Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing
Color basics on and off screen
Hey, my logo doesn’t look the same on my website as it does on my business card! Why does my jpeg look different on my computer than it did on my designer’s computer? This print job sucks, it’s nothing like the last time!
Sound familiar? I’m sure many of you have asked yourself or probably asked your designer or printer these same questions. I know I’ve been on the receiving end of some of them myself, so let me try to address an issue that has great impact on your logo design, as well as how it looks across the many varied aspects of being viewed and displayed. Color theory and the understanding of how colors interact with one another, or what they mean, is a very involved subject. It covers far more ground than I can explain to you in one article, so let’s just try to cover some basics.
Most of us are familiar with the color wheel. On this wheel are all the visible colors we use on both computer and TV screens (RGB color, or Red-Green-Blue), and print color (CMYK, or Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black). There are three primary colors, and for every primary color there is an opposite color that is it’s compliment. The opposite colors are the ones that usually “look the best” or “feel good together.” Complimentary colors balance each other when used together, usually regardless of whether or not they are dark or light. What I mean by that is Red and Yellow being used together have a far bigger impact than choosing a specific value of red (light or dark). All other colors on the wheel correspond in a similar manner to their opposites, giving us all the visible colors our eyes can see.
This gives us a plethora of colors to use at our bidding and as a result we feel overwhelmed. We can’t figure out which colors look best, let alone which colors portray the feeling we want. Yes, colors are used to communicate and emphasize what we want people to “feel” when they view our products or identity. While non-complimentary colors usually convey a sense of aggressiveness or make us feel like they are “fighting” with one another, complimentary colors are just the opposite, and usually give us a sense of stability and cohesiveness. Certain color combinations are used in various business aspects, for example, the following colors portray a sense of nature.
If you wanted a more corporate look, then the following could be a suggestion.
How you choose your colors will have great impact on your design and what you want the viewer to feel when they look at your company and its image.
Besides the impact a color has on its viewer, understanding how they work with one another is also very important. Here are three aspects of color you should understand.
Harmonizing colors appear next to each other in the color wheel, and work well together, but when the value is too close to each other, they will appear “light or washed out.”
Complementary colors are separated by another color, and when printed or used next to each other, they can appear to “fight” or “jump.” If used apart from one another however, they can work well.
Contrasting colors are opposite of one another on the wheel, and provide high contrast, but will compete with one another if not used correctly.
When talking about RGB (computer screen) and CMYK (print) colors, there are multiple factors to understand as they are used in different situations. RGB color is formed from Red, Green and Blue. When they are combined, they form the color white as shown below. All computer monitors use this form of color. There are 256 variations of each color, and together they form roughly 17 million colors. This color mode is used only for computer monitors. CMYK or Process color is also known as four-color process. The colors respectively are; Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. This form of color is used in the printing arena, and all of the colors in the color wheel can be achieved by overlapping tints or percentages of each color. This process is by nature an opaque process, meaning the colors do not allow light through them like the RGB process does. When all the colors are combined, they form black as shown below. Color variations are achieved by printing tiny dots or “screens” over one another thus appearing as another color.
The most important thing to remember is that your logo will not look exactly the same on a monitor as it will when it is printed. In fact, it probably won’t look the same on your monitor as it does on your designer’s monitor. There are too many factors involved, mainly monitor settings and the program settings that created it, for there to be uniformity across the industry.
Now, if any of you are pressman, my hat goes off to you. I spent 18 years in the print industry, and most of that as a pressman myself, so I can say what I’m about to say and feel good about it.
If you’ve ever noticed business cards or brochures didn’t come out exactly how they looked when you reviewed them on your computer, remember that printing is very much an art, not an exact science. Printers, or “pressmen”, have to have an eye for detail and an understanding of color, physics, and mechanics to be very successful. The press doesn’t run itself, and although there are some amazing machines out there now the pressman still has to monitor the color and quickly be able to see the variations and subtleties of the process itself. Water, temperature, humidity, and acidity all come into play when printing. Each of these variables affect your color and the outcome of your job. Even if you have the same printer, the same press and the exact same environment as the last time your job was printed, you will receive variations in your job. It’s part of the package deal when you print. That’s actually what still makes printing an art.
Keep all this in mind when you start your next project or head to the printer. Just remember, once you have given your designer a “direction” on color, allow them to use their trained eye and experience to guide you the rest of the way through the process. Just as design is a skilled career, printing is also an art. Maybe cut them a little slack next time you’re there to discuss the “subtleties” in your print job.
Posted on Tuesday, July 31st, 2007 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Branding, Design, Graphic Design, Small Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
