Understanding Color

There is hardly anything that determines how we view the world to the same extent as color. It differentiates, organizes, and structures our surroundings. Color is a medium that has a strong influence on our feelings, whilst being perceived quite differently and rarely altogether consciously. Context, general seeing patterns, and subjective criteria play a decisive role in the perception and evaluation of color. What does this mean in terms of how we handle color as a design element? How can one learn to apply such an inconsistent medium in a more targeted manner and what must one take into consideration in the process? This book invites you to explore views on color and ones own color spectrum, aiming to promote design competence through a conscious approach to color. Practical exercises and pictorial analyses help one to gain an understanding of this medium that is difficult to grasp, but omnipresent. Pointers with regard to the interplay of color, interpretation, and spatial experience question our habitual ways of seeing, provide insight into ones own perceptual architecture, and make seeing a dynamic process.