Key question
How does colour work, and how do you ensure that everyone can read it?
Colour is perceived quickly and triggers associations. It guides the eye, organises information, and makes senders recognisable. For colour to communicate, it needs contrast and a code shared by the audience.
Learning objective: You will be able to select colours based on their effect and contrast, take cultural codes into account, and check the contrast ratio for accessible design.
Colour has an impact before you even read.
5.1 / How colour works
Colour has more than one control.
Every colour can be described by three properties, along with how they interact:
01
Shade
Red, blue or green: the shade shapes the first impression.
02
Brightness
Light colours appear light and airy, while dark colours feel heavy and serious.
03
Saturation
Rich colours feel loud and youthful, while desaturated shades seem calm and sophisticated.
04
Colour scheme
Warm or cold palettes set the overall mood of a piece of communication.
The effects of colour are tendencies and depend on the environment and culture. The Design Psychology course explores how we perceive colours in greater depth. It focuses on using colour purposefully as part of the message.
A colour never works alone.
5.2 / Contrasts and Codes
Contrast provides visibility, codes provide clarity.
Contrast guides the eye: light-dark contrast ensures legibility, complementary contrast creates tension, and warm-cool contrast adds depth. Josef Albers demonstrated that the very same colour looks different depending on its surroundings.
Colours are also culturally coded: in our culture, red signifies danger or love, whereas in China it represents good fortune. Industries have their own codes too, such as green for organic. You can either use these codes to your advantage or deliberately break them.
01
Light-dark
The most important contrast for legibility and distance impact.
02
Complementary contrast
Complementary colours like blue and orange create tension and energy.
03
Cultural codes
Colours carry learned meanings, depending on the culture and industry.
Without contrast, colour has no impact.
5.3 / Colour for everyone
Accessible means: readable for everyone.
Around 8% of men and 0.5% of women have a colour vision deficiency, many people have poorer eyesight, or read on their mobile phones in direct sunlight. The WCAG require a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text, and 3:1 for large text.
Information must never be conveyed through colour alone: complement it with text, shape or pattern. For public bodies and many digital services, accessibility is a legal requirement (under the Disability Discrimination Act in Switzerland, and the European Accessibility Act in the EU), and it improves design for everyone.
Measure contrast instead of guessing.
Exercise
A palette with attitude
Task: Develop a colour palette for Lichtspiel with primary, accent, and text colours.
STEP 1
Specify three terms to express the colours.
STEP 2
Choose a primary colour, an accent colour, and two neutral tones.
STEP 3
Check all text and background pairs in the contrast checker.
STEP 4
Test the palette in greyscale and on a poster design.
Evaluation: Which combinations achieve AA? Does the palette still suit the three terms?