11th Lecture — Abstract

Colour contrasts

On colour and bright-dark

Each colour shade gets its final visual and contextual definition from its colour context. Colours in painting are not an end in themselves, colours on themselves have only minimal meanings or, as Milan Butina says, minimal semantic values. They acquire definitive meanings only when they are incorporated into the meaning structure of the painting.

A chromatic agent is a colour pigment that can be physicochemically determined and analysed. It is through perception that it acquires its meaning and significance for human beings. But the eye and the intellect can only arrive at meaningful perceptions through comparisons or contrasts. We can only determine the value of a colour by comparing it with a non-colour such as white, grey or black, or with one or more other colours. In contrast to the physical-chemical reality, the perception of colours is their psycho-physical reality. And this reality is called the chromatic effect. The chromatic agent and the chromatic effect are identical only in harmonic compositions and in a neutral environment. In all other cases, the chromatic agent receives a simultaneously modified, new effect.

When the chromatic agent and the effect of the colours are not identical, we have a discordant, dynamically expressive, unreal and undefined expression. The fact that the material forms of reality and colours can be transformed into unreal vibrations gives artists the possibility to express what is inexpressible in words.

When we speak of the harmony of colours, we are referring to the interaction of two or more colours. We usually describe as harmonious those colour compositions which exhibit the same colour character or the same tonal values of different colours. These are colours which do not differ in high contrasts.

The active colours (yellow and red) always slightly overwhelm the passive colours (blue and green) and are therefore only carried in small quantities. Active colours are used more as accents. They can also be used to correct a colour shade of lesser purity. Harmony means balance or symmetry of colour forces. Sequential and simultaneous contrast show that the human eye is satisfied only when the complementary composition is fulfilled. We see that it is not only the colours in the colour composition that are important, but also the relation between their quantities, between their purity and their brightness. This subjective judgement can also be objectively defined. Wilhelm Ostvald states: harmony = order.

In order to find all possible harmonies, we would have to find all possible forms of order in colour space. The simpler the order, the more obvious the harmony.

Because of the interactions between colours, we quickly lose confidence in our ability to distinguish colours. A white panel next to a green one appears slightly purplish to us. We therefore dare to say that we can only judge colours correctly on the basis of colour contrasts. Yellow is more saturated next to blue than next to violet. Our sense organs perceive the obvious primarily through comparison.

Objects that are more likely to be noticed in our activities in space must be in clear contrast with their surroundings in order for the eye to be more relaxed.

We speak of contrast when the two colours being compared are very different. When such a difference is intensified to the extreme, we speak of opposite equal or polar contrast. Thus warm-cold, large-small and black-and-white are polar contrasts at their extreme.

In studying the characteristic modes of action of colours, we discover seven different types of contrast. These generally occur together; there is a functional priority (hierarchy) between them.

Colour tone contrast

Just as black and white form the strongest bright-dark contrast, so yellow, red and blue form the strongest colour tone contrast. However, for this contrast to have any effect at all, at least three colours are needed. Its effect is always varied, shouting, strong and decisive. Its power wanes as the colours move away from maximum purity.

If the colours are separated from each other by white or black lines, their special character is enhanced. When a colour is placed next to white, it glows less and looks darker. Conversely, colours next to black glow more and appear brighter.

In both cases, it is a matter of colour isolation and thus of reducing the interaction tension between colours. The simultaneous effect is immobilised.

