COLOUR WHEEL

The colour wheel was designed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666. It is a visual representation of colours arranged according to their chromatic relationship. The colour wheel is designed so that virtually any colours you pick from it will look good together.  Colours with fixed relations in the colour wheel are called colour harmonies or colour chords. These colours combined are considered to be particularly visually pleasing. These colours are opposite to each other in the colour wheel, such as red and green. These colours together create a vibrant look and make something extremely stand out. However on a magazine this should be carefully taken into consideration and not used for text otherwise it can make the colour scheme look too over powering or unprofessional. The colour wheel is split into two; cool and warm shades. The left is a variety of cool shades such as blue which connotes calmness and relaxation. The right consits of warm shades such as red which connote power, fire and energy. Analogous colour schemes consist of colours directly next to each other in the wheel e.g. purple, red and orange. On a front cover an average of three colours are used which usually contrast well and a from an analogous colour scheme. The first colour should be the most dominating, the second should be similar to the first but support it and third as an accent alongside a black, white or grey shade.