How Color transforms a design?

Colors are an essential part of our lives and the prospect of life without colors is very depressing. How would it feel if we have to see and wear only one color everyday? If we walk down the road and see everything in white and black colors?

The truth is that color gives meaning to our lives and helps us to express and execute our thoughts, ideas, feelings, and plans in short; colors transform designs that are in our minds in to reality. Considering this one can conclude that colors can tell us a lot about the design and also the designer. 

The way we use colors in our designs, tells people a lot about us. So when we are designing something we should keep in mind the basics of a good design. Harmony is something that is pleasing to the eye. It engages the viewer, creates an inner sense of order, and provides balance to the visual experience. When something is not harmonious, it's either boring or chaotic.

The human brain rejects what it can not organize, so while designing we have to keep in consideration that colors are not overly used, if we use too many colors it will destroy the look of the design and viewers will grow weary of it.  Color harmony not only delivers a visual interest, but also gives a sense of order.

A good design is a combination of color values ranging from light to dark. A good design is an amalgamation of values that are close together to give the design a calm appearance, and value contrasts to show texture and as an effective means of directing viewer attention in a composition.

When I was doing a felting project for my design class, and we had to use a packet of felts all of which were in different colors. I picked the colors considering the pattern and colors were not scattered, they were felted together in harmony. I did not picked the white, black, brown or gray colors because they restrict the imagination and flow as compared to brighter and warmer color like red, green, orange and yellow. These warm colors are very appealing to the eyes but should be used with some cool colors to harmonize the design.

Example of this children’s book shows how colors can transform the entire look of a book, the black and white cover page of this book wont attract kids as much as the colored one. This is because children are attracted towards colors since infancy. A book with colors will sell a lot more than a one without colors.

image taken from Google images



image taken from Google images



Images taken by me, Faizan Dar

Images taken by me, Faizan Dar

Images taken by me, Faizan Dar

Images taken by me, Faizan Dar

I have made this illustration to show that how design looks with colors and without colors, and what it how colors make something looks good.

Image designed by me, Faizan Dar