Colour tone contrast is, according to colour systematics, at the same time a variety of colour tone, opacity and absolute colour brightness.

bright-dark (colour) contrast

We are accustomed by nature to distinguish between what is above and what is below by what is bright and what is dark. We always recognise bright as above and dark as below. If we turn this natural order upside down, we create the impression of a cave. In this case, the earthy brown is the ceiling above us. Any dark or intense colour on the ceiling seemingly pulls it down. Likewise, conversely, any bright colour on the ceiling in front of a darker wall lifts the ceiling upwards. Colours that tend towards the dark, such as blue, can be brightened considerably to achieve the effect of yellow, which ‘pulls’ even in modest bright.

bright-dark contrast

For painters, black and white are a means of bright-dark (polar) contrast. Each colour shade can be brightened or darkened by adding white or black. There is only one completely black and only one completely white, and between them lies a whole realm of greys and variegated tones. Mid grey is a neutral colour with no character, an indifferent colourlessness. But it is very easy to influence it by tonal and colour contrasts. White can be used to brighten all colours, black to darken them.

bright-dark colour contrast

Pure colours vary in brightness, and we can find the appropriate brightness, tonality and absolute colour brightness for each of the non-pure colours. When we compare pure variegated colours with an unvariegated colour scale of twelve shades, we find that yellow corresponds to the third shade of grey, orange to the fifth, red to the sixth, blue to the eighth and violet to the tenth. In colour systematics, medium grey from the non variegated colour scale corresponds to green from the variegated colour scale. The difference is that green equates with feeling pleasant, whereas grey is just a bare equation. Green can be characterised as an equalisation of the contrast between bright and dark. If yellow is closest to “bright” and if violet is its opposite, then they are equalised in green. Meadows and forests are green and green is the colour of nature. Conversely, there is the least ‘pure’ red, and this is no coincidence. Green is soothing to the eye because it represents the mean value in absolute colour value between bright and dark.

The more white or black you add to a colourful colour, the less it “glows”. As the lighting changes, so does the brightness value of the individual colours. As the light diminishes, red, orange and yellow appear darker, while, conversely, blue and green appear brighter.

When we go from bright to dark, at first we don’t see anything. Our eye has to get used to it first. That’s why bright-dark (colour) contrast creates tension, which is neutralised in medium grey.

When painters paint in bright-dark contrast, they use two, three or four shades. They talk about two, three or four planes.

According to colour systematics, bright-dark (colour) contrast is the difference in relative (absolute) colour brightness.

Heat-Cool Contrast

In a room, colours such as orange or yellow ochre, for example, appear as if it were really warmer. Warm colours seem closer to us because they ‘glow’. Experiments have shown that surroundings painted with warm colours give a feeling of higher temperature in a room. Warm colours also make us feel more strongly surrounded. In contrast, blues and greens tend to pull our thoughts away from us and into the distance. This means that orange surroundings are more stimulating than blue.

Pure red is not particularly warm. It represents strength above all. It is the strongest colour at all. The further we go towards purple, the cooler it is and the more calm one feels. It forms a pair with green which is the complete opposite.

The brightest colour of the colour wheel is yellow. Opposite it is the darkest, purple. Perpendicular to this line on the right is red-orange, which is the warmest colour, and opposite it is blue-green, which is the coolest. So the colours on the right half of the colour circle are warm, and the colours on the left half are cool. The warm-cold character can be defined in another way:

sunny : shaded
transparent : opaque
exciting : soothing
opaque : translucent
earthy : airy
near : far
difficult : easy
dry : moist

This contrast has a very high expressive power. In nature, objects farther away always appear colder in colour than those nearer to us because of the intervening layer of air. Of all the colour contrasts, the warm-cold contrast is the most sonorous. The warm-cold contrast is a variant of the colour tone contrast.

Complementary contrast

Complementary colours are, by scientific definition, those whose colour stimuli complement each other to form an energy-matched spectrum, i.e. a spectrum of equal intensity in the visible range. In colloquial language, a complementary colour is any colour agent that mixes with another colour to form a non-complementary colour (regardless of absorption and reflectance).
Two complementary colours are an odd pair. They are opposites, they are found on opposite sides of the colour wheel, when they are together they both glow the brightest, and when they are mixed they give a neutral grey. They are like fire and water.

The base pairs are:

yellow : violet
yellow orange : blue violet
orange : blue
red orange : blue green
red : green
red violet : yellow green

When we decompose complementary colours into primary colours, we find that all three are always present:

red : green = red : (yellow + blue)
blue : orange = blue : (yellow + red)
yellow : purple = yellow : (red + blue).

