This is topic Popping your colors! (OT) in forum Old Archives at The Letterville BullBoard.


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Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
 
How do you go about choosing color to make your layouts "POP"?

(Hope nobody gets ticked at me for another off topic post...please, try to refrain from nasty emails....signs ARE off topic? right?)

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Don Coplen aka "SaintPete"
Coplen Designs
St.Petersburg, FL dcoplen@mindspring.com



 

Posted by Glenn Taylor (Member # 162) on :
 
Dang.....and all this time I thought OT meant On Topic! hehehe

As too your question, I have no idea how I go about doing it. For me, its more of "when it looks right, it is right."

Of course, thumbing through SignCraft to "borrow" ideas helps too.

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Warning: A well designed sign may cause fatigue due to increased business.
http://members.tripod.com/taylor_graphics
walldog@nc.rr.com



 

Posted by Doug Downey (Member # 829) on :
 
I start by choosing colours for whatever the jobs suits...first pick your background colour then use a contrasting colour for your type ....the secondary copy should be in between and not competing for attention with the main copy.here are a couple of examples http://www.freshink.net/colour1.html

Doug

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Freshink Creative Design Group
376 Romeo, Street
Stratford, ON N5A 4T9
 

Posted by Ken Henry (Member # 598) on :
 
Hello Don. Answer in a nutshell: Use contrast, just like you were working in black & white or in Greyscale. If you have the capability in your design program, take a look at the layout you're working on in the greyscale range. If the necessary level of contrast isn't there,it will be very apparent. What I find useful is to use a greyscale chart in a range of 10 gradients from black to white. Punch a hole in the centre of each grey tone, and overlay that greyscale on the color that you're intending to use. That will give you the "tonal value" for that color. If you attempt to use that particular color, whatever it might be, on a background of identical or close tonal value, there will not be sufficient contrast to make the colors "pop".

You can compensate when this situation presents itself, by using a panel, or an outline, or outline/shade that HAS a more distant tonal value to your intended color. In this way, your eye sees the contrasting tonal relationship between the outline, outline/shade, or panel, and the color that you've chosen to use.

Broadcasters used to always run into this problem back in the days of black & white TV. They'd arrive dressed to the nines at the TV studio, in outfits that had little , if any contrast. The end result was that they tended to look very bland & non-descript on camera. Conversly, those who used too much contrasting values gave off a "Moire Pattern" on camera. Houndstooth patterns will often give this illusion...even on color broadcasts.

In short, get to know the approximate tonal values of the colors that you routinely use, and use the highest degree of tonal separation between colors. That'll go a long way toward getting some "pop" into your color combinations.

Hope this helps.

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Ken Henry
Henry & Henry Signs
London, Ontario Canada
(519) 439-1881
e-mail kjmlhenry@home.

Some days you get to be the dog....other days, you get to be the fire hydrant.

 

Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
 
Thanks Ken, that's the kind of response I was hoping for. I've always been like Glenn in his post here...I know it when I see it...but was hoping there were more dependable ways of getting that great look I'm after.

In this age of computer designing , it's probably easier to check a layout in black in white, simply by turning the layout to grayscale.

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Don Coplen aka "SaintPete"
Coplen Designs
St.Petersburg, FL dcoplen@mindspring.com



 

Posted by Stephen Deveau (Member # 1305) on :
 
Don
How is this off Topic as its Sign related.

Colours are the things we like to teach our customers if they don't work for them!

I myself will try to give samples of their choice and then samples of mine.
You know! We know! and Everyone knows! dark on dark doesn't work.
Dark Brown and Purple (I don't think it a mix!)
White Truck with Silver lettering (No dark outline).
Dark Truck with Deep Blue lettering (No light outline).
I myself work with the 1,2,3 Principal.
1 Solid Colour
2 Copy Colour
3 Secondary Colour

Type style:
1 Who am I!
2 Were am I!
3 How do you get ahold of me!

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Raven/2001
Airbrushed by Raven
Lower Sackville N.S.
deveausdiscovery@sprint.ca


 

Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
 
Stephen,

Seems alot of people think of this board as a politics and religion forum...hence the off topic sign question.

Partly bein a smarta**, mostly just the way it is IMHO. (And I'll be the first to admit that I jump into some of those controversial posts as often as the next guy.) Nothing particularly against the off topic stuff, just some of the replies have gotten vicious and hateful lately, which I believe harms the Letterhead movement. I know that I, for one, am less likely to share what I've learned over the years with someone who has verbally attacked me or my beliefs on this board...and I'm very unlikely to ask for their advice too.

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Don Coplen aka "SaintPete"
Coplen Designs
St.Petersburg, FL dcoplen@mindspring.com


[This message has been edited by Don Coplen (edited May 14, 2001).]
 

