The Elements of Color (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A useful simplification and condensation of Johannes ltten's major work. The Art of Color, this book covers subjective feeling and objective color principles in detail. It presents the key to understanding color in ltten's color circle and color contrasts.

Language Notes

Text: English, German (translation) --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (January 31, 1970)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471289299
• ISBN-13: 978-0471289296
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 8.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #52,968 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The book that tought me color., May 11, 2000

By	jim kelley (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Itten's analysis and application of color is thoughtful and scientific. As a practicing art director, I have successfully used the theories and methods explained in "Elements of Color" for over twenty years. I also teach them to my design classes. Whether you use a paintbrush or a mouse, his "seven color contrasts" will prove invaluable.

53 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential Reading for the Serious Colorist, January 26, 2002

By	Stephanie Rose Bird "conjurer2" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

I have been a professor for 15 years. "The Elements of Color" has been required reading for many of my courses. It is not only enriching as a color theory document, but it helps expand the artist or designers possibility of using, arranging and conceiving color.

80 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For the Serious..., August 12, 2006

By	H. P. Tellez - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's been difficult to give a balanced critique. On one hand, "Elements of Color" has a wealth of information, but on the other, it takes serious committment to fully understand and comprehensively apply the information Itten presents. There is much valuable data, but it's interspersed with almost stereotypic, outmoded "Teutonic" concepts; e.g. assigning "Blond Types" springtime, bright, vivid colored topics, while "Dark Types" should be assigned "Night, Burial and dark room" topics. There is much valuable, technical information, but it is like digging through hard stone to find the gold; overwrought and culturally centered, judgemental statements are very common ("red expresses intermediate degrees between the infernal and sublime"... what's this?!?!). Other statements seem value-laden, i.e., "sentimental blue", "angelic pink", "blue reigns supreme"... Some excuse may be found in realizing the concepts in this treatise may have been developed before the Post Modernist Age, which accepts cultural and ethnic diversity, that accepts art and the use of color as being open to various interpretations, that color is certainly relative and greatly subjective, that many statements about color are only opinions... and that there is no absolute truth as to what color is "right" or "wrong". Unless the reader is studious and very serious about trying to unearth the information contained in this book, he or she is much better served by studing Albers or others. Too bad there is no editing, no index, and no glossary. What would Itten think of the book, "Chromophobia"? ... Pablo Tellez