So it makes virtually no difference whether we mix two complementary colours or three primary colours.

(In general, we can say that complementary colour pairs, triplets whose colours lie in a colour circle on the carbons of an isosceles triangle, and all quadruplets around a square or rectangle are harmonious – figure 1.)

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Fig. 1: Generally, we can say that complementary colour pairs, triplets whose colours lie in a colour circle on the charcoals of an isosceles triangle, and all quadruplets around a square or rectangle, are harmonic
.

The complementary law is the basis of harmonious creation. When it is fulfilled, a perfect balance is created in the eye. Physically speaking, the complementary colour of a colour is equal to the sum of all the other colours. If we use complementary colours in the correct quantitative proportions, we obtain a picture that has a perfectly static effect. A room with walls painted in opposite colours does not encourage us to work at all. “Pure mathematics is not alive.”

Each colour, alongside its complementary colour, glows and remains unchanged. The complementary colours are identical in effect to their real colour.

Each pair of complementary colours also has its own peculiarities. Yellow and violet not only form a complementary contrast, but also a bright-dark (colour) contrast. The pair of red orange with blue green is not only a complementary pair, but also forms the strongest warm-cold contrast. Red and green are complementary, they are equally bright and their luminous values are equally large.

Complementary contrast is, according to colour systematics, the difference in absolute and relative colour brightness; just like bright-dark contrast.

Simultaneous contrast

A colour stimulus, i.e. the energy that produces a sensation, is a measurable physical quantity. But we know from practice that identical stimuli do not necessarily produce identical sensations. The organ of vision involves a kind of corrective process. This involves not only regulating the quantity (in the case where the light is too strong), but also very large shifts in quality. When the same colour stimulus does not always produce the same colour sensations, we speak of “simultaneous contrast”. This is when the colour sensation changes relative to the surrounding colours, while the quantities measured by the colour metric remain unchanged.
The smaller the plot, the stronger the simultaneous contrast. Coloured hues change their brightness colour effect, while non-coloured hues get a variety inspired by the environment.

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Fig. 2: When incident light enters the eye, the “visible material” in the eye is broken down, triggering physiological arousal. This is transmitted to the brain, where the sensation of light or colour is created. With very strong incident light, so much ‘visible material’ is broken down that only a small residue is exposed to the light. The regeneration of the ‘visible material’ is so ordered that only as much new material is ever created as is necessary to maintain as uniform a physiological arousal as possible under the given light conditions. It is therefore a process of controlling the organ of vision to allow it to adapt to the current illumination. Let us assume that, given three types of eyecups, there are three types of “visual material”, each reacting to its own spectral range. The regeneration of each type of “visual material” takes place independently, so that the instantaneous level of the three types of eyecups is different. The green colour spot on the red background therefore has a more intense effect because the ‘visible material’ for the green colour is only regenerating fast enough at that spot. Any red background must have the same effect on the green ‘visible material’ as black, because it cannot trigger a reaction. The process is the same as for the formation of grey spots at the intersections of white lines. For the same reason, the two identical grey spots do not have the same bright effect. For more on this, see Harald Küppers, Colour, Ursprung, Systematik, Anwendung, Callwey Verlag, Munich, 1987, pages 34-36.

Even if we are only dull observers, in a completely monochromatic space it appears to us as if the light were of a complementary colour. In a red room we see white light as greenish. Moreover, when we leave this room (which we have perceived as colourless), everything appears greenish. However, when we paint one wall in this room white, it takes on an air of complementary colour. In the red room, we see it as greenish. In addition, the red is a little bit greyed out by the white.

In a room with two walls painted with two adjacent colours, we are looking for a third colour from the triad. Between orange and green we look for yellow. Since the unity of the colours is not perfect, but lives only as a wish, the combination does not have a static character, but is dynamic. This is why people are more active in such spaces. So it’s not a single colour that raises activity, it’s the combination of colours. When one colour is in the majority, one starts looking for another colour to harmonise the space. That’s how activity starts. Ideally, colours should be chosen to harmonise with the work or to offset it. In this way, the colours in the room stimulate people’s activity.

