About

Fundamentals of colour is a comprehensive design learning tool developed by IDC, IIT bombay. It is an interactive webspace  where students and aspiring designers can learn about colour, its attributes and multiple applications.

The tool is divided into 3 chapters. First is colour overview containing colour basics and colour schemes. Colour basics brushes up your introductory knowledge of colour, while colour schemes covers the six basic and widely used colour combinations. 

The second chapter Colour attributes contains technical aspects of colour such as Temperature and Contrast, Hue, Saturation and Value and Colour and Its Varied context.

Temperature is the impact of cold and warm colours on a visual. Contrast includes the 7 types of colour contrasts identified by Johannes Itten, a Swiss expressionist painter and designer. The subchapter, Hue Saturation and value includes information on pure colour which is hue, on darkness and lightness of a colour which is value, on brightness or dullness of a colour which is Saturation. It also has an exercise designed to test your knowledge after learning these concepts. 

The sub-chapter Colour and its varied contexts includes Colour in nature, psychology, emotions and culture. Colour in nature gives you an experience of naturally occurring colours.

Colour plays an effect on the human mind. Colour psychology thus takes you through the reasons why specific colours are used for certain purposes. Colour and emotions tells you which colours are related to what emotions. We see a duality in colour here as opposing emotions are represented by the same colour. Colour and culture contains colour connotations associated with different cultures around the world.

Along with studying colour, applying that knowledge becomes necessary for one's learning process. Storytelling is one of the colour tool’s applications. 

Colour is a powerful form of non-verbal communication. The absence and use of colour can add layers to the stories being told, engaging, enticing and surprising the audience along the way. Associative colour includes use of colour for association of a character or an idea. Whereas transitional colour includes using colours as cues to emotions, moods, change of settings and values. Examples of stories, live action films, animated films, comics are included from which one can learn more about the role of colour in storytelling. 

Branding and packaging is the next colour application. As Colour is the first element of design we notice about a brand or its packaging, choosing colors to represent a brand becomes a very important decision. Hence, choosing a colour for your brand should be a careful choice and not an arbitrary one. 

In the branding and packaging application we can study colour's effects on human psychology and how we perceive a brand because of its colours. 

The Fundamentals of colour tool can be a demonstrative tool for teachers to show the scope of colour. For beginner design students it can play a role of developing colour sensitivity to produce high-quality and informed design. It can also be used as a self -study tool/ revision tool. 

The main focus of the ‘Design Tools’ of which Fundamentals of colour is one, is to be useful to the design eco-system comprising students, faculty, and professionals who are or have been a part of formal learning from design schools. These design tools are meant to help them with high quality, authentic learning material and bridge the quality and quantity gap currently faced by most design schools.