Introducing the Elements of Colour

I am not the author but a contributor to this publication.

Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering School of Design, 2009

In a university context how should colour be taught in order to engage students? Entwistle states, 'What we learn depends on how we learn, and why we have to learn it.' Therefore, there is a need to address the accumulating evidence that highlights the effects of learning environments on the quality of student learning when considering colour education. It is necessary to embrace the contextual demands while ensuring that the student knowledge of colour and the joy of discovering its characteristics in practice are enhanced. Institutional policy is forcing educators to re-evaluate traditional studio's effectiveness and the intensive 'hands-on' interactive approach that is embedded in such an approach. As curriculum development involves not only theory and project work, the classroom culture and physical environment also need to be addressed. The increase in student numbers impacting the number of academic staff/student ratio, availability of teaching support as well as increasing variety of student age, work commitments, learning styles and attitudes have called for positive changes to how we teach. The Queensland University of Technology's restructure in 2005 was a great opportunity to re-evaluate and redesign the approach to teaching within the design units of Interior Design undergraduate program -including colour. The resultant approach "encapsulates a mode of delivery, studio structure, as well as the learning context in which students and staff interact to facilitate learning" 1 with a potential "to be integrated into a range of Interior Design units as it provides an adaptive educational framework rather than a prescriptive set of rules". This paper provides a critique of one university unit, Colour Studies, which is tailored to suit future interior designers and architects. Unfortunately, teaching colour to students of design within the higher education sector is becoming a luxury rather than core business. The study raises some of the issues involved in the educative climate drawing on educational theory as well as the teaching team's reflections. The implementation of new modes of 'teaching', as a means of coping with higher student numbers and reduced staffing and resources are described while reinforcing their relevance and application for colour design education. Student perceptions and staff observations of the outcomes are presented. Generic capabilities, in association with professional knowledge and skills, are integrated into the ongoing development of the Colour Studies unit in order to create a motivating and active learning environment. Within this paper the authors highlight the nature of student learning, as an important component of how students come to understand colour and its implications. Secondly, they describe this particular colour unit and its implications. It is evident that a deep approach to learning colour is required in order to understand and apply it in design practice. Superficial learning may result in task-orientated approaches and lecturer-dependency which are evident by lack of engagement and/or deeper understandings within their project work.

ABSTRACT: This study is concerned with the level and requirement for colour knowledge (colour theory, colour mixing and colour management) in design education. A total of 73 students engaged in design education took part in an online survey to explore their colour knowledge and their views about colour with regard to design. Just over half of the students were able to correctly identify the additive primaries and fewer than half were able to identify the subtractive primaries.

Journal of Psychology Research

the pedagogical research in the teaching of color theory, the author has carried out a series of interviews with visual artists in different areas. Some of these visual artists currently involve in the art education as well. Therefore, the sharing of their experience in their learning, practice, and teaching of color theory will serve as good qualitative data for the development of a robust color theory training approach to benefit our current tertiary visual art students. The background of these visual artists covers art educators, architects, fine artists (painters), a comic artist/an illustrator, a visual communication artist, a product designer, and a film-maker while a few of them have profession in more than one areas stated above.

2013

Colour is one of the most important visual variables that determines our perception and comprehension of the world. Colour is unfortunately often neglected at any design education level and area, although it represents the only design variable able to visually translate many other aspects related to function, technology, ergonomics, perception, semiotics, norms, socio-culture, marketing, and aesthetics. Today’s colour knowledge is considerably influenced by a communication problem among different disciplines and types of expertise with different viewpoints, tools and methods, terminologies, and cultures. The previous PhD research “Colour Design Edu.System. For a systematic and creative approach for an interdisciplinary colour education in design”, and the ongoing work at the School of Design of Leeds University will allow to investigate and propose a toolkit and method able to support students, and teachers too, in the construction of a personal colour knowledge oriented to the cont...