By simultaneous contrast we mean the phenomenon whereby our eye always desires a complementary colour at the same time as a given colour, i.e. simultaneously. Even if this colour is not present, the eye itself ‘develops’ it. This means, therefore, that the complementary law contains the fulfilment of the law of colour harmony.

Simultaneously developed complementary colours are produced by the perception of colours in the eye of the observer and are not a matter of reality. Simultaneous contrast occurs between two colours which are not perfectly complementary. Each of the two colours tries to adapt the other colour into a complementary pair. Usually the two colours lose their true character and come to life with a new effect. Such two colours appear to be in the greatest dynamic opposition. Stability is broken and vibrations full of change appear. The colours lose their objective character, appear dematerialised and take on a new dimension in the field of individual effect which is not real. With simultaneous contrast, the viewer ceases to be a passive receiver of colour stimuli and becomes an active “collaborator”! With simultaneous contrast, colour stimuli enter most clearly into the realm of individual psychological action. This is extremely important for artistic design.

That is why we have to look at simultaneous contrast in a completely different light than we are used to. This is obviously a process of adjustment of the three selective areas of perception to each other. So it is not physics, it is biology or physiology.

Since simultaneous contrast is a subjective experience, more precisely a subjective sensation, we do not yet know how to measure its quantity or intensity.

Quality contrast

Colour quality represents a degree of purity and clarity. Quality contrast is the contrast between extremely variegated (saturated), glowing colours and non variegated, greyed-out colours. When pure colours are brightened or darkened, they lose some of their richness.
There are four ways to reduce the purity of colours:

1

They can be mixed easily with white. This will make their character a little cooler because they will be less pure.

2

Slightly mixed with black. Black takes the colours out of their light character. It robs them of their bright and more or less kills them.

3

Extremely varied (saturated) colours can be mixed with grey. This more or less neutralises them and makes them more or less opaque.

4

“Greyness” is achieved by mixing with a complementary colour. The more we mix colours together, the more they tend to “grey out”. The effect of the “greyed-out-clear” contrast is relative, as the colour performance depends on the colour context. A colour can be pure alongside a more greyed-out colour and greyed-in alongside a more pure colour. In particular, warm-cool contrast can overwhelm quality contrast.

Quality contrast is, according to colour systematics, just different colour purity.

Quantity contrast

Quantity contrast is the ratio of the sizes of two or more colour patches, or the ratio of the number of repetitions of a colour tone. It is therefore the opposite of the relationship between the large and the small, or between the many and the few. The question is when two colours are in balance, or when one colour does not coloristically overpower the opposite colour. This depends on two factors: the brightness of the colour tone and the size of the stain.

Gothe set approximate numerical values for bright values. Yellow : orange : red : violet : blue : green = 9 : 8 : 6 : 3 : 4 : 6.

Hence the values of the complementary pairs:

yellow : purple = 9 : 3 = 3 : 1 = 3/4 : 1/4
orange : blue = 8 : 4 = 2 : 1 = 2/3 : 1/3
red : green = 6 : 6 = 1 : 1 = 1/2 : 1/2

If we convert these luminosity values into harmonic size plots, we have to use the luminosity value reciprocally. so the size ratios are of complementary colours:

yellow : violet = 1/4 : 3/4
orange : blue = 1/3 : 2/3
red : green = 1/2 : 1/2

The harmonic sizes of the colour patches of the primary and secondary colours are therefore as follows: yellow : orange : red : violet : blue : green = 3 : 4 : 6 : 9 : 8 : 6.

yellow : orange = 3 : 4
yellow : red = 3 : 6
yellow : purple = 3 : 9
yellow : blue = 3 : 8
yellow : red : blue = 3 : 6 : 8
orange : purple : green = 4 : 9 : 6

Harmonic quotients are statically stable. The contrast of the quantity is neutralised when harmonic quantities of colours are used. These values only apply to pure, extremely varied (saturated) colours. When there is less of a colour in a composition, it looks as if it is glowing more.

