Eckstut's The Secret Language Of Color

We live in a world where colors are everywhere around us. Colors play an essential role in humans lives as they help distinguish one object from another, associate things, emphasize or enhance important messages, and even help to track objects down faster. Colors evoke emotions and provide information of the things we see and they let us enjoy their beauty to the fullest, however, and surprisingly, colors do not exist in the real world and outside human brains. But then why do the sky appear blue or why do we perceive the rainbow with those pure, bright and immaculate set of hues if they do not exist?. Color is undoubtedly a very vital design element for those involved in the field of visual communication. It is essential to understand how

As a result, the brain perceives these signals as specific colors or shades of gray (21). Wavelengths determine the perceived color. We see a world full of colorful objects because each object sends to our eyes a unique composition of wavelengths (X-rite 5). For example, if all visible wavelengths of the visible spectrum (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet) enter the eye at the same time, then white color is perceived. The absence of wavelengths will only generate black. This was proved by Issac Newton in 1666, he was the first physicist and mathematician in experimenting with light. After passing a ray of sunlight through a prism, he discovered that the light spread out into several colors such as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet (spectrum). To further his experiment, he then used an additional prism and discovered that the same light passing through this second prism reflected as white light again (Mollica 8). Newton is also credited with developing the first Color Wheel, best known as Newton's Circle of

One important fact about the traditional RBY color (red, blue and yellow) is that the primary colors cannot be created from any combination of other colors. Yet, they are the source of every other hue of the color wheel such as the secondary and terciary colors. Previuosly, it was mentioned that secondary hues are obtained by combining any two colors of the primary hues. By doing so, three new hues are obtained. If, subsequently, a primary hue and a secondary hue are combined the new color obtained would be classified as terciary. Hues in the Color Wheel can also be categorized as warm or cool. Hues such as reds, oranges and yellows are said to be warm colors, and they are “considered to be active and dynamic” (Sherin 95). On the other hand, greens, blues and violets are considered cool colors and “are seen as calming and dependable” (Sherin 95). Colors can also be defiend by their three fundamental properties: hue, saturation and lightness, also known as hue, value, and