— In the traditional teaching for color theory, each pure color (primary or secondary) is assumed to be similar. Therefore the current practical training system like split complementary colors 1 , triadic colors 2 or tetradic colors 4 are using this assumption. Each pure color can be placed into practical field just like any other pure color based on this guideline. However, in practical situation, different pure colors occupy different size of practical color space as illustrated by Munsell's color tree. Munsell color tree is a practical color system that represents the actual application range of color tone and hue. Munsell color system 6 has not been comprehensively introduced to the educational training of colors. Its strength has not been maximized especially in the teaching of practical color theory. This research paper uses Munsell color theory as the backbone to develop a more robust training of practical color theory to fulfill the needs of current visual art education. Munsell color system introduces transition tertiary colors directly with a practical objective in mind. Therefore it serves as a good system to allow beginners or painting artists to plan their color rhythm logically without too much effort wasted on trial and error processes.

Color Research & Application, 2018

The authors of this article (a chemical engineer, a designer, a visual artist, and an architect/designer) present their proposal for the main topics of a colour science course aimed at nonscientists. With examples taken from their own respective teaching practice, they describe and discuss the main topics they consider important to be included in the curriculum of future visual artists, designers, and architects. They also sample over a dozen text books written for this public audience and point out some of the most striking examples of misconceptions to be found in these.

Proceedings of the 2021 International Colour Association Conference , 2021

Colour education typically describes colour as having three attributes or dimensions, usually listed as (1) hue, (2) a term for lightness such as "value", "greyscale value", or "tone", and (3) a term for chromatic intensity, usually either "chroma" or "saturation", and generally meaning chroma as defined by the CIE. The remaining CIE-defined attributes of saturation (sensu CIE), brightness and colourfulness are rarely emphasized in colour education, despite being well-suited to the task of describing the colour appearance of illuminated objects. The writer has devised illustrations and explanations to help communicate these and related concepts during many years of teaching colour in art and design courses, and the paper presents selected examples of these that help to communicate the concepts of modes of colour appearance, brightness, colourfulness, saturation, brilliance and blackness.

Doctoral Dissertation - PhD in Design Research, Politecnico di Milano, 2022

Colour is an essential element in visual perception and, at the same time, it is one of the most complex. During the last 30 years, studies about the inclusion of colour in the aesthetic and project-based education (design, architecture, art) had evidenced a lack of consideration of colour at the university level and a great need to provide training resources to teachers and, consequently, to students at higher education level. Designers often graduate without receiving proper training about colour and, hence, almost exclusively relying on intuition, personal taste or self-learned knowledge when they choose colours. However, the invisibility of colour within the design academy is not always reflected in the professional practice of the discipline. In recent years, there has been a growing tendency to consider practices related to the application of colour in design as a new sub discipline. Following the requirements of industry, some designers have begun to specialise in this field of work and have started to call themselves ‘colour designers’. This emerging figure is still incipient and its field of action within the discipline of design is not yet widely recognised, and as a consequence, it has not yet been sufficiently institutionalised within schools or professional training institutions. With all of the above, the main purpose of this research was to evaluate the key elements that should be considered in a colour literacy for current design education needs within higher institutions, and to propose an educational framework that may support the teaching and learning of colour in the design discipline. In the search of a guiding thread for the didactic innovation developed, the research relies in the pedagogical model called Constructive Alignment developed by J. Biggs, which represents a convergence between a constructivist understanding of the nature of learning and an aligned design for outcomes-based teaching. The research sought to provide design and colour teachers with clear guidelines to specify learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities, a comprehensive knowledge framework and assessment criteria to provide feedback to students. The main output of the research is the Colour Design Training Itinerary (CDTI), a complete educational framework that defines different levels of action for the improvement of the teaching and learning of colour in the design discipline. The CDTI framework was built through consultation, involvement and collaboration with colour teachers from different countries and backgrounds. Also, the CDTI is intended to be useful for different pedagogical contexts, in relation to how teaching and learning is changing and adapting to the current international scenario, in other words, considering resources for in presence teaching, blended-learning and online-autonomous learning.