Contrast of quantity has a special property among contrasts. It can enhance the effect of all other contrasts. A contrast of quantity is essentially a contrast of proportion.

Contrast of quantity is a matter of the size of the individual coloured areas, which is what Johannes Itten was concerned with, or the amount of repetition, which is what Josef Albers, Owen Jones and Paul Lohse were concerned with. It cannot be (directly) systematised within the colour body.

Colour Composition

Composition is the totality of the relationships between shapes and the colours they contain, and between colours and the shapes themselves.

A shape must satisfy three functions:

1

To the element it represents.

2

The colour it contains.

3

To the other shapes with which it forms a whole.

We speak of composition in relation to composition twice:

1

of the composition of a form (the whole form).

2

When we create individual forms that are in various combinations with each other, and subordinate them to the composition of the whole.

Shapes that are subordinate to a shape help to create it. Colour composition means putting two or more colours together so that they have a clear meaning in harmony. The choice of colours, their juxtapositions, their places and directions in the composition, their simultaneous forms, their values and their contrasting relationships are crucial to expression. The character and function of a particular colour is determined by its place in the context of other colours, and that place is essentially determined by its quality and position. Colour should never be seen alone, but always in relation to its surroundings. The further apart two colours are in the colour circle, the greater the contrast between them. The value and meaning of a colour in a picture is further determined by its quantity and quality. Location and direction are also important.

For example: the columns supporting a heavy beam should not be pale yellow and the beam, say, dark brown, if we do not want everything to ‘press’ together with its weight. The pillars carry the weight, and we show this by using a heavy colour and painting the support a brighter colour so that it is no longer ‘heavy’.

Today, we also know a lot about the importance of colour for human health, and the impact on the nervous system and the psyche, and through all this on behaviour. If we use colours as forces in the right way, they can boost productivity and save people’s energy. We also know that some colour combinations act as signals. Yellow-black warning colour combinations, orange and red warning colours, green safety colours, white-black leading colour combinations clearly express their message and have a much deeper impact on people than words. Finally, colours also attract customers into stores and products that are appropriately coloured sell better. A suitably painted environment can increase productivity by 10-50%. Up to 80% of accidents are caused by human weaknesses and can even be halved by the correct use of colour in work environments.

Designers have also tried to even out the one-sided illumination of rooms. They have made shadowy spaces warmer with warm and bright colours and have also taken the power out of the sun with cool colours. In short, the forces of colour are at work in every step we take in life.

If we reduce the colours of the variegated scale to just red, yellow, green and blue, we realise the relationship with the basic directions of space, which, together with the non variegated colours, are represented in the following “table” (Figures 2 and 3)

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Fig. 3:
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Fig. 4: If we reduce the colours of the colourful scale to red, yellow, green and blue only, we realise the relationship with the basic directions of space, which, together with the non-colourful colours, is represented in the following “table”: foreground, bottom left: white, bright grey, red, yellow; background, top right: black, dark grey, blue, green.

Colour and shape

The space and its colour scheme must be designed together. Unfortunately, it is usually the case that the architect creates a space, which the painter then just looks at and sees what else he can do. Nature never designs objects first, only to paint them more or less arbitrarily later. The colour of leaves, stones and animals is a matter of the harmony of the inner essence. In nature, man is constantly exposed to colours which are not accidental, but are necessarily the inherent colours of the soil, the forest, the trees, the sky… The heavier brown stems bear the brighter green crowns. The changing light from morning to evening is deeply imprinted in the memory of man, while the colours of nature, near and far, articulate and stratify space.

Man expects every single object to have a definite colour in order to integrate it into his thinking and imaginative experience. He is guided not only by mental experience, but above all by the affinities of things, which have their basis in the depths of the human mind, in the unconscious. Thus we expect a light and bright colour shade to be in a room above and to be heavy below. But when we have a brown ceiling in a room, we feel that we are restricted from above.

