Best Practices for Graphic Designers, Color Works

Diagram of how the human eye

perceives colors when light interacts

with the retina.

We all see colors slightly differently from one another.

This is normally due to how the photoreceptor cells

within our eyes measure frequency of light that allows

us to see several million colors.

Wheel of

Fortune and

Color Systems

Optic nerve

Retina

Photorecepter cells

fig. 001

170 Color Works The Foundation

6.4

Basic spectral diagram repre-

senting how white light is dispersed by

a prism, separating the light into the

seven distinct color values. Within the

color spectrum, certain colors have

more importance than others. Notice

the difference between red and orange

and blue and indigo because of their

similar values.

These photoreceptor cells are found within the retina, which is the sur-

face at the back of the eye; these cells are made up of two structures,

rods and cones. Cones are central to the way humans perceive the

world, working as color channels allowing us to see in color. When light

touches the surface of the retina, nerve impulses are initiated and are

sent via the optic nerve to the brain to establish visual imagery. Cones

detect light at differing wavelengths: small, medium, and large. This is

commonly known as trichromatic color vision (also known as the Young–

Helmholtz theory), where the three cones or color channels are respon-

sive to red, green, and blue (RGB). The interaction of these cones

occurring at specific frequencies allows humans to see millions of dif-

ferent colors. An opposing theory to this is the opponent color theory

in which yellow and red, green and blue, and black and white directly

compete against each other. (Wherever there is one theory regarding

color, there is always another that opposes it.)

Sir Isaac Newton’s studies on the theory of color vision are paramount

to understanding how natural, white light and color work. In his publi-

cation Opticks, Newton’s theories dictate that through the diffraction

or bending of light using a prismatic band, spectral color is revealed.

The colors in the spectrum that he revealed are red, orange, yellow,

green, blue, indigo, and violet—ROY G. BIV is an easy acronym to remem-

ber the color names in the spectrum; another, more poet example is

Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain.

Newton generated a color wheel that was asymmetrical in structure.

Out of Newton’s findings, red, yellow, and blue (RYB) were initially

established as the set of three primary colors. A secondary set is created

through the mixing between the colors to create orange, indigo, and

violet. But Newton also discovered that by mixing any two or more colors

within the wheel a neutral, darker color, often known as an anonymous

color, results. When all colors in the wheel are mixed white is the result.

An interdependent theory by German playwright and poet Johann

Wolfgang von Goethe, in his physiological treatise Theory of Colours

(Zur Farbenlerne), at first supported and extended Newton’s studies,

but eventually disagreed with them. Goethe believed that when colors

are displayed through a prism, they appear at its edges, and the spec-

trum appears only where the edges diverge. With his treatise, Goethe

illustrated his own version of the color wheel—by being symmetrically

composed, two colors become polar opponents of each other. While

Newton believed that white light is the only source that can generate

colors, Goethe theorized that color is made up of dark and light—that

it is diametrical to light, and through both dark and light interaction,

spectral colors are generated. Along his wheel he applied a subjective

review of each color on the inner wheels. Yellow is perceived as good;

red is beautiful; orange is kingly; green is useful; blue has meaning; and

violet is unwanted. Goethe’s ideals were part-scientific and part-emo-

tional, while Newton’s were pure science.

Over the years, other theorists, artists, and designers have been influ-

enced by both Newton’s and Goethe’s suppositions. One of these

6.2

6.3

Wheel of Fortune and Color Systems

fig. 002

White Light

Dispersion Angle

Yellow

Orange

Violet

Indigo

Green

Blue

Red