This week we’re exploring the changes in mood and perception that can be produced simply by the ‘temperature’ of the colours you choose to use. As you can see above, the colour wheel can be split pretty well down the middle into warm and cool colours. Warm colours are created from red hues (red/orange/yellow). They are vivid and energetic, have a visual effect of appearing closer to the view and usually create a sense of warmth.
Cool colours are created from blue hues (blue/cyan/green). In contrast they recede from the viewer and are known to have a calming effect.
With this post, we are thrilled to announce a new design team member to Aussie Scrap Source - Sally Wilson! We look forward to sharing with you more of her beautiful, elegant style.
Here, Sally has followed a simple page map of colour blocking, sprinkled with a small selection of intricately detailed embellishments. Her layout illustrates a simplistic example of both warm and cool colours from the My Minds Eye Portobello Road Collection which combine to create perfect harmony and balance. Though the colour palette is still muted, the balance of the warm browns and cool teals are clear.
My Minds Eye-Portobello Road Collection have cleverly achieved a very calming and elegant effect by mixing different tones of complementary greens and browns. Traditionally greens are recognised as part of the cool colour family as brown as part of the warm colours family. However in this collection, the colour selections have both a warm and cool bias for both the browns and the green sheets, making it harmonious to mix and compliment products. Sally especially loves the Designer pad in this Collection. They are terrific for simple colour blocking and making those extra embellishments, such as labels, journal tags and paper flowers, as shown above.
Making embellishments out of the pad sheets assures you will have the perfect partnership of colour and style for adding dimension and interest, enhancing the creative process.
Sally has gone outside the box and not only used a complementing manufacturer’s stickers but also their company logo printed on the sticker sheet and re-birth it as a sticker embellishment. A perfect match for her "Authentique" and original photo. A keen eye finds it's all in the details and knows no waste!
Sometimes using complimentary hues and tones to colour block can create what designers call a flat look. To demote a flat look, add a small amount of dimension and compact your embellishments to a central area on your project. Here Sally has raised a covered chipboard shape and used this location to layer her embellishments, taking the eyes attention away from a flat platform.
Based on the colour wheel at the beginning of the post, there are ‘warmer’ variations of both purple and green, and so Suz was able to include almost all of the spectrum in her layout above which technically showcases the warmer colours – reds, oranges and yellows.
The pop of blue in both the bunny ears in the photo and her journalling strip are definitely on the cool side, but work well to balance the layout.
It wasn't difficult for Louise W to create a layout based on a cool palette - blues and greens are her obvious "go to" colours with having two boys! By adding touches of the third cooling colour on the colour wheel, purple, she was able to add a pop of colour that still tied in with the cool theme of the page.
