Taste and Color in Design - Essay Example

Taste and Color in Design [The of the will appear here] [The of the will appear here] Introduction Design is not a universal language. Each design has a different kind of appeal for different people. It is quite difficult to understand why people like or dislike a certain piece of design. Therefore it is quite difficult to objectively qualify a design as a good or bad design. However, differentiating between good and bad design is important so as to teach art students the principles of good design. Designers have therefore divided design into different components and study each differently. Art students need to understand these components separately in order to incorporate them in their individual design pieces in a more tasteful manner. Taste and color in design are two components that need to be studied in order to understand how design can take different meanings and appeal among different people. Taste and Color, both are part of the design process that cannot be objectively labeled as good and bad. In order to differentiate between good and bad, we need to understand the role taste and color play in the design process. In this paper, both taste and color would be discussed in detail. Taste and Design Every person has a different taste towards design. Every few pieces of design have universal appeal among the people. People’s perception of good design changes with their personality, their culture, their status and even the socio-economic group. For instance, in India people tend to prefer red dresses for their weddings while in America, the most preferred color is white. Even the styling of these dresses change from one country to another. It is almost impossible to make people agree over one taste in design. A person’s individual personality also plays an important role in defining his taste in design. Some people prefer simple minimalist designs while others prefer opulent designs. It cannot be argued which design is better. A room with minimalistic design may appeal to one designer but not to the other. Design taste also changes with changing cultures. People in different cultures decorate their homes in different ways. Taste in Design is not a universally accepted principle. It is difficult to develop a tasteful design based on a set of principles. This is mainly because taste in design tends to differ from person to person. Cultures, age, time, personality, mood and almost everything changes a person’s perception of tasteful design. Taste over Time Design Tastes also vary with time. It is easy to observe this if one goes back and observes how fashion has evolved with time. What our parents perceived as good design is something that appears outdated to us. Similarly, our parents also cannot completely relate with our taste in design. One way to observe this is to view how each year designers come up with different designs. A designer may have designed a completely different collection ten years ago. Back in the Roman era, people referred to hang tapestries and rugs in their homes. Canvas paintings were mostly used in religious places and were rare in homes. Today, oil paintings have taken the place of tapestries and rugs. Rugs and tapestries are still hung in some homes but these lend a vintage or rustic look to the area. Similarly, patterns have also evolved with time. In the early twentieth century, flowers and motifs were considered to be tasteful design. In the 60s, people preferred bold geometric designs such as checkerboards. Today, a combination of these designs are used but geometric patterns still embody the 60s era. Taste Education At times, design taste in a person is acquired through experience and norms. The way people dress in certain occasions does not reflect on their personal style but rather is a reflection of the cultural expectations and design taste as a community. For instance, during an Oscar’s functions, most female celebrities wear evening gowns. Very few, if any, would be seen sporting jeans and a t-shirt. This is because celebrities are unconsciously education about this design taste through their experience and their observations of Oscar shows on the television or live. A person’s culture also educates him regarding the design that he prefers. People in Saudi Arabia prefer to wear gold jewelry on special occasions such as weddings or other celebrations. Even though some people do not have an affinity with gold, they tend to acquire it over time. Similarly, when a certain color or style becomes preferred by celebrities, other people tend to acquire similar taste in that design or color. Vitruvian Principles All this discussion leads us to question, what tasteful design is? How art students could be taught to differentiate between good taste and bad taste. According to Stephen Bayley, it is the idea behind the design that makes a design a good or a bad taste. When a designer is able to back up his design with a rational and appealing idea, it makes the entire design good and vice versa for designing without a clear inspiration in mind. The Vitruvian Principles of Design also expound on this matter. These principles are based on three points: Firmatis, Utilitas and Venustatis (Clinical Architecture, 2009). Frimatis refers to the durability of the design. A design is tasteful when it has strength to survive over time. Utilitas means that is serves a functional purpose. A design, that has no purpose, is no design and cannot be termed as tasteful. Also, another important principle is Venustatis meaning beauty. A design people should be pleasing to the eye. It should inspire people and intrigue them. De Gustibus non est Disputandum This Latin phrase literally means, ‘concerning taste there is no dispute’. This means that each person has a different taste. One cannot argue with anyone regarding their taste in design. A person may find a black person attractive while another may find her ugly just based on the color of the skin. While they can continue to argue about their tastes in design, both of them would not be able to convince the other that their taste is design is better or good. This is because it is difficult to label things as aesthetic. Design taste, or any other taste, for that matter differs between individuals. One cannot justify one’s taste in design. This is what inherently makes design so complicated. Color Color, like taste, is also subjective in nature. One cannot objectively taste that a color is good or bad in the same way that design taste is not good or bad. However, every color has a context. Each color has its own aura that is reflected in the way they affect the mood of the person. Red, for example, is associated with passion and danger. When designer which to give off a look of passion, they heavily employ the use of red color. However, colors do speak a universal language. Blue, for instance, is a color of calmness and even gloom. Red represents passion and energy. Green usually represents fertility and nature. Yellow and Orange are optimistic colors and represent happiness. Color is an important part of the entire design process. It serves many purposes. It helps to create contrast; it helps in emphasizing some parts of the