Optical Illusions in Advertising

(c) MACLAREN MCCANN CANADA INC. - Optical Illusions in Advertising

KINETIC ART : FROM PAINTING TO ARCHITECTONIC

Victor Vasarely is often perceived as the father of Op’art.

The notion of cinetic art appeared for the first time in 1964. It aspires to explore simple geometric elements and the physics of shape in order to create dynamic optical phenomenon that entice a spectator’s active observations.

The result of artistic research carried out simultaneously by Albers and Vasarely, Op’art was born in 1955. Their initial work on this new artistic movement was furthered by subsequent generations of artists including: Agam, Soto, Cruz Diez, Morellet, Yvaral, Le Parc, Sobrino…

A similar style had already appeared in works by Bauhaus masters: Moholy-Nagy, Klee, Kandinsky and Itten, as well as in creations by Malevitch, Sophie Tauber-Arp and Mondrian.

“Bauhaus” is an experimental didactic and artistic centre which was founded in Weimer in 1919 and that operated until 1933, when the Nazis took power. The adaptation of Art and Architecture to the new-born elements of the Industrial age began at the start of the 20th century. Following (aesthetic) experiments of the "Deutsche Werkbund", initiated by Muthesius in 1907, Walter Gropius establishes a new vision of teaching that is to unify artists and artisans in collective style and research projects. The main focus is the discovery of forms that facilitate the production of series’ of artwork.

Bauhaus, or “the house in which we build” designates not only a particular technique in the history of art itself, but an attempt to blur the borders drawn between various aspects of culture and society.

Its manifesto never seemed as pertinent as it does today :

"This is not about teachers and students, but about masters and apprentices; this is not about artists specialised in general or applied arts, but about creators who complete each other in order to serve a common goal" Read more...

MATCHING COLOR

by Steven Waxman
Entire books have been written on the subject of matching color. However, for now I’d like to throw out a few general rules to help start your discussion with your printer.
First of all, don’t choose color on your monitor. Color on a monitor is made up of red, green, and blue phosphors (light). Ink color, on the other hand, is made up of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink. The colors within the realm of light do not match the colors within the realm of ink.
That said, there are exceptions to every rule. If you can (rigidly) control the lighting conditions under which you observe color on the monitor, and if you have the money for color calibration software, you might be the exception, and you might come closer than most people to actually matching your monitor colors to the final printed colors. You would also need the time to calibrate your monitor on a regular basis. Color management from monitor to ink-jet proofer to offset press is possible with today’s technology. I just wouldn’t advise it unless you have a lot of extra time and money.
Instead, choose color using printed ink samples. Pantone color swatch books can be purchased online, and in graphic design and art supply stores. Sometimes they can be obtained for free from your printer. Some of these books show you the Pantone colors (PMS colors) next to their closest process color match. And they will probably even show you the percentages of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black that you will need to convey to your printer to reproduce these colors.
To be safe, provide a printed sample showing the exact color you want. If it’s a PMS swatch or process match swatch, or if it’s just a printed sample you’d like to match, the safest way to communicate color is with a physical example of the color.
This is particularly appropriate if you are trying to match the colors in a corporate logo. In this case it would be a catastrophe if the colors on the printed sheet didn’t match your company’s chosen logo colors exactly. Therefore, your printer can take the samples provided and read them with a color spectrophotometer. This device will analyze the hue (rather than the density, which is what a densitometer reads) and break the color down into its component percentages of C, M, Y, and K. Your offset printer can then advise you as to the proper percentages to enter into your image editing, drawing, or page composition art files. Once you have updated your art files with this color information, they will yield the color builds you want and expect, and there should not be any surprises with the final printed job.
In addition, your printer may advise you to add one or two PMS colors and avoid a color build altogether. If your printer is using a six-color press to print your four-color job, and if the fidelity of the logo colors is crucial, your several hundred dollar expenditure (more or less) to add PMS inks to the two unused units on the press might be a wise allocation of funds. After all, color does vary a bit throughout a 4-color press run—unless you substitute PMS match inks for the crucial process color builds.
One final thing to remember is that a color spectrophotometer is expensive and not every printer has one. So ask first. But in general, your printer is your best ally in matching color, and presenting him with a printed sample you like makes his job much, much easier.
*[Steven Waxman is a printing consultant. He teaches corporations how to save money buying printing, sells printing services, and teaches prepress techniques. Steven has been in the industry for twenty-five years, working as a writer, editor, photographer, graphic designer, art director, production manager, and print buyer.]

Color Scheme Designer

ColorSchemeDesigner.com

Online application for creating color schemes, complete solution by Petr Staníček (Pixy)

Professional designer and developer, amateur musician and bardling, dropout typographer, happy father of two beautiful daughters, mathemagician, lazy linguistician, almost professional cook and about 6'5 tall fool. At your service.

Goethe Theory of Colours

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Goethe is considered by many to be the most important writer in the German language and one of the most important thinkers in Western culture as well. Early in his career, however, he wondered whether painting might not be his true vocation; late in his life, he expressed the expectation that he would ultimately be remembered above all for his work on colour.
Scanned copy of English translation as a Google book

Color Marketing Group

Color increases brand recognition by up to 80 percent.
Color improves readership as much as 40 percent.
Color accelerates learning from 55 to 78 percent.
Color increases comprehension by 73 percent.
Color ads are read up to 42 percent more than similar ads in black and white.
Color can be up to 85 percent of the reason people decide to buy.

The Profit of Color! (PDF)
How important is color to the bottom line?
Color experts from the Color Marketing Group share their success stories.

Color Marketing Group is the premier international association for color design professionals. Our mission is to create color forecast information for professionals who design and market color. We are "the" place for color info exchange.

Color Control Freak ’08 - Pantone Seminar

Sponsored by X-Rite, HP, Pantone, and Eizo, this one day interactive seminar exposes a new level of design freedom by unleashing color opportunity and building confidence in its reproduction. Miami, 3/18/2008, 9am - 5pm

Capture, Create, Calibrate, Communicate
Using a best practices approach, this educational session will show attendees how to control color in the design process using the latest technology and tools including advanced instrumentation, software, and applications specifically designed for color selection and sharing.

What You’ll Learn
# The latest tools and features to improve color selection and it’s usage in the design process
# Measurement device color selection
# Building influence with spot colors and their control
# Color accurate comps and proofs including soft proofing
# Proper color output – Confidence in screen to print matching
# Applying color management in Adobe CS2 & CS3

Form and Function

“Form follows function—that has been misunderstood. Form and function should be one, joined in a spiritual union.”
—Frank Lloyd Wright

"Natural Selections: Colors Found in Nature and Interface Design"
by Luke Wroblewski

"From complex web applications to informative “brochure-ware” sites, naturally occurring color combinations have the potential to distinguish (by helping create a more memorable website), guide (by allowing users to focus on interactions), engage (by making page layouts comfortable and more inviting), and inspire (by offering new ideas for color selection)."

Color trends

"Darius, founder and CEO of COLOURlovers™, said, 'Our site is edgy, revolutionary, and works from the bottom up, not from the top down. It represents a new way to think about color and design."
Read more about Colour Lovers

Rich Black

"There are many different possible ink combinations - the most common "rich black" contains percentages of all 4 inks: 63C, 52M, 51Y 100K."
Rich Black vs. Plain Black an article by Marvin Humphrey