Posted by Mark Fair Signs (Member # 289) on :
 
let it go don.


mark

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Mark Fair

Mark Fair Signs
http://www.markfair.com

Home of "Sign of the Month
http://www.markfair.com/signomonth.html

2162 Mt. Meigs Road
Montgomery, Alabama 36107
334-262-4449

mark@markfair.com



 

Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :
 
Which part of my statement do you disagree with? Just curious.

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Don Coplen aka "SaintPete"
Coplen Designs
St.Petersburg, FL dcoplen@mindspring.com



 

Posted by Mark Fair Signs (Member # 289) on :
 
don,
what i meant by... "let it go" was...
things said on the web are easily miscontrued.
i sent don an e-mail apologizing for my "foot in the mouth " post.
this is not a good forum for me and i just now realized it.

and i say publicly, i am sorry.

i will not attend pat's meet even though i know it will be a great one!

it seems i have offended a lot of folks.

but let one thing be made clear...
i love this craft, it is all i know.

another letterhead,


mark

------------------
Mark Fair

Mark Fair Signs
http://www.markfair.com

Home of "Sign of the Month
http://www.markfair.com/signomonth.html

2162 Mt. Meigs Road
Montgomery, Alabama 36107
334-262-4449

mark@markfair.com



 

Posted by David Fisher (Member # 107) on :
 
Gday Don,
This is personal preference only.
I like to stay away from the "assumed" colours for a business.
For instance landscape maintenance businesses are green right"
I mean its obvious if you have a business like that you want to have a green sign/trailer like everyone has because thats the colour for that industry?
The most recent layout I did for this business is using a deep plum background and the guy loves it because (along with the rest of the design of course)it sets him apart from the others.
As for the rest of the colours on the design I'm on a split complimentry binge at the moment, go to the oposite side of the colour wheel from the base colour and take one step sideways either side of the oposing colour.
With competition being vicious I think just taking a step out of the normal mindset can make a layout "pop".
David

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David Fisher
D.A. & P.M. Fisher Signwriting
Brisbane Australia
[email] da_pmf@yahoo.com [/email]
aka Bloke-

[This message has been edited by David Fisher (edited May 15, 2001).]
 

Posted by Mark Fair Signs (Member # 289) on :
 
in answer to your original question...

i like earth colors...
burgundy on a putty background or vice versa.

------------------
Mark Fair

Mark Fair Signs
http://www.markfair.com

Home of "Sign of the Month
http://www.markfair.com/signomonth.html

2162 Mt. Meigs Road
Montgomery, Alabama 36107
334-262-4449

mark@markfair.com



 

Posted by Arvil Shep' Shepherd (Member # 2030) on :
 
Don, I am from the (OLD SCHOOL) and I was taught.....1.Layout
2. Color Combination
3. Quality of lettering..(This was before computers,when every thing was done by hand)
And as far as POP...the layout has a lot to do with this.. as well as color contrast... Shep'
http://artbyshep.homestead.com/index.html

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Arvil Shep' Shepherd
Art by Shep
Oak Island, NC
shep@ec.rr.com
http://artbyshep.homestead.com/index.html
 

Posted by LazyEdna (Member # 266) on :
 
Color theory, it WORKS!
LE

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LazyEdna
in RL known as Sara Straw
from southern Utah
5 National Parks within 3 hours drive
Red Rock Heaven


 

Posted by cheryl nordby (Member # 1100) on :
 
Most of my signs have the company logo on them. So I kinda have to stick with the customers logo color....and what's complimentary to that. (coldwell banker blue.....I use tomato red and sky blue accents) Or if they don't want a 'popper'...I add gold.

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surf or MoJo on mirc
Cheryl J Nordby
Signs by Cheryl
(206) 300-0153
Seattle WA.....!
signsbycheryl@hotmail.com
A day without sunshine is like, you know...night http://signsbycheryl.homestead.com/home.html
http://mojosignco.homestead.com/home.html

From sharp minds come sharp products


 

Posted by Tony Potter (Member # 1199) on :
 

Another good reference whether it be in design, sign, , painting or web, is a book you can get at your local book store. They are called Color Combination books in the design area.

Basically they are full of good 2, 3 and 4 color combinations that work great together. they have CMYK values for computer users but you can just use them for general look and feel stuff as well.

But good and bad color choices can ruin a very nice design.... and visa versa... =)

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--If you don't care where you are, you ain't lost.

Tony Potter
Blind Mice and Company
285 38th St Dr SE, #3
Cedar Rapids, IA 52403
(319) 573-9001
www.blindmiceandcompany.com
tonypotter@yahoo.com


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