Juicy Triad

Here we see a triad colour combination of the secondary colours—purple, green and orange—in the Jugo Juice logo. This is a vibrant triad, and I think it’s a good colour scheme for a juice company—the secondary colours really call to mind healthy fruits and vegetables: plums, grapes, carrots, lettuce, spinach, eggplant, beets, etc . . .

Aside from berries, primary colours don’t really suggest natural foods in this manner. While you can find primary colour triad schemes all over the place, this one seemed pretty rare to me . . . until I spotted it used three times within one week! Also on this book about colour combinations, and on the umbrellas in this window display at Esprit.

One of these things is not like the other

A random selection of yearly encyclopedias from the same publisher: it looks like there were some cuts to the budget after 1967, as we move from an unusual mix of colours to a monochromatic colour scheme . . . 2-colour printing is a lot cheaper.

Hot and cold

This American Eagle golf shirt is another example of warm and cool contrast—warm tones of red-violet punctuated by a stripe of cool light blue-green. The stripe is such a break from the other tones that your eye immediately goes to it and the cool hue has a sort of soothing effect. Also an example of contrast of proportion: the blue colour wouldn’t be nearly so interesting if it were used throughout the shirt.

Complementary friends

Here’s my first attempt at converting a photograph into a swatch palette, using a photo of some friends. Boots and bag, hair and mittens, jacket and T-shirt, shoes and lichen—I didn’t realize at the time how many complementary combinations of different chromas of red and green were going on that day.

Northern Exposure

These DVD covers use simple complementary colour combinations in their design. What better than bright, saturated colours and vivid contrasts to stand out against the snowy Alaskan wilderness in which the show is set.

Subterranean Homesick Violets

This book cover shows an example of warm and cool contrast. The warm red-violet hue of Dylan seems to be coming forward out of the cool violet and blue background. There are also some discords going on, with the lighter violet against the darker blue, and even the darker red-violet against the light violet. The result creates a jarring effect for this “Icons of Pop Music” series that echoes Andy Warhol’s iconic pop culture silkscreens.