The Color Conundrum

I’m summary blogging on this topic because I find it fascinating. I also find I’m at a loss for what to do! The discussion did help, but I think there is so much more to it than what we touched on in the discussion.

Helpful contributions to the discussion:

First, I want to acknowledge the contributions of David S. (cohort) and Dan (instructor). They helped me with RBG and CMYK. David added to my understanding of printers and how they operate. Thank goodness someone in the printing world created drivers that convert RBG to CMYK, one less detail to work out. There were lots of helpful tips for me in that thread; printing professionally -use CMYK; working in photo shop advice to save image file in CMYK, RBG is default. I don’t know if I can count David S. twice, but here I go…. I appreciated David S. question about link colors. I did not realize that web links used to be a standard blue.

For application, I would recognize contributions of Phil H.. He wrote that he had decided upon two color schemes, one for each of his two edweb audiences. This is great application of what we are learning. I also found his statement that he was struggling to justify why he chose the colors he chose outside of the fact that he liked them to be very honest. I’m not sure it is a bad thing that we are each attracted to certain colors or color palettes. But, I do recognize that we are being challenged to think about colors and their applications for an audience, and what associations are being conveyed by color.

I see the value in my contributions to this discussion being my ability to be painfully honest in acknowledging my lack of knowledge on the topic (so what are RBG and CMYK?), and in sharing this site with the group. The site is good at breaking down the RBG colors and allowing the user to experiment with each. As you select a color a scheme of other complementary colors is presented. The site provided a helpful starting point. Another source I found this week that was a blog, that had samples of web pages by color. Each web site is monochromatic but paradoxically, incredibly diverse. By the end of week two I had visited all the sites in this color series! Not that I’m any more secure in selecting a color scheme, but it was addictive, a bit like trying to pick out a yarn combination in knitting.

In the end I think I’m going to need to keep revisiting color in my edweb design, as well as navigation and I can’t imagine how unsettled I’m going to feel after we delve into fonts!