In the context ofgraphic communication, colour is

particularly useful in attracting and holding the

attention, prior to conveying information and making that information memorable. Roy

Osborne proposes that although no designer can

guarantee that a particular colour combination will stimulate precisely the

intended response in any sample of viewers, general

agreements can be deduced that mightform the basisfor

methodical approaches to colour association.

In graphic design, colour can serve four block of text or texture. It can also be significant functions. It can: used to highlight a fragment of a picture

Attract attention or text. Hold attention On the supermarket shelf, where Convey information numerous packages compete for the

* Help make information memorable. customers’ attention, colour is par- ticularly useful in identifying a familiar product or brand from a group of similar goods, especially because package size Attracting attent ion

In any visual display, colour is almost always the most eye-catching feature, followed, pre-

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pairs) may, for example, optically cancel when there are substantial light-dark in turn, becomes the basis for each other out at a distance, and repel differences between the lettering and its subsequent decisions, including where rather than sustain the viewer’s attention. background. to look next. Only when the viewer is Generally, contrasts of dark against light, Often the designer must impress a satisfied that sufficient information has such as dark type on a light ground, are message on the customer within a very been received can he or she assess preferable when emphasising legibility. In restricted period of time. One reason for accurately each situation and trigger an daylight conditions, maximum legibility this is the fast pace of contemporary life, appropriate visual response, such as may be offered by a combination of yellow and black. Other easily readable combinations include white features on a dark blue ground, white on dark-green, black on white, white on black, and so on. ‘In any visual display, colour is almost always

the most eye-catching feature'

Holding attention It has been assessed that for a package to halt the customer’s attention on a supermarket shelf, it should do so within one-twentieth of a second. Tests indicate that a black-and-white magazine ad- vertisement may sustain interest for as little as two-thirds of a second, whereas a coloured advertisement may hold the attention for two seconds or more. With such restricted time spans to contend with, simplicity of the elements com- posing a design is generally to be recommended.

The repetition of components of equal importance may be apt for wallpaper or textile designs, but, in graphics, it is usually more appropriate to balance a hierarchy of dominant against less dominant visual features. Visual interest is further sustained, and directed, by offsetting the relative visual impact of combinations of colour, shape, size and texture within the boundaries of the design as a whole.

Although normal object perception involves emphasising foreground features or objects, generally at the expense of those in the background, the graphic designer must develop a facility of assessing and balancing both figure and ground in hidher attention at the same time, before eventually estab- lishing the appropriate emphasis of each.

The relation between figure and ground is particularly important in considering the legibility of headlines, brand names or text. For example, when selecting colour combinations for lettering, contrasts of light against dark are preferable, as a rule, to differences of hue or tone (brightness). In other words, lettering is read more quickly and legibly

but another is to be found in examining the nature of visual sensing itself. The human eye is able normally to scan a wide area, but the part of the visual field that is in focus at any given instant is surprisingly small - about the area of a large coin held at arm’s length. Although the retina, which lines the interior of each eye, occupies many square millimetres, the portion of it that allows us to see in focus consists of a small central cavity (or fovea) less than 2 mm in diameter. Owing to an especially dense con- centration of colour-sensing cells within the fovea, only those visual features sensed by it will appear in focus and fully saturated. By comparison, peripheral vision, outside the rim of the central fovea, is severely limited in its capacity to sense both fine detail and colour. By virtue of its greater surface area, however, peripheral vision possesses an extensive capacity to sense movement. Thus, once our central vision has examined a visual feature, it becomes the task of peripheral visual (colloquially called ‘the corner of the eye’) to provide information concerning where to look next.

To explore a graphic design (or the environment) in detail, the scanning eye must make a large number of tiny visual shifts (known as ‘saccades’). Under normal circumstances, the eye remains in each position for less than one quarter of a second. It then moves rapidly on, in order to project a new pattern of colour and form onto the retina. It is likely that visual impressions from a number of separate eye positions are held within the short-term memory. Each sequence of signals is processed in the brain, and,

buying a product or intensifying interest in the information presented.

Often, the viewer is seeking a specific visual feature. Once located, he or she tends either to intensify or lose interest, before moving on in search of another visual feature.

In design, the extent of visual search is bounded by two extremes. At one end of the scale, a format might be devised that encourages very little visual move- ment, such as when a small feature is isolated centrally on a large, untextured ground (highlighted, perhaps, with a contrasting colour). At the other extreme (such as in a wallpaper design), a design may purposely deny the viewer an obvious centre of focus or visual feature on which the eye might rest.

