ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how designers harness the power of color to grab our attention, organize visual flow and evoke emotion. It explains finding color inspiration on the color wheel as well as from culture, history and nature. Color is eye-catching. It makes us look. Picture a black and white poster with one pop of color—a hat, for instance—in bright pink. That bright pink immediately becomes a focal point. Part of the attention-getting power is the principle of contrast at work. All colors on the color wheel come from various combinations of three primary colors: red, blue and yellow. The resulting relationships provide the basis for harmonious color palettes. Color management is the formal term for getting our color to match properly across devices, from scanners to digital cameras to computer screens to printers. When printing with spot colors, printers create a plate for each spot color the designer has specified.
