Using Colour

Client: Lesley Spencer Design: Segura Inc. Colour overview: Four-colour poster print

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Using Colour Colour can be used in many different ways within a design. It can highlight specific information that might otherwise have been lost; it can draw attention; it can make the viewer feel compassion, love or hate; it can suggest femininity or masculinity and it can provide a cultural key to interpret and receive information. Colour presents the designer with limitless opportunities. The use of colour within a design will usually require careful planning. Printed publications are usually produced in eight- or 16-page sections. If a publication does not print with four colours, any colour fall or usage will normally be restricted to certain sections in order to minimise costs. Use of an imposition plan will help a designer to determine the colour fall and placement of special colours or varnishes within a printed publication. There are several different methods of colour detailing that a designer can use to enhance a piece of work. These range from the use of surprints, overprints, tints and special colours, to the use of different paper stocks and print-finishing techniques such as foil stamping or fore-edge printing. This section looks at the ways in which colour can be used effectively within a design.

Authentic Flavors (left) This poster, designed by Segura Inc. for Lesley Spencer and the Latin Chamber Pop Ensemble, uses a rainbow of translucent colours that rise and form into an ice-cream cone shape, which serves as a visual metaphor to represent the flavours of the music.

Imposition

Imposition Imposition is a term that is used to describe the arrangement of pages in the sequence and position in which they will appear when printed before being cut, folded and trimmed. With the addition of colour coding, the imposition plan is used to determine the placement of the colour fall and the use of different paper stocks or varnishes.
For reasons of economy, a special colour is not usually printed in all sections of a publication unless it is instrumental to the design. The number of sections that a special colour will print is often minimised in order to keep production costs down. Planning the colour fall allows the designer to locate those pages that need to print with a special colour in order to enhance the design, and keep them in the right section. The imposition plan also allows the designer to maximise the usage of special colours in a given section by using them on pages other than those originally intended because the colour is available for use. For example, a publication that prints in 16-page sections, and has the budget to use a special colour on one page, can use that colour on the sections remaining pages at a diminishing additional cost. Imposition and colour planning is less critical with a job that uses the same number of colours throughout, because every page prints with the same colour(s), and as such there are no economies to be made.

Colour Using Colour

Pagination Pagination refers to the arrangement and numbering of pages in a publication.

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Using an imposition plan The diagram below illustrates how this volume has been paginated using four different paper stocks to create variation in colour reproduction and tactile qualities.
1 17 33 49 65 81 97 2 18 34 50 66 82 98 3 19 35 51 67 83 4 20 36 52 68 84 5 21 37 53 69 85 6 22 38 54 70 86 7 23 39 55 71 87 8 24 40 56 72 88 9 25 41 57 73 89 10 26 42 58 74 90 11 27 43 59 75 91 12 28 44 60 76 92 13 29 45 61 77 93 14 30 46 62 78 94 15 31 47 63 79 95 16 32 48 64 80 96

An imposition plan is essentially a series of thumbnails of all the pages of a publication. It shows how the book is laid out and allows the designer to make decisions about colour fall, paper stocks and so on.

99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112

113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176

This imposition plan shows that eight different pages (highlighted green), print with Pantone 802; notice that the use of this special colour has been kept within a single section. The fourth section (highlighted blue), prints on a gloss-paper stock, while the fifth section (highlighted orange), prints on an uncoated-paper stock. The last section prints on Kraft paper. This page has been printed on the gloss stock, which gives colours that are more vibrant than those reproduced on uncoated stock.
The change in paper stocks within this book means that pages 64 and 65 have very different print qualities. The colours on the gloss stock (page 64), appear brighter compared to the muted tones that are visible on the uncoated stock (page 65). It is worth remembering the effect that the selection of product. Colour Imposition paper stock will have on the final

Client: ModoVanGelder Design: Solar Initiative Colour overview: Red and green special colours incorporated in a monotone publication

Colour Using Colour

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The nine sections of ModoVanGelders publication have a number of colour treatments. Section one is printed in black on a white stock (top left); section two prints in black on a cream stock, and silver is overprinted on the black (top right); section three prints in black on a white matt-paper stock; section four prints in red and black with a series of overprints (bottom left); section five prints in two-colours with an additional varnish coating; section six prints with a series of blacks; section seven prints with a fluorescent green special colour (bottom right); section eight contains a series of silk-screen prints; and finally, section nine again prints in black on a white stock.

ModoVanGelder This book was created by Solar Initiative design studio for Dutch paper company ModoVanGelder. Focusing on the power of simplicity, it looks at a variety of printing possibilities. Each of the nine eight-page sections of the book uses different paper stocks and printing techniques, but retains a two-tone colour scheme throughout: black and one other colour or lacquer. The restriction of colour usage simplifies the presentation, which allows the various treatments to take prominence.
Monotone A single colour that is applied to an image, individual sections or an entire publication. Use of a monotone can provide an interesting visual dynamic or can create a dull, repetitive feel. Colour Imposition

Client: Fundaci GalaSalvador Dali Design: Bis Colour overview: Mixed paper stocks and random colour imposition creates an eclectic feel

The front sections of the book are printed on a silk-paper stock...

this adds vibrancy to the reproduction of four-colour imagery.

