5: Colours and Light

The Design TTAStelier With Chrys Teo

TRANSCRIPT FOR EP5
Welcome to design@ttastelier
Hi Im Chrys and in my previous episodes I talked about not just looking but See, and Seeing is not enough, you have to also Feel. All these processes allow us to know ourselves better and in return we will become more sensitive to the things in nature and the built environments around us.

Our natural environment is a huge wealth of information and knowledge for our visual library in our mind, to learn, to absorb, to use, and also to return eventually with our own understanding and creations. One of the most obvious thing around us that we always look but did not see, is colours. No one is to blame, we simply take it for granted…or should I say, we blend into the environment so comfortably that we do not realise it anymore. Be it up in the sky, on land or deep in the ocean, there are abundance of colours everywhere the minute we open our eyes, we see it all from nature and its living things creations. These all seem to fall in place perfectly, as if the way it should be presented, to look comfortably soothing, or to look challenging hostile, their colours present to our eyes in their very own way and how we actually react to these colours with our senses unknowingly in our very own way, it is as if our reactions to the colours are inborn. Or is it not? It is true that we get annoyed easier when in a red environment, we get sleepy in a pastel baby blue setting, or we get get excited and happy when enter a garden with a big range of flowers in all mix of different but somehow matching Colours. Colours is beautiful. Colours in Design will affect the mood of feeling of spaces. Colours will make you feel differently. Colour is very interesting.

So how do we effectively use colours and create our own spaces using them correctly? I always say there’s 2 obvious and easy ways – look for a colour coordination book from the paint shop, or simply just look at animals or insects from the nature!
Two very commonly heard about term are Complementing colours and Contrasting Colours. Now im not going to dwell into the technicalities of the colour wheel and the red-green-blue of colours mixing techniques and so on, but instead I would just go with something simple – your natural senses. We are actually all very sensitive to colours, we grew up with it around us, subconsciously. From the toys that we play to the food that we eat and the clothes that we wear, the traffic lights, the sky and clouds, the plants and the insects…there are so many things that we can find all around us, day in day out. But as we grow up, we didn’t realise we know colours combination, unknowingly. Of course some will be better at colour coordination than others, but that does not mean you do not know about colours or cannot handle them at all. It just means you have to be re-introduced again. And this time, interestingly, it doesn’t come to you as a colour, instead it comes to you as a feel.
Now, how do you feel towards this red room, or this blue curtains or this beige chair? How do you react towards these colours matters, because it will determine how you will accept or reject these colours as they will affect your mood and feeling! Now do you see all these terms that we have mentioned in the previous episodes are all coming back together to form something in design? Yes it is all related, it all falls into place and then a good design will be created. See the colours, then feel the colours.

What leads next whenever Talking about colours will definitely be on lighting, because in order to see we obviously need lights. Colours and Light are like a full circle I said before, you cant do without the other half. So lights play just as an important part to bring out the best of colours, the beauty of colours. However, lighting is often the neglected factor in designing, or some chose to do it towards the end of the designing phase. In worst scenario, lighting is even the forgotten part of the design process, leading to only simple general lighting to so-call light-up the space only, pure utilitarian. The mood and feeling that is created and designed cannot be brought to justice, just because the lighting aspect ruins the finishing touches to the entire design. It will be very disappointing indeed. So I have to emphasise that whenever colours are touched on during the design process, lighting needs to be considered at the very instant together. It is only then, will the outcome be complete. Then of course we will lead on the next stage on the types of lighting and light-design selections, distances, positionings and quantities required, which will be again technicalities that could take more than an hour to simply achieve the ideal outcome and outlook of the spaces. So as you can see by now, colours and lighting should never be neglected, it is also an important part to the many other stages of the design process.

I hope by sharing my thoughts on the above will set you thinking differently towards Colours and Light and gives you the confidence and even excitement when dealing with colours, that’s like I said, already all around us. So there you go again, see more, feel more and get inspired as im sure by now you would have become more sensitive of yourself and your environments. Enjoy and be part of the Design process, it is a happy one.

Connect with me at chrysteo.com, c h r y s t e o dot com
I look forward to seeing you in my next episode where I will be sharing with you more on my thoughts, about all things design around us that matters, seeing beyond.