design, and also helps in drawing emphasis away from some parts. Color plays a dominant role in the rejection or acceptance of an idea or design. Therefore designers need to choose their colors wisely. For instance, consider the use of colors in a newspaper. The articles in the newspaper are generally black and white. This is because black on white is the most readable color scheme and makes reading easier when compared with other colors that would otherwise be too sharp on the eye or too difficult to read. The advertisements on the other hand are colorful. This is because advertisements are meant to attract the viewer towards the ad and entice them to try the product. The advertiser does not want the reader to read a lot on the ad but rather enjoy the visual and accept the message. Traditional Color Color also changes its meaning as it changes cultures and countries. This section will focus on how colors represent different moods and feelings in different cultures. In China, red is considered to be an auspicious color. Chinese prefer to use red very often as they consider is to be a lucky color. This can be observed in the Chinese flag also, which is red and white. Similarly, Indians also prefer the color red. Their brides are dresses in red color as it is considered to be an auspicious color. The Americans associate red with Christmas and celebrations. They would not want their brides to dress in red since it is associated with Santa Claus and Christmas. However, in some parts of Africa, red is considered to the color of mourning and death since it is the color of blood. The color blue is the western world is a color associated with loyalty and trust. It also represents calmness and often depression in the extreme sense. Blue is considered to be a masculine color. In China, however, blue is considered to a feminine color and is also associated with immortality. In Mexico, Iran and Korea, blue is the color of mourning. In Middle Eastern countries, blue is considered to be color of protection. Hindus associated blue as the color of their God, Krishna. Moving on to yellow, the color yellow in the western world represents joy, hope and happiness. In eastern cultures, specifically China, yellow is considered to be a sacred color. It is also the color of royalty. While Indians and Thais consider Yellow to be an auspicious color, the people in Burma and Egypt associate this color with mourning. People in Middle East also associate yellow with hope, joy and happiness as the western world. The French associate yellow with jealousy. Other colors also have different meaning in different culture. For a designer to be culturally specific, he needs to understand the interplay and meanings of these colors in different cultures. Hot and Cold Colors It was during the 18th century that people and specifically artists began to differentiate between warm and cool colors. The difference between warm and cool colors is used in design practices more commonly that some people are even aware of. Labeling a color as warm or cold depends on their placement in nature. For instance, colors that are often observed in warm or hot objects are labeled as warm colors. Examples of these include fire which is red in color. Thus red is considered to be warm color. Similarly, orange is a warm color since the sun is orange in color. On the other spectrum are the cool colors. A color is labeled as cool in the way it appears in our atmosphere. Blue and grey, for example, are considered to be cool colors. The color of the sky is blue and often grey. Since the sky is cool, the colors blue and grey acquire the label of cool colors. When designers choose colors, they often tend to keep this theory in their mind. Warm colors tend to stand out in a room while cool colors tend to recede. Warm colors are therefore used in interiors where the idea is to excite the people within the room. Cool colors are used to give the space a calm and relaxed feeling. Cool colors also make the room look bigger since they recede while warm colors make the space look smaller because they tend to stand out. Rejection of Color At times, color is often rejected in design to give the design piece a professional feel. Rejection of color means using colors that are neutral. These include white, grey, black and even lighter shades of brown. Colors, on the color wheel, are associated with feelings. Therefore, when a designer employs the use of a color, he is reacting to something. It is either a reaction of his feelings or the feelings that he wants to arouse in the minds of the occupants. For instance, painting the room yellow in a nursery classroom may have been done to entice the happiness and joy among the young occupants. However, if the room had been painted white and filled with grey furniture, it would have had no impact on the minds or feelings of the occupants. Color and Harmony Harmony in design, with reference to color, can be referred to as the use of colors to create a pleasing design that raises the spirits of the viewers. It should have balance in the sense that it should not be boring or chaotic. In a boring color arrangement, the viewer is not excited and thus he is not engaged in the design. On the other hand of the spectrum, a color arrangement that is too chaotic over stimulates the viewers. The eye would not be able to view the design for a long time making it bad design. Color Harmony is drawing a balance between the two so that the viewer is properly stimulated. Many people claim that color does not have any function to play. The presence or absence of color in design does not make a big difference in the functionality of the design piece. Color can be used as compensation for the absence of a functional piece of design. This is because color adds an aesthetic quality to the design that takes away focus from the functionality of the design. Conclusion Taste and Color in Design are important components of the overall design piece. All kinds of designers focus on the use of colors for the designs. In the fashion industry, for instance, the use of colors and color schemes play an important role in making the design stand out. Often taste and color in design are a representation of a certain culture. For instance, truck art has come to represent Pakistani art with its vivid colors schemes. The vivid color schemes associated with truck art do not have a universal appeal. Many people would be opposed to the use of color schemes in truck art labeling them as over stimulating. However, at times, cultural differences are erased. For instance, annually a color pantone scheme is released each year in the fashion industry. This color scheme is widely adopted by fashion designer around the world. These include designers in France and designer in India. While the cultural significance of colors varies vastly among the two countries, designers tend to accept the colors each year. As a result, the common people are also willing to accept these colors. References Clinical Architecture (2009) The Three Principles of Good Architecture, Retrieved from http://www.clinicalarchitecture.com/blog/clinical-architecture-healthcare-it-blog/january-2009/three-principles-of-good-architecture/?feed=blogs Read More