Just as man has over time shaped space according to his needs and desires as his outer shell, i.e. as he is inwardly connected to space as his own creation, so space also influences man through colour. And colours are inseparable elements of space. Space must be colourful and colour must be spatial if space, as the creation of our minds, is to be conceived out of colour and not only with the help of colour.

The basic mechanism in the visual perception of shapes is the differentiation of character from background, and for this to happen the field of vision must be luminance-differentiated. Only light with its values makes objects visible. The light values tell us more about the plastic properties of objects than the colour values. An object that is illuminated evenly from all sides appears flat to us.

Every shape has two main properties: its dimension and its quality. The quality of a shape is preserved whatever its dimension. The dimension of a surface is subordinate to its quality. For typical shapes, dimension does not mean much. It may be replaced by tone. If we have two shapes of the same quality, of the same colour and of different dimensions, the smaller one may look as large as the larger one if it is of a brighter colour.

Shape in the strict sense is the delimitation of one surface from its surroundings (its outer shape). However, every shape also has an internal content. Kandinsky says that in the artistic sense, colour is the inner content of a shape.

The form is the externalisation of the internal content. The external is the means. Both sides of form are its meanings. The form itself – whether it is an object, an object or a determinant of space – a surface, an element of an object, can exist independently. Colour cannot. But colour, on the other hand, can evoke an inner representation. Colour is the inner essence of form.

At the moment when we have to render a colour concretely, it must have a completely definite hue, i.e. it must be definite, and it must necessarily be confined to the surface and delimited from other colours (context).

Colour has two main properties: its quality and its purity, which means that it is red, green or blue and to what degree it is so. Red is red, whatever its brightness.

Colours, the contents of forms, are real forces that can deform forms very much. The properties of colours affect the outline and position of shapes in the picture plane.

In relation to shapes as the content of their interior, colours are real forces which can deform them very much, because all their properties affect the outline and the position in the picture plane.

Some shapes accentuate the properties of certain colours, while others overshadow them. The qualities of ‘sharp’ colours are more pronounced in sharp shapes (yellow in a triangle), while those that tend to deepen are more pronounced in round shapes (blue in a circle).

A shape that does not fit the colour must be seen as a new possibility, a new harmony (see in the section on context the relation to such rules in mathematics).

When we speak of an isolated colour, i.e. a colour that seems to stand on its own, we distinguish two main properties:

1

the warmth and coolness of a colour hue;

2

brightness and darkness of the colour shade;

From all the combinations of these properties, we get the four main sounds of colour.

We see the brightness of a colour in two ways – as a bright-dark colour contrast (absolute colour brightness) and as a bright-dark contrast (relative colour brightness). It follows from the nature of these contrasts that the bright-dark colour contrast gives us a direct indication of the depth of the room and pushes away pure colour, while the colour itself requires articulation in the plane and pushes away the bright-dark colour contrast.

Brightness or darkness is a tendency towards white or black. In principle, light itself approaches the viewer, while darkness recedes from the viewer. If the general surroundings are black (dark) and the colours are extremely saturated (varied), the brighter ones appear closer and the darker ones more distant. Conversely, when the general surroundings are bright, dark colours stand out more. We can see that the conditions under which we observe the effect of colours, or the general surroundings (context), are very important. J. Itten argues that the deep effect of individual colours in a dark environment (on a black background) leads ultimately to a golden section. When orange is placed between yellow and red, the depth gradation of yellow : orange and orange : red is as m : M. When yellow, orange-red and blue stand against a black background, yellow stands out most, while blue almost blends into the black background. All shades move forward in their degree of brightness. On a white background it is the opposite.

