Industrial Design Blog

Color and Graphic Design

Posted by Michael Paloian on 26 June 2010 | 0 Comments

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When engineers and rotational molders refer to design they are typically thinking about how the part will be molded or how it will perform after it is manufactured. Their concerns are typically focused on part geometry, material properties and other technical parameters.

However most consumers and managers are usually influenced by how the product looks. The subtle engineering and complex performance issues usually go unnoticed and have little affect on customer satisfaction or their influence on purchasing. Color and graphics does have a major affect product identity, customer reaction and overall general impression.  

 

 

Color selection, surface finish and graphics can be as important to a product’s design as its performance. Bright primary colors such as red, yellow or blue for example will impart boldness, youthfulness and playfulness to a product. Subtle colors such as off whites, shades of grey, pastels and beige on the other hand will impart a more serious overtone to a product. Use of different colors within the same product will add still another dimension to the overall design and product identity. Eye catching product designs often make use of bright color highlights applied to key product areas. These sections are often defined by different parts that are distinguished by an interesting separating curve or sculpted form.  

Creating these color breaks requires a good sense of proportion and artistic skill. The proportion of the highlight color to overall main color must be carefully balanced so as to create a visual tension. Complementary colors will create more contrast and a more emphatic statement than harmonious colors. Interesting color combinations are also achieved when bright highlight colors are placed adjacent to somewhat neutral grays, blacks and off-whites. Examples of such color combinations are attained when a predominantly black product is highlighted with a small bright eye popping red part or section. A large cool light gray surface can be made interesting when a small section of a complimentary orange yellow or warm green is added to a minor detail.  

 

 

Color choices are often defined by four parameters: 

  1. Contrast of hue – is the defined by the undiluted color such as red, blue or yellow etc.
  2. Light-dark contrast- is defined by the color’s shade toward the white or black end of the grey scale.
  3. Cold-warm contrast – cold and warm tonal values are dependent upon the amount of blue or red added to a base pigment.
  4. Complimentary contrast – Complimentary colors are red and green, blue and orange and yellow and purple.

Fortunately color specification has been standardized and made universal to a great extent by referring to PMS colors published by Pantone. Although the Pantone color chart does not represent all the possible colors, it does simplify color specifications and mixtures by offering a color chart designated by numbers and letters.  

 

 

Additional interest is attained when graphics is applied to surfaces to enhance a shape, convey an impression or simply display important information. Great advancements in applying graphics to rotationally molded products have been made in the last twenty years by companies such as Mold in Graphics and others which offer a broad line of graphic materials. Product branding has become a very important part of many rotationally molded products as a result of these vast improvements in graphic technologies.  

This brief discussion of colors and graphics was shared with you as part of my ongoing effort to share the many factors associated with product design. Color and graphics should be thought of an integral part of product design. In addition to marketing benefits, color selection will affect molding, tolerances, safety and long term out door performance. Next time you select a color, remember its affect on the user and your product image.