Today we looked at colour in interior design – its types, relationships and how it’s made. It is important to understand the exact colour the client wants because not everyone sees specific colours in the same way. Colours also appear differently off the screen than on the screen. Many systems have been set up to manage this where each colour is given a name so people can know they are talking about the same one around the world, such as Pantone. Colour trends are also very important in knowing which colours are ‘dated’ or ‘in fashion’ when designing an interior.

Colours can influence aesthetics (the way something looks) and have an emotional impact. Each can create different moods and can be linked with certain situations, for example blue can be associated with being calm. There are different relationship between colours which influence how they are used. It involves, monochromatic, complementary, split complementary, double complementary, analogous and triad. There are also terms which designers use to describe a colours properties – chroma, saturation, intensity, luminance/value, shade and tint. We learnt about all of these key words and what they meant.

Colours are divided into different types which includes primary, secondary tertiary, complementary and analogous. A subtractive colour type is those created using ink. It is started off using white and then colour is added. It revolves around the colours of CMYK – cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Additives are colours that are created with light. They start off with black and then by adding colour. It involves the colours RGB – red, green and blue.

There are specific types of colour. Print and web colours are different from paint colours. Print colours are based upon the CMYK model and screen based colours use the RGB model. The Pantone colour system helps standardize all colours. Paint colours, on the other hand, use a standard named RAL which is the most popular Central European Colour Standard used today.

Colour trends are an important factor to consider as an interior designer – or as any designer really. They are based upon consumption of the era. They are often thought out before the trend has actually hit the public world, so next season colours will have already been picked out. This is important in ensuring that design and fashion companies are able to keep up with the demand and produce enough stock for when the people want it. A great website to follow is WGSN.

Our self directed task was to create our own colour wheel and mood-board. Mood-boards are a way of collecting different creative information in order to prepare for a new project.

My colour wheel

Bauhaus inspired moodbaord