Typography retains a crisp and legible appearance.

Colour Using Colour

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El Pas de Dal This book uses a mixture of paper stocks, random colour imposition and different typographical treatments, to create an eclectic design. The reproduction of the content on to uncoated paper is reminiscent of a scrapbook collection, and the intervention of hand-rendered type also enhances this feel.
Later sections of the book are printed on a series of coloured paper stocks. On the grey stock (shown left), titles print in blue, and body copy prints in black. This colour sequence is reversed when printing on the cream stock (shown below).

The cream stock and greyscale image reproduction serve to standardise the display of the archived material.

Colour Imposition

Colour fall

Colour fall Planning the incorporation of colour in a printed publication can be approached in a number of different ways. Most often, colour usage is managed for an entire publication (rather than for individual spreads), during its planning stage. This is achieved via an imposition and colourfall plan that shows which pages will be printed in different colours. For example, pages 33, 3637, 4041, 4445 and 48 of this book are printed with fluorescent ink, and this was detailed on our imposition plan throughout the duration of the planning stage and design process.
Colour reproduction is also influenced by paper stock. The colour of a selected stock, its ink absorbency, its surface qualities and a number of other aspects will all combine to affect the colours of the finished product. There are a number of restrictions that will dictate the colour fall in a printed publication, and a designer must learn to accommodate these within their projects planning stage.

Colour Using Colour

Photonica (right and following spread) This catalogue for picture library Photonica was created by Browns design studio, and is based on the principles of the RGB colour system. The catalogue features red, green and blue hues of the various images, which are used to create a series of pages that flow seamlessly through the colour spectrum.

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Client: Photonica Design: Browns Colour overview: Content of pages changes from red, to green to blue throughout the book, to reflect an RGB theme

Colour fall The pages of the publication, as depicted in the imposition plan, which will receive a special colour, varnish, or will be printed on a different paper stock.

Colour Colour fall

Colour Using Colour

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These spreads from the Photonica catalogue show how the images have been presented in red, green and blue colour bands. Colour-tint charts are used as section dividers to announce which of the colours will be presented or have been tinted or manipulated in accordance with the theme. Colour Colour fall in the next sequence. The images used either feature objects with the colour pertaining to the section they are in,

Paper stocks

Paper stocks The use of different coloured paper stocks provides an often overlooked method that will add colour to a design, particularly one that would otherwise be monotone.
Paper stocks are available in numerous colours and this provides a designer with great versatility and the creative potential to combine many different types. When printed, all but the darkest colour stocks can retain text legibility.
Stock selection can have a dramatic impact on colour reproduction. Some stocks are very absorbent and as such give dull colours, whilst others have coatings that are designed to give high-quality colour reproduction. This book uses gloss-, uncoated-, and kraft-paper stocks, all of which produce different colour reproduction results. The table below outlines the suitability of different stocks for colour printing.

Stock Uncoated or offset

Characteristics Highly absorbent, which means sharp colour images are difficult to reproduce Coated stocks that have a dull surface

Colour reproduction Good, but limited if sharp images are required

Use Magazines

Matt

Excellent, flat colour with low glare. Ideal for photorealistic images Excellent, low glare, ideal for photorealistic images Excellent, ideal for reproducing bright colour

Magazines, books, flyers, flyers, brochures, brochures, catalogues catalogues Magazines, books, flyers, flyers, brochures brochures Staple of magazine production, brochures

Silk/satin/ semi-gloss Gloss

More coating than matte but less than gloss stocks Coated paper with a smooth and high-white gloss surface

Cast-coated

Heavy, clay-coated stock. Excellent colour Pressed (or cast), while still wet reproduction against a polished, hot, metal drum to produce a high gloss finish, usually on one side of the sheet Translucent stock with little space between paper fibres. Low ink absorption, difficult to print on Thin, highly-absorbent stock Possible, but limited

Magazines, flyers brochures

Colour Using Colour

Tracing paper

Special projects

Tissue paper

Unsuitable

Not applicable

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Client: Casco Editions Design: Experimental Jetset Colour overview: Colour stocks used to replicate artwork

Ellsworth Kelly This book, which was created by Experimental Jetset, is specifically designed to display an interpretation of Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red a piece by American minimalist artist Ellsworth Kelly. Kellys work comprises five monochrome panels: three are the primary colours and two are their intermediary colours: green and orange. The book contains a full-scale replica of the painting, which is reproduced using different coloured paper stocks that are bound together into a single volume.

