OUAN406 - A Tale in The Sting: Colour Theory

OUAN406: Colour Theory:

In the process of choosing particular colours for each of my idents to suit my target audience, or rather the target audience of each channel, I decided that it would be a wise idea to look at colour theory in order to make my choices more informed. Firstly, I thought about what colours would attract children for the Cbeebies idents. Warm, bright, happy colours came to mind as these would gauge the most attention in my opinion. E4 would benefit from bright, deep and shocking colours such as purples and pinks (also would work well with their logo). As for the Discovery channel, greens, browns, earthy tones would be successful as would greys and metallics shades (science, cold).

http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/basic-color-theory

Colour Matters is great website that I came across informing me about the basic colour theories I learned way back in primary school. It was a nice refresher to see how colours compliment each other and how some don't go together at all. There are obvious patterns to choosing the best colours thus making it easier for me in the long run.

The main categories on the colour wheel are shown above. http://www.resene.com/homeown/use_colr/coloursforliving.htm is a great website I found that looks at how colours affect children. Although this site focuses on colours in the home and bedrooms in order to calm children etc. I found that it was particularly helpful in helping me understand colours and their effects.

Pastels and soft colours tend to be more calming and soothing giving the feeling of love to children who are exposed to these colours for a long period of time. Bright, primary colours are seen to excite children in small doses - can be healthy if the aim is to stimulate their brains. However, in large quantities, primary, bold colours can be unsettling along with geometric patterns.

Muted colours considered beneficial
Resene Ming	Resene Drover	Resene Golden Glow	Resene Mexican Red	Resene Milk Punch	Resene Chetwode Blue
Resene Puerto Rico	Resene Sunglo	Resene Tacao

I plan to use Drover and Golden Glow-type shades for my lion, Giraffe and Monkey. Similar colours will be easy to focus on, not causing too much distress. These neutral, warm, earthy colours mixed with some green for the grass and background will work very well. 

Uplifting bright colours
Resene Cranberry	Resene Deep Koamaru	Resene Flame Red	Resene Lima	Resene Moon Yellow	Resene Resolution Blue
Resene Salem	Resene West Side	Resene Windsor

In order to stop my ident from being too calming and essentially losing its "excitement", I think Moon Yellow tones and West Side would be good shades to use. Obviously, these may slightly differ in my ident but using these charts as a guide is proving helpful. 

Distressing colours for my E4 ident would be useful as I plan to make the ident gaudy and very "in your face" anyway. Bright, clashy pinks and purples would be suitable. I plan to also use muted and earthy/grassy tones for the Discovery ident too.