For some strange reason, i have a hard time using websites as a source of inspiration. Time and time again, i seem to be drawn back to printed materials or at least electronic versions of books. I know this might make me a bit eco-unfriendly, yet it evens out by not wasting a blank piece of paper every time i have to write something down or doodle when bored.
In those cases when you’re dealing with color, using a printed proof for reference becomes a requirement rather than a simple suggestion. It’s common knowledge that this is a very tricky subject to handle while working on a computer, unless you’re relying on top of the line monitors and calibration tools. Still, spending several thousand euros on this type of equipment might not be such an easy thing to do for a lot of designers, especially dealing with lower budgets, increasing prices and tougher competition. Imagine creating a logo or a website template that looks great on your display, but fails to impress when viewed on other computers. Of course, you won’t be able to control all viewing conditions, but it doesn’t hurt to be confident in your choice. I had to deal with similar situations in the past and i know the amount of stress, confusion/misunderstanding and wasted time a wrong chromatic choice brings to a project.
Following one of these unhappy incidents, i decided to look for a good book that will help me make the best color choices, while also saving plenty of time otherwise spent browsing websites such as Kuler or colourlovers.com. After searching online for a while, i settled on Jim Krause’s Complete Color Index which is in fact an elegant and handy repack of the two previously released Color Index volumes. The box itself looks really nice, does a great job in protecting the contents (as in the case of the shipment from hell) and is a clear indication of the quality of the two books it contains. Each of these serves a different purpose, based on their unique structure. You might try and use them at the same time, but more often then not it’s likely to find yourself going one route or the other. From my experience so far, i can wholeheartedly say they’re quite high on the list of tools every designer should use. They’re fun to browse and give you instant access to a combined number of over 2600 color combinations with both CMYK and RGB formulas.
Color Index was originally published in 2002 and is structured under several themes, which proves to be a real help when you’re looking for an appropriate palette to complement a predetermined concept. The main areas of interest are Active, Quiet, Progressive, Rich, Muted, Culture/Era, Natural and Accent. You’ll also find an introductory section about the fundamentals of color along with a couple of ending chapters on chromatic choices for logos and browser safe palettes (which although obsolete at this point, look surprisingly good in print). Every one of the major themes starts with a short intro, which gives you some basic info about the subject at hand as well as further ideas on where and how to discover more hues on your own. Each sub chapter, practically a specific niche, starts with a color wheel, used in creating the actual combinations. Every example contains the actual color as vertical bars, a pattern, a small clipart icon and the CMYK and RGB codes. There are also (more or less randomly) spread across the book, some additional written considerations on various topics regarding the acquisition and use of color.
Color Index 2 comes 5 years after the original one and includes a different approach. Rather then focusing on a specific idea, it simply shows more elaborate color schemes based on a dominant hue. This time, the chapters are Blue, Violet, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green and Mixed. Each is subjected to the major harmony rules common in color theory. Unlike the first one, where there’s a maximum number of 4 colors for each example, here there are plenty of five color combinations which give you some extra breathing room for complex projects. The second volume comes in handy when the client has already settled on a specific color and you’re simply looking for something to work with it, such as the case of a background or contrasting color.
Given the fact that you’re likely to encounter both types of scenarios in your real life, it’s hard to say which one of the two will get more attention. That’s why buying them together makes more sense. Plus, you can hardly call them expensive. They’re great for helping you enhance your color knowledge and simplifying the decision making process, while also turning it into an underlying skill. On the other hand, if you have a strong personality or simply are a little picky, you can use them as a quick source of inspiration or a starting point for further exploration. Either way it will save you plenty of spare time you would otherwise waste online weeding out amateur schemes from those created by professional designers.
If you’re doing logo/identity design or any print work, then this box should really be right there on your desk, next to the IPS display and the attached colorimeter. You’ll soon realize that unless your monitor has a wide gamut, the colors you’ll see on your screen will not match those printed on paper, even after calibration. I personally experienced this even though the reported delta E value is well within acceptable range.
