Learn Colour Basics

Colour plays a vital role in our lives, and connects us to the wonder and beauty of the world around us. But what exactly is colour? Let’s explore the colours around us and find out!

THE COLOUR LITERACY CORNERSTONES

Colour plays an important role in many aspects of our lives. We can examine it through the different lenses of science, industry, art and design, psychology, culture, and history. In order to paint the big picture, the Colour Literacy Project team has identified four cornerstones as the foundational building blocks of 21st colour education: Experiencing Colours, Perceiving Colours, Describing Colours, Working with Colours.

Colour Basics

The Colour Literacy Project aims to re-frame colour education to align with 21st century challenges and opportunities. From this updated perspective, we start with seeing, noticing and describing all the variations of colours around us. As we build our visual vocabulary, and become attuned to all the colours that surround us, we create a strong foundation for our colour journey.

Our Colour Fundamentals pages introduce key ideas about the important role of colour in our lives and how we see, describe and work with colours.

Our Common Misconceptions pages describe many common misconceptions about colour. Our knowledge about colour is constantly evolving. Due to a lack of awareness of current colour research, or an oversimplified view of colour, several common misconceptions about colour have not yet been updated  (like the dominant idea that red, yellow and blue are ‘the primary colours’, or that there are ‘only’ seven colours in the rainbow).

Our pages include several straightforward exercises for you to do, which will help deepen your experience with colour. Beginning colour studies with the way we experience colour in our daily lives is another important goal of our project.

These pages are a work in progress, and more topics/pages will be posted soon. If you have any comments about this Colour Basics section, please reach out to us using the CONTACT link at the bottom of each page.

To find our more about the Colour Literacy Project’s philosophy and approach, please read our tenets.