Customer Reviews

The Designer's Guide to Color Combinations

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Sure there are plenty of books about color out there. Some are about color theory, some tend towards technical info about pre-press and separations, etc., and some even include swatches.

I know -- I've wasted a lot of money on them over the years.

This book, however, is unique, and the first one I've found truly useful -- even inspirational.

Cabarga takes choice period artwork (from the Victorian era through ultra-modern rave posters), analyzes the colors, shows you why they work/don't work then actually pulls the colors out in CMYK-specified patches (w/numerical values) and supplies half a dozen or so examples of how to use each palette.

This last feature is extremely useful: swatches without examples are virtually useless, and swatches without CMYK numerical values (or Pantone) can leave you guessing.

Need a Victorian look? Want that 1950's Atomic feel? It's all here, and wrapped up in a breezy and humorous narrative that make the book a fun read as well as super informative.

Highly recommended!

I snapped up The Designer's Guide to Color Combinations as soon as I stumbled across it, and it has been the most useful and fun colour book I have purchased in years.

What is unique about Cabarga's approach to colour is his understanding that our perception of how various colours work in combination is cultrally based, and changes over time. A colourful tile that might look fashionable in the late-19th century can look quaint or garish in the 1990s.

Cabarga presents literally hundreds of historical colour combinations based on actual period designs. What makes this useful is that each design comes complete with CMYK codes which can be plugged directly into Photoshop, or converted (roughly) into HTML colour codes.

It is no exageration to say that this book has opened me up to a world of colour combinations that I wouldn't have considered in the past. Great stuff.

This book fulfilled every expectation I had prior to its arrival, that is - it's not a color theory book in any way. It has no color wheels, nor does it theorize about complementary colors and the like. It's a collection of suggested color combinations - usually combinations which I'd never think of. And that's where the real value is!
In the samples, you can easily notice which is the 'base' color and which colors 'match' in different situations. And each sample itself has some printed design-like feel, which makes it incredibly more usable than ordinary swatches in other books.
Just by flipping the pages I found (color) suggestions for the designs I'm working at.
Ah, and the book is also beautiful.
If you're looking for color inspiration rather than theory, add this one to your basket!

Better than any other book on color combinations, Leslie Cabarga clarifies not only color harmony but color arrangement. I believe his approach to color harmony makes far more sense than color wheels and rainbow illustrations. By taking good examples throughout history, one can get not only a flavor of what works, but can see the color in context. Some combinations repeat themselves, but in different contexts they look different as well.

By putting in the CMYK percentages, it is very easy to transfer the colors to a computer for immediate use. For those who are artistically challenged (such as this reviewer), there is a refreshing sense to Cabarga's work. He shows very clearly why bad color combinations are such and why good ones that work do in fact work. Each example is provided in a sensible context rather than a stack of colors, and most valuable is Cabarga's use of variations of the same color set to illustrate how radically different the same group of colors look in different arrangements.

I also liked Cabarga's comments about key illustrators and their subject matter--even including expressing doubts about Paul Whiteman being the King of Jazz. Cabarga seems to know his artists and doesn't mind expressing any opinon that comes to mind whether on artists or the state of just about anything. Moreover, his opinions never get in the way of his discussion of color. (Even the opinions are colorful.) It's good to know books are still written by human beings rather than grey committees.

I love this book, it makes my life so much easier coming up with color combinations that work. The best part is that it covers over a century's worth of color schemes, from dark earthy tones of the victorian period to the bright colors of today.

There are so many different color combinations to look at, each with a different variation as well. They're all in CMYK too, which makes it easier since I'm not familiar with the Pantone system a lot of books on color use.

The only drawback to this book is that it doesn't teach you how to create your own successful color schemes, so you'll need another book on color for that. This book tells you to look at the things around you for inspiration although it never tells you how to convert those colors to CMYK mode.

If you have a book or two on the science and practices of good color design, then you'll definately need this for a quick reference to some applied real world design.

This is the first volume of two, the second being 'The Designer's Guide To Global Color Combinations. I own both and I regard them as simply unmissable, because I use as well for recreative as practical purposes.

Each page offers a depiction of a work of art, which may be painting, illustration, texture, fabric. The main piece always has a short description (artist, origin, media) and a personal note by the author why the piece is so eyestriking.

All pieces are catalogued according to time and style, so you'll find art deco, popart, contemporary, ... styles but also 'bad' use of color.

However, this is NOT a book about color theory. The approach is subjective and you may find that your views differ with the author because the appreciation of coloruse is personal (which the author also underlines).

Never the less this is also an outstanding objective guide to historical color use during the centuries starting from the late 19th century till now.

For computer artists it also offers CMYK values, as well for the main piece, and variations on it.

If there would be one negative point, it's only that there is not a cd added with all the palettes, so you would not have to type in the values. And, for people operating mainly in RGB color space, as the book cover states: no RGB values. (you'll find these in the second volume, but for some strange reason they were not added in this first volume).

Despite this small point of criticism: this guide is a work of art unique in it's category. There is nothing that even comes close to the work of endurance the author has done, to offer the reader a practical and inspirational guide to color combining.

A guide you'll browse and browse again.

the premise of this book is interesting in that it attempts to deconstruct the color content from various art pieces though the past century. I was really excited to recieve the book and was looking forward to reading it, but was disappointed.

Not all of the colors appearing in the piece shown were always represented. And I didn't think that the layouts redone with the chosen colors were creative or accurate in the reflection of the proportions of the pieces' color. In fact in more than one instance, I felt the most important accent color was left out of the breakdown all together. That made me mistrust the accuracy of the paletes presented that were based on other pieces for mthe same time period, but without showing the piece itself.

All in all, the book is interesting from a historical sense, and I will definitely derive some value from it, but i felt it was lacking in it's attention to detail. Unfortunately, because color is all about attention to detail, it's lack of it does undermine the book's intrinsic value.

This book is more useful than any other swatchbook I've owned. The reader is guided, era by era, through a color history, with an interesting and often humorous analysis.

An interesting read and useful too. I look forward to (hopefully) an updated edition with colors represeted in CMYK and RGB.

As a designer, find color combinations that work well together and fit the mood you want is a tough part of my job. This book takes a lot of the guesswork out of that job. Not only do you get great ideas for color, but you also get an excellent overview of colors and design over the past 120 years. It's informative, it's humorous and it's a must have.

There is very little of value in this book.

The author has compiled color combinations that he has found in the world around us, and he has even gone so far as to give (approximate) CMYK values for the schemes. So far so good. The problem? He seems to find the same color combinations over and over again. Considering that there are sections here on Victorians, Art Deco, the Sixties, Earth tones, and Raves, one would certainly expect to find some drastically different color combinations. But flip back and forth between the "Rave" section and the "Victorian" section, and you will be surprised by how similar the schemes are. At least, I am.

There are some minor assets to the book, but I would not recommend it. For those looking for swatches, I would recommend "Color Harmony 2" (ISBN 1564960668). Not only is it worlds better, it's also cheaper and smaller. And did I mention better?