Since we started hanging out on COLOURlovers, we talked about some colors more than others – the cultural identity of red, the appearance of blue in nature, an amazing combo of blue and yellow in many various examples. Today, we would like to explore our community’s opinion on vibrant colors, what a vibrant color is and how to make any color look more alive. In this article, we are looking at most vibrant colors and how to make the best out of them in real life.
The first lesson we learned within this research is that the vibrancy of colors depends a lot on the type of paint/ink we use. When using ink, we can get the vibrancy of each color if we make it fluorescent. Among fluorescent colors, the color that stands out by how easy it is to recognize and spot, is most certainly orange, right next to canary yellow. The vibrancy of the colors gets increased by the UV part of the light, and in addition, you can combine it with black, or a complementary color.
On the other hand, if you take yellow or orange as a background, that would increase the vibrancy of other fluorescent colors – lime green, blue or pink. This combination of colors for increased vibrancy effects is telling us that the vibrancy isn’t about the color itself, but mainly about how we perceive a certain image. An optical illusion is using this effect frequently, as the vibrancy of every color can be much higher than usual if they are at their maximum vividness (highest chroma form), combined with their complementary color.
Besides orange and yellow, a very interesting combination of colors is red with a green background. This composition creates a visual effect of the red object vibrating on a green screen, which confuses eye nerves that are reading this information.
Additional vibrancy effect can be achieved if we use the right composition of the objects in a design. If we lay red strips next to the green ones, the effect of vibrating image will be even stronger. Same goes for fluorescent color strips in between the strips of its complementary color.
Along with understanding the visual opacity and vividness of a color, to provide this striking impulse in an eye of a viewer we should also keep into consideration the right combination of colors and presence of UV / daylight in the image presentation. Even though this interesting phenomenon is often used in the optical art, it can be a valuable tool in adds (online, billboards, posters) design for attracting your audience.
What is your experience with vibrant colors? Do you have a favorite one? Tell us in the comment section below.
About the author:
Nina Petrov is an activist, poet, performer and mathematician. She communicates with the world mostly through words, movement and equations, but sometimes also by speaking very loudly. The only truth she could say about herself is that she keeps changing every day, never stops learning and interacting with her surroundings.
