Color Image Scale Book Review

I wanted to share a few thoughts about a great book called the Color Image Scale by Shigenobu Kobayashi, published by Kodansha International.

Have you ever visited the Adobe Kuler web site? Using a set of principles one can easily find a key set of color combinations that can work for virtually any design project. The interesting crossover between Kuler and the work of the Nipon Color and Design Research Institute is found in the community aspect of Kuler, which allows for color combinations to be named and searchable. But there are a few key differences in color combo naming.

On Kuler, the author names his combination and submits that swatch combo to the community.  Then someone like myself goes on the site and searches for combinations based on a keyword.  Take for example the term “brave.” While most of the color swatch combos would look fairly good as a camouflage pattern, there are a number that reflect someone else’s idea of the term.  The community then votes for the combos that they prefer and the best rise to the top. In this approach the community decides what combinations work best for the term (or terms) used.  On the downside, a color combo might get great votes simply because they are a great combo, but that might have nothing to do with the name of the swatch set.

In the book Color Image Scale, Kobayashi and his team researched over 130 different colors in thousands of combinations for three years, in hopes to scientifically find the most intuitive combinations of color which can be more universally defined using common terms. The book contains pages of color combinations with an index to terms and the color combos for which they are associated.

As a designer I can see the value in both resources.  I believe in and prefer the idea that many colors can be scientifically associated with mood, atmosphere and terminology. I agree that there is definitely a psychology behind color usage.  But at the same time I think color associative terminology is a moving target and that is where Adobe Kuler saves the day.