It is inevitable that, as he or she pursues greater interest in the study of colour, the designer will need to consider the implications of time in relation to visual movement. Obvious questions arising from this involvement might include:

What is it that I want the viewer to see first? How long do I want his or her attention to be held by this feature? What do I want the viewer to see next? To what extent (and in which di- rection) do I want to direct the eye to move?

Consideration is then addressed con- cerning the combinations of colour (in relation to shape, typeface, placement and so on) that will accomplish most effectively whatever the designer’s aim may be.

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Conveying information In almost the same instant as colour succeeds in holding a viewer’s attention, it must succeed also in conveying an appropriate mood or visual impression.

Alhough no designer can guarantee that any combination of colour, type or visual imagery will produce precisely the intended response in all persons, general agreements can be established that may serve as a useful guide. In a simple example, a dark-coloured object will tend to look smaller and heavier than a light-coloured one of the same physical dimensions. In package design, where the optical impression of size and weight may be associated with value for money,

might be considered apt in promoting sales of certain foodstuffs that have been tried and tested over many years, such as confectionery, preserves and sauces - consumable items that suggest home, rather than factory, production. Appro- priate colours might include com- binations of natural browns, ochres and greens, perhaps with faded blues, suggestive of age and continuity. The ‘modern’, by comparison, might be characterised by an austere or ‘modernist’ absence of decoration - geometric patterns combined with strident, artificial colours, such as those made possible by the development of synthetic dyes and machine-made

’In almost the same instant as colour succeeds in holding a viewer’s attention, it must succeed also in conveying an

appropriate mood or visual impression’

such subliminal responses are import- ant, because they may influence that all- important decision: to buy or not to buy.

Since we are sensitive to the colouring of food as an essential aid to assessing its edibility and freshness, particular attention must be given to colours selected for the packaging of food. In any design, however, the final choice of colours will rest inevitably on a number of basic considerations. Although it is possible to select colours on a purely aesthetic basis, the hard- headed salesman will insist on choosing those colours most likely to sell the product and/or promote a positive response. The designer must consider not only the nature of the information to be conveyed, but also analyse and pinpoint the audience whom he or she is targeting.

One useful starting point is to invent working titles, perhaps representing contrasting categories or groupings of information, and then to collate the colour combinations, and other factors, that appear most appropriate to each one. Examples might include pairings of ‘natural’ versus ‘artificial’, ‘traditional’ versus ‘modern’, ‘exclusive’ versus ‘popular’ and so on.

‘Traditional’ imagery, for example,

plastics. In the Spring Mountain Walnuts package on p308, the colours and textures of packaging designed by Ralph Colonna of Farrell Strategic Marketing Design combine to express a suitably traditional and wholesome image. ‘Natural’ colouring and textures combine with hand-drawn imagery to suggest rural tradition and continuity. By contrast, the sharp-edged, vivid and untextured colours of a carrier bag by Vernal and Company, for Unity Color, appear unam- biguously modern. The design em- phasises hard-edge geometry, with unadorned colour.

Making information memorable Once a selection of colours has caught and held the attention, and succeeded in conveying appropriate information, its final task is to associate itself more or less permanently with the product, organisation or commodity. Ideally, in packaging, it will encourage the con- sumer to recognise and buy the product on second, third and fourth occasions.

The most memorable colours are those that are the easiest to name. For a customer to request ‘the blue pack’ or

‘the green and yellow can’ may be considered a mark of success in establishing memorability. Subtle colour combinations, no matter how aesthetic- ally pleasing, are more easily forgotten. In part this is because of our surprisingly poor colour vocabulary, which is limited to little more than a dozen basic terms, including those for neutrals and metallics. In addition, our ability to remember colour combinations is most effective when the number of colours is limited. Aside from commercial graphics, single colours or simple, memorable combinations are most effective when reading maps, identifying fire appliances, and in many other instances of everyday visual communication.

Conclusion It may be considered a matter of fact that colour assists significantly in attracting the viewer’s attention. It is a matter of degree that some colour combinations hold the viewer’s attention longer than others. It is often a matter of speculation that one colour combination conveys its message more effectively than another. And it is, perhaps, a matter of chance, or persistent marketing, that one set of colours will attach itself more or less permanently and favourably to one product rather than another.

This paper is based on the lecture ‘Colour in graphics’, presented at the UMISTINPLISDC international confer- ence on ‘Colour communication’, held on 19-21 April 1995 at UMIST, UK.

Roy Osborne, an artist, is also an author and lecturer on colour in art and design. He is currently the first artist chairman of The Colour Group (UK), and an executive committee member of the International Association of Colour. He can be contacted at 86 Ormonde Court, Upper Richmond Road, London SW15 6TR, UK.

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