A SENIOR THESIS:
THE ART OF COLOR SCHEMES
A COFFEE TABLE BOOK OF THE COLORFUL WORLD SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF A TETRACHROMAT
The Art of Color Schemes is a body of work that explores the relationship between people, places, and things with color and art. This book captures the beauty of these everyday things in a new light. Throughout The Art of Color Schemes, I found I could say things by capturing color I couldn't say in any other way.
In life we often act as chameleons, we take our favorite hue and color schemes and surround ourselves with them. We do this by styling our clothes or decorating our homes in a certain way.
Overall this book is a collection of photographs taken by myself and a few close friends. These photographs illustrate the colorful way we see life.
So take this Gum Wall for instance. Many of you may see red or gum pushed on a wall and simply walk by.
I see the Pantone colors that make up the wall. This may be because I am an artist, have a short attention span, or even a curious mind. Or it may be because of a genetic mutation called Trichromacy.
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Trichromacy is what happens when you are born with four cones in your eyes, this allows you to see up to 1 million colors. There are no tests to determine if you are a tetrachromat, however, if you are female, have light (normally blue) eyes, have a father or grandfather who is colorblind, and feel that you are constantly distracted by the colors around you, you are probably a tetrachromat.
That is why something as simple as eating breakfast or going to the market can make me overwhelmed with color.
I choose to put my color schemes in a coffee table book and postcards for a specific purpose. A coffee table book's purpose is to 1. Look pretty on the table and 2. It is supposed to entertain guests and start conversations. Postcards are the letter equivalent of coffee table books.
You'll notice that my postcards are different though, there is no space to write a message. I want you to take a card of your favorite color scheme, keeping this memento of the book will allow you to keep in mind the color that are close to you heart. So feel free to take one to remind yourself of the colors around you.
So let us talk for a moment about the inspiration behind my dust jacks. It is very much influenced by Pantone colors. Pantene is the best-known company for matching colors amongst artists. Pantene helps in many industries with
printing such as colored paint, fabric, and plastics.
The colors inside my book, their names and numbers are very real. You can look them up and find the color if you fall in love with one and want to paint a room with it. However, the colors on my dust jacket are very much made up. I took my favorite tones and colors and tried to make the numbers cohesive (all the pinks start with 14).
The names come from things in my life or just fun names I always thought would make a good color. I love the fall and fall foods, that is where yam and pumpkin pie comes from. My childhood house was in a neighborhood name concord vineyards so that's where "Frosted Grape" and "Concord" came about.
Paul Klee once said, "Color possesses me. I don't have to pursue it. It will possess me always, I know it." I hope The Art of Color Schemes makes you see the world how I see it. I hope you too are soon possessed by the rich color schemes of life.