Interaction of Color - Recollection and Reading

Some notes from the first 3 Chapters of the book Interaction of Color.

Introduction

In order to user color effectively it is necessary to recognize that color deceives continually.

Just as the knowledge of acoustics does not make one musical - neither on the productive nor on the appreciative side - so no color system by itself can develop ones sensitivity for color. This is parallel to the recognition that no theory of composition by itself leads to the production of music, or of art.

1 Color recollection - visual memory

If one says “Red” (the name of a color) and there are 50 people listening, it can be expected that there will be 50 reds in their minds. And one can be sure that all these reds will be very different.

[…], it is hard, if not impossible, to remember distinct colors. This underscores the important fact that the visual memory is very poor in comparison with our auditory memory. Often the latter is able to repeat a melody heard only once or twice.

2 Color reading and contexture

The concept that “the simpler the form of a letter the simpler its reading was an obsession of beginning constructivism. […] This notion has proved to be wrong, because in reading we do not read letters but words, words as a whole, as a “word picture”.

Our study of color differs fundamentally from a study which anatomically dissects colorants (pigments) and physical qualities (wave lengths).

Our concern is the interaction of color; that is, seeing what happens between colors.