Brighter colours are more expansive and darker colours are more concentric. The movement of yellow is more eccentric and blue more concentric. The first ‘circle’ is a poke in the eye, the second is a retreat into itself. As it gets brighter, the effect of the yellow increases and as it gets darker, the effect of the blue increases. Rectangular shapes are more concentrated than circular shapes, which are expansive. The circle is the most expansive shape and the triangle is the most concentrated shape.

The warmth or coolness of the colour is generally a tendency towards yellow or blue. Thus its sound is more material or immaterial. Shapes that approach the geometric are cooler than those that are freer. Warm and cool shades behave in such a way that the warmer shades come more to the fore at the same brightness. When a bright-dark (colour) contrast is added, the effect can be increased or become its opposite. If a warmer colour is brightened, it comes even more to the fore. However, if we brighten the darker colour sufficiently, it may come to the fore in front of the warmer colour (on a black background). We can therefore conclude that the bright-dark difference is a basic property of colour sensation, which causes the perception of spatial depth.

Normally, warmer colours are brighter than cooler colours. In principle, it is true that variegated colours are more prominent than non-variegated colours. But only as long as the variegated colour has a greater brightness difference to its immediate background than the non variegated colour compared to it.

Colours are also denser and heavier and thinner and brighter. Earth colours are generally heavier and denser. Shapes which have a strongly accentuated axis of gravity are heavier than asymmetrical shapes. Shapes with a vertical axis are heavier.

The heavier half of the colour circle is concentrated in violet and the brighter half in citron yellow. All intermediate colours, as long as they do not contain red, i.e. all green and blue shades, are more or less heavy depending on how much white or black they contain. On the other hand, colours containing more red work harder than those with less red. This effect depends largely on the surrounding colours, i.e. on the context.

Heavier colours appear more in the foreground and brighter colours more in the background, so that we can use colour to make a room appear longer or shorter.

The spatial effect of colours depends on several factors. Colours themselves contain forces that act deeply. They can appear as bright-dark, warm-cold, as quality or quantity.

In a contrast of qualities, a glowing colour comes to the fore more than a dull one. However, when a warm-cold or a bright-dark (colour) contrast is included, the values change again.

Quantities are very important in depth effects. A small yellow dot on a red background looks as if it is yellow on a red background. But when the colours of the objects are swapped, it appears red on a yellow background.

The picture is therefore full of tension. The perceptual movement of warm and cool colours and of brighter and darker colours results, among other things, from the apparent increase and decrease in the size of the coloured patches. The colours which are more intrusive and more restless, that is to say, those which reflect more strongly from their background, have, as it were, made a special path in our perception, a special movement: some recede from us in their modesty, others approach us in their intrusiveness.

The integral matrix (the operational form of composition)

A work of artistic creativity is not only an illustration of the thoughts of the creator, but a complete manifestation of his experience (feeling, emotion) and conception (thought) of the world itself. A creative person usually perceives life and the world in his own way. If such a person is successful in expressing and communicating his particular perception, he is said to be creative. Creativity is not just about expressing oneself, but is a process of liberation from the inner inhibitions of the personality. A person who is able to express himself is not necessarily creative. No ability to express oneself can substitute for the knowledge and experience necessary to be able to create an object. Creation is always an act of rebellion, but it is also an epistemic enterprise, that is to say, an enterprise in what the ancients called ars (skill) or téchne (the art of making or doing something practically).

Design is not only an activity, but also a faculty that can be called creativity; creativity par excellence, because it is not imitation but an attempt to break with the banal, it is the manifestation of originality and the bringing of something new to the world. Design is an activity in which the main driving force is to determine the formal characteristics of the object to be designed. By formal properties I do not mean only the external image, but above all the structural and functional relations that transform the object into a unified whole, both from the point of view of the maker and the user, and lead without a break into the semantic, spiritual dimensions of the designed, of the world and of man. In (environmental) design we want to create something that is meant to achieve its purpose.

Making is a social act that does not begin and end with the individual. Creation shapes the lives of others. Therefore, education for design is education for responsible creation.

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Fig. 5: Levels of the major groups of colour shades in an ideal colour space.