About the Author
Bride M Whelan, an instructor at Parsons School of Design, New York City, teaches basic and advanced courses in color theory. For many years she taught graphic design at Paier College of Art, New Haven, Connecticut, and lectures extensively on an variety of design-related topics.
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The twelve segments of the color wheel consist of primary, secondary, and tertiary hues and their specific titnts and shades. With red at the top, the color wheel identifies the three primary hues of red, yellow and blue...
Aspects of color: The aspects, or qualities of color, refer to colors and color combinations that evoke certain emotional responses. We use many words to describe the properties of individual colors and to compare and contrast them, but "light" and "dark" is the basic distinction. Without sunlight or artificial light, there is no color. We depend on light for color, which we use in countless combinations to express our ideas and emotions. The following aspects of color contain color combinations that exist in harmony with each other, and are in spectral balance. "Spectral balance" occurs within the eye as thousands of waves of electromagnetic energy of different lengths bounce off (or are absorbed by) the chemical components of any object. Light waves reflect red, yellow, and blue, and the rods and cones in the eye's retina simultaneously mix and sort these reflected colors into thousands of tints and shades, which work to offer endless possibilities for specific color use. Color is both simple and complex. It means different things to different people in different cultures. No color is seen the same way by two people. Color is personal and universal, sending messages full of endless variations.
