Colour harmonics

The secret of a colour harmony is demonstrated in the palettes of many well known paintings in which, generally speaking, chromatic harmony results from the simplicity of the constituent colour scheme.

Often likened to musical orchestration, the harmonious arrangement of colour has preoccupied artists and designers throughout the ages. However, as many famous paintings demonstrate, the secret of a successful colour scheme lies in chromatic simplicity. The temptation to use too much colour often results in discordant or negative colour schemes.

There are three types of colour harmony; identity, similarity, and contrast.

Research into the aesthetics of colour proposes three kinds of unambiguous harmony: 'identity', 'similarity', and 'contrast'.

An 'identity harmony' basically draws from colours derived from a single hue which, when combined, are generally found to be harmonious.

An 'identity harmony' uses colours of the same or nearly the same hue. The most basic identity harmony is one composed of a single colour, that is, a monochromatic harmony. In this method of combining colours, a series of colours all derived from the same hue are generally found to be harmonious when put together.

A 'similarity harmony' is achieved when using a 'family' of hues, such as yellows, yellow-greens and greens, which occur adjacent to each other on the colour circle.

A 'similarity harmony' combines colours linked by a shared hue; for example, yellow, yellow-green and green, or blue, blue-red and red. Sometimes called an 'analogous harmony', similarity harmony draws from small 'family' groups of adjacent hues on the colour circle.

A 'contrast harmony' combines a similarity or analogous harmony with an accent or complementary colour, that is, colours found immediately opposite the region of the similarity harmony on the colour circle.

A 'contrast harmony' is a much more adventurous kind of colour combination involving a similarity harmony for use on large areas of a building and an accent range for use on smaller architectural features. The visual excitement of a contrast harmony is achieved by selecting complementary accent colours, that is, hues found diametrically opposite the region of the colour circle occupied by the similarity harmony. The basis of this harmonic colour relationship stems from the combination of warm and cool colours derived from the three complementary pigment pairs: red/green, yellow/violet, and blue/orange.