A Study of Contrasting Colors in the RGB Colorspace
Contrasting colors–whether in the Munsell Color System or in the traditional painter’s subtractive color practice–play with each other in a variety of interesting ways. These pairs of colors push and pull each other to visual extremes. In theory, these perfect opposites combine to a neutral gray, the ultimate cancellation of each of the original hues. With the slightest shifts of tint, tone, or shade, the colors that were once stationary can vibrate before your eyes, too.
Taking a quote from Gustave Flaubert that speaks to opposites in life as balancing forces in our creative journey, I mocked up the design of type-poster that I would iterate upon with different contrasting colors. In this original color mapping, the “contrasting colors” are white and black. Gray in theory will stay the same from each piece. Then, I chose a mix of color complements to play with hue for three iteration of the design.
Classic Complementary Colors – Blue to Orange
Secondary Complementary Colors – Red Purple to Yellow Green
Munsell Complementary Color – Blue Purple to Yellow
NOTE: The hues are identified here by their Munsell code, however not all of these combinations are Munsell complements.
For each color complement set, I started by picking the closest full-saturation hues to each color. I looked at physical and digital colors wheels for reference. I then blended these two colors together, trying to find the perfect neutral gray in the middle. I then discovered this elusive gray is rather hard to obtain in practice, but the logic behind the theory still stands. All the different color systems (the RGB of the computer screen, the visual perception between my brain and eye, Munsell space vs. traditional additive color theory) quite literally make the pursuit of this tone rather murky. Satisfyingly enough, what appears to be a neutral taupe that all the complementary colors mix too is still consistent, so the theory holds true to an extent. This color can be seen on the bottom color block of each design.
Each of these design play with perception and have fun little discoveries in the details of the hues. In manipulating the colors, the blue/orange seemed to vibrate the most. The shades of yellow are the hardest of the shades for the eye to distinguish, even though they are as equally shaded as the variants of the hues in the other designs. The tint of the Red Purple leans very pink; I believe that contrast is the strongest (but it’s my favorite complimentary color combination, so I may be biased.)
All in all, there was a lot of discovery in this process. I believe I learned more from the iteration than the final designs themselves.