction. Without sunlight or artificial light, there is no color. We depend on light for color, which we use in countless combinations to express our ideas and emotions. The following aspects of color contain color combinations that exist in harmony with each other, and are in spectral balance. "Spectral balance" occurs within the eye as thousands of waves of electromagnetic energy of different lengths bounce off (or are absorbed by) the chemical components of any object. Light waves reflect red, yellow, and blue, and the rods and cones in the eye's retina simultaneously mix and sort these reflected colors into thousands of tints and shades, which work to offer endless possibilities for specific color use. Color is both simple and complex. It means different things to different people in different cultures. No color is seen the same way by two people. Color is personal and universal, sending messages full of endless variations.

Customer Reviews

A fantastic resource for web site and graphic design.
I was introduced to this book through a fellow web designer. Ever since then I feel lost without it. It is a great reference for color layout, combinations, and most importantly - attitudes colors protray. Now when I set-up a web page I use this resource to take the guess work out of which colors to use. If anyone has sat back and wondered what color combination would look best in a given situation - this book is for you.

For what I got this for, Its a 5..
I didn't buy this as a study in the complex science of the study of color. I am an artist and I don't need this to choose a color scheme for a drawing...

however...

When faced with trying to decide what to paint the interior of my house. I bought this book. I was able to choose colors for the wall, ceiling and trim and see how they looked together...and than take the book (which is a fairly small paperback) with me to the paint store. Perhaps painting one room isn't a challenge but trying to manage colors thoughout a house was daunting to me...This book allowed me to visualize them together and apart before I bought the paint.

I didn't find the text to be especially sophisticated but I didn't buy the book for the text. I bought the book only for the color examples and there are alot of them. The book has held together extreamly well and the pages are heavy and glossy. The binding is intact after several years.

For the price, for what I bought this for, this was an excellent investment.

Lots of color, but so so guidelines
Lots of color samples, but only so,so guidelines for effective use.