The monochromatic representations we so readily accept in the visual media are tonal stand-ins for color, for what is, in truth, a chromatic world, our richly colored universe. While tone is related to questions of survival and is therefore essential to the human organism, color has stronger affinity to the emotions. It is possible to think of color as the aesthetic frosting on the cake, rich, and in many ways useful, but not absolutely necessary for creating visual messages. That would be a very shallow view of the matter. Color is, in fact, loaded with information and one of the most pervasive visual experiences we all have in common. It is, therefore, an invaluable source for visual communicators. In the environment we share the associative meanings of the color of trees, grass, sky, earth and on endlessly to where we see color as a common stimulus. And there, we associate meaning. We know color also under a broad category of symbolic meaning. Red means something, for instance, even where it does not have any environmental connection. The red that is associated with anger has been carried over into the red flag (or cape) waved in front of a bul!. The color red has little significance for the bull, who has no sensitivity to the color, but only to the fact that the cape or flag moves. Red means danger, and love, and warmth, and life, and maybe a hundred other things. Each color has as many meanings, associative and symbolic. Thus, color offers an enormous vocabulary of great usefulness in visual literacy. The variety of meaning obtainable is expressed in this example from Carl Sandburg’s poem, “The People, Yes”:
The blood of all men of all nations being red the Communist International named red its banner color
Pope Innocent IV gave cardinals their first red hats saying a cardinal’s blood belonged to the holy mother church.
The blood color red is a symbol.
There are many color theories. Color, both the color of light and the color of pigment, behaves in unique ways, but our knowledge of color In Visual communication goes very little further than collecting observations of our reactions to It. There is no single, ultimate system of how hues relate to each other.
Color has three dimensions which can be defined and measured. Hue is the color itself, or chroma, of which there are more than a hundred. Each hue has individual characteristics; groups or categories of colors share common effects. There are three primary or elementary hues: yellow, red, blue. Each represents qualities that are fundamental. Yellow is the color considered closest to light and warmth; red is the most emotional and active; blue is passive and soft. Yellow and red tend to expand, blue to contract. In association with each other, through mixtures, new meanings take over. Red, which is a provoking hue, is subdued when it is mixed with blue and activated when it is mixed with yellow. The same changes in effect are reached with yellow, which mellows when it is mixed with blue.
Color structure in its simplest formulation is taught through the color wheel. The primary colors, yellow, red, blue and the secondary colors, orange, green, violet are invariably included in such a chart. But from this simple chart of a color wheel multiple variations of color hues can be developed.
The second dimension of color is saturation, which is the relative purity of a color from the hue to gray. Saturated color is simple, almost primitive, and always given preference by folk artists and children. It is both uncomplicated and overstated, composed of the primary and secondary hues. The less saturated colors reach toward neutrality of color, even non-color, and are subtle and restful. The more intense or saturated the coloration of a visual object or event, the more highly charged it is with expression and emotion. Informational results in the choice of saturated or neutralized color base choice on intention. But saturation or its absence as a meaningful visual effect is the difference between the dentist’s office and the Electric Circus.
The third, and last dimension of color is achromatic. It is the relative brightness, from light to dark, of value or tonal gradations. It must be noted, underlined, and emphasized that the presence or absence of color does not affect tone; it is constant. A color television set is an excellent device for demonstrating this visual fact. When you turn the color knob slowly to black and white, to the monochromatic picture, you slowly drain off the color saturation. The process in no way affects the tonal values of the picture. Turning the saturation up and down demonstrates the constancy of tone and proves that color and tone coexist in perception without modifying each other.
An afterimage is the physiological visual phenomenon that takes place after the human eye has been fixed or focused on any visual information. When the object or information being stared at is replaced with a blank white field, a negative image is seen on the blank space. The effect is related to the spots one sees after flash bulbs or bright lights are directed into the eye. Although this is an extreme example, any visual material or tone will cause an afterimage. The negative afterimage of a color produces the complementary color or its exact opposite. It is on this visual phenomenon that Munsell based the entire structure of his color theory. The opposite color on his color wheel is what the afterimage would be. But there are further implications of what happens when you stare at a color long enough to produce an afterimage. You will first see the complementary color.
Since perception of color is the single most strongly emotional part of the visual process, it has great force and can be utilized to express and reinforce visual information to great advantage. Color not only has universally shared meaning through experience, but it also has separate worth informationally through symbolically attached meaning. In addition to the highly negotiable color meaning, each of us has our own personal and subjective color preferences. We choose our own color statements and settings. But there is little analytic thought or concern about what methods or motivation we use to arrive at our own choices in terms of the meaning and effect of color.
When a jockey dons an owner’s silks, a soldier wears his dress uniform, a nation displays its flag, the attempt to find symbolic meaning in their colors may be obvious. Not so in our personal color choices, which are less symbolic and therefore less clearly defined. Nevertheless, whether we think about it or not, realize it or not, we tell the world a great deal when we make a color choice.