Color Your Designs

Color is a very important aspect of our lives. It determines how we dress, how we decorate our homes and offices, and to a great extent, how we behave. Color has a strong influence on our emotions. It is basic to our language, and it is an instrument in teaching. It is a tool for expressing ideas.

Color can convey rage, excitement, sadness, happiness, despair, hope. Understanding the theory of color and its aesthetic value is very important in the effective design of your flower arrangements as well as in other areas of life.

Arranging flowers increases color perception. When you design a floral arrangement, you emphasize a particular hue to create a mood. Although color is only one element of the design, it sets the tone of the arrangement. Understanding the theory of color is important to achieving the design that you desire. There are four qualities of color to consider: proportion, balance, rhythm, and unity.

Proportion determines how much of a hue or color value is needed in the design. What proportion of each color should you use to create the most pleasing harmony? Normally, 65% of the media should be in the lighter hue, while 25% should be mid-value, and 10% should be in the darkest hue. For example: yellow, yellow-orange, and orange are used is an arrangement. Yellow should be 65%, yellow-orange should be 25%, and orange should be 10%.

Balance is achieved by placing colors in a combination that projects steadiness. Use the lighter colors on the outer edge, and grow darker as you work toward the center. Dark and bright hues appear to be heavier. Therefore, bright colors should be in the center and toward the bottom. This is the focal point of your arrangement, and this is the part that you see first.

Rhythm is the way in which a particular color is repeated to form a pattern. The pattern you choose may be strong and well-defined for emphasis, or it may be subtle and blend into the whole.

Unity defines how colors should be chosen for harmony. Too many different colors disrupt unity. Although some colors and forms must be repeated for rhythm, you do need some contrast. Be careful, though, to not have too much contrast, or you will have your colors competing with each other.

The Color Wheel

Familiarity of the color wheel is helpful in the use of colors to design a pleasing arrangement. The pigment theory is most appropriate for flower arrangement because it divides the color circle almost evenly between warm and cool hues.

The wheel is composed of three triangles-1) primary colors, which are red, blue, and yellow. These are the sources for all other colors. They cannot be made by mixing other colors. 2) secondary colors. Each hue is mixed equally with the next. Red and yellow make orange; blue and yellow make green; blue and red make violet.

These are called spectrum hues, and they are used to create the next set of colors. 3) tertiary or intermediate colors. They are blue-green, blue-violet, red-violet, red-orange, yellow-orange, and yellow-green. These hues make up color harmonies.

Harmonies are created when specific hues or a combination of values within the hues are grouped together. Values of violets, blues, and greens tending toward the blues are cool colors, and they are also called receding colors. Warm colors are red-violets, reds, oranges, yellows, and greens tending toward the yellows. They are also known as advancing colors.

An analogous scheme is made up of a range of colors in the color wheel on each side of the color you have chosen. These colors are probably the most popular because of their rhythmic flow of color and their familiar associations. For example: a composition of blue, green, and purple may suggest a scene of mountains against a blue sky, or one of red, yellow, and orange may suggest a roaring fire. These harmonies usually appeal to the conservative client.

A monochromatic harmony is about one single color and all of its shades, tints, and tones. A color can be modified by adding white, black, or gray. In order to understand a monochromatic harmony, you should know that hue is the name of a color. Value indicates lightness or darkness. This can be achieved by adding white or black to the hue. For example: black and blue would create navy, and white with violet would create lavender. Chroma refers to the intensity of the hue. This can be changed by adding gray. When we “tone down a color,” we are reducing its intensity.

Complementary schemes are created by contrasting colors. They are usually composed of colors directly across from one another on the color wheel, such as red and green. Because they are so different, they must be unified by the dominance of one of them.

Triads are made of three hues that are at equidistant points on the color wheel. These are composed of all primary colors, all secondary colors, or all tertiaries.

Moods of Flowers

We all know that colors create moods. Yellow suggests cowardice, caution, and ill-health. Green suggests freshness or envy. Black symbolizes dishonor, grief, and death. There are many others. In our flower arrangements, color becomes the medium of a message.

Be careful, not only of the suggestiveness of certain colors, but also be aware of the part that colors of flowers play in certain cultures. For example, if you are a florist in Germany, do not send a yellow flower arrangement to a mother with a new baby. Yellow flowers to a German means “I want you to die!” A German florist made that mistake once, and he was run out of the country and his business destroyed.