Colour Paper stocks

Client: GF Smith Design: SEA Design Colour overview: Fore-edge print and multiple colour stocks create a graphic effect

Colour Using Colour

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Colorplan Brochure (above) and Invitation (left) This is a promotional book produced by SEA Design for the launch of GF Smiths Colorplan range of paper stocks. The book contains all of the 52 coloured stocks that are available in the range. The fore edge of the book carries the Colorplan typographic logo, which is printed as a reverse out (see page 72), and as such allows the colours of the stock to show through. Use of this printing technique means that the logotype and paper stocks combine to create a rainbow effect and, when opened, the different paper stocks provide a colour spectrum effect. The front cover features a silver foil stamp (see page 71), of the same logotype. The invitation for the launch was produced using multiple sheets of different colour stocks, which were bonded together in several harmonious colour schemes.
Colour Paper stocks

Fore-edge printing Fore-edge printing is achieved using a special machine that is typically used for gilding the edges of a page. Gilding with gold or silver was originally performed to protect the pages of a book, but nowadays the technique is used to tint pages of a publication in the same colour as the cover, or for decorative effects.

Client: Paul Smith Design: Aboud Sodano Colour overview: Bright inner cover, which is muted by tracing paper

Colour Using Colour

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Paul Smith This is a brochure created by Aboud Sodano for the Paul Smith fashion label. It features an inner cover with a bright red background, which is sheared by white tie shapes. The vibrant colour is muted by a piece of loose-leaf tracing paper, on to which different images of the clothes and accessories highlighted in the brochure are printed in full colour.

Colour Paper stocks

Client: Zanders Design: Roundel Colour overview: Colour stocks used as key design element

Colour Using Colour

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Zanders This brochure was created for paper producer Zanders by Roundel design studio, and is based on the idea that you can. The brochure demonstrates the different results that can be obtained by use of the coloured, semitransparent paper stocks from the Zanders spectral range. The verso page of this spread shows how a red stock is used specifically to obscure a red object, while the recto page demonstrates how a green stock adds animated movement to a sketch of a can of spray paint. This project illustrates that the incorporation of colour in a design is not restricted to printing, but can also form part of the stock selection decision too. This brochure was distributed to a number of European clients, hence the printing of multiple editions in a variety of languages. Each edition was printed with a different black plate that contained language-specific elements. This process is called colour banking.

Colour Paper stocks

Colour detailing

Colour detailing Colour can provide effective enhancement to a design because it grabs the attention of the viewer. Colour detail can also be included in the format or technical specifications of a publication.
Clockwise from top left: details from designs by Spin, featured in Basics Design: Format; Studio Myerscough, featured opposite; Pentagram, featured in Basics Design: Typography; Society, featured in Basics Design: Format; Rose Design, featured in Basics Design: Format; Spin, featured in Basics Design: Typography.

Head and tail bands Head and tail bands are decorative, and often coloured, cloth tapes that protect the top and bottom of the spine.

Fore-edge printing Historically, gold or silver was printed on page edges to protect important works. Nowadays a range of decorative colour can be printed on a page edge.

Flaps These are an extension of the cover, which often make a book feel more substantial. Flaps offer an opportunity for a multitude of colour detailing.

Endpapers Colour Using Colour Coloured or printed stock is often used for the outer pastedown and flyleaves, which comprise the endpapers printed at the front and back of a publication.

Stocks Sections printed on different paper stocks will colour the fore edge of a publication. Different stocks can provide a visual index that allows the reader to easily access different sections.

Bellybands A bellyband is a separate loop, or strip of paper, or plastic substrate, which wraps around the 'belly' of a publication. These can be coloured to draw attention to key information.

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Client: Black Dog Publishing Design: Studio Myerscough Colour overview: Fore-edge printing that homogenises with the colour of the cover

MAK Architects This book, created by Studio Myerscough for Black Dog Publishing, features foreedge printing on the cut edges of the perfect-bound pages, which homogenises with the colour of the cover. Coupled with the use of minimal typography, this transforms the book into a solid object.

Colour Colour detailing

Client: Syn records Design: North Colour overview: Different coloured foil-stamped line art, set against a pastel background

Colour Using Colour

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Client: Parlamento y Gobierno de Canarias Design: Wladimir Marnich Colour overview: Vibrant orange used to provide navigation and identity

Statutory Declaration of the Canary Islands (above) Pictured above is a limited edition publication, which was created by Wladimir Marnich to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Statute of Autonomy of the Canary Islands. Orange is used to provide colour detailing on the breaker pages, headers, binding and to colour the inside of the French-fold pages. The use of colour also helps the reader to navigate through the publication and provides an identity. Lovely World (left) This artwork was produced by North design studio for the Lovely World single by Japanese singer Norico, who is represented by Syn Records. The butterfly images that represent this particular lovely world are rendered using different coloured foilstamped augmented line artwork, which is set against a lavender background.
Colour Colour detailing

Foil stamp A metallic foil or coloured tape that is pressed on to a substrate using heat and pressure.

Colour layers

Colour layers There are three techniques that can be employed to combine or layer printed foreand background elements, such as type and an image. These are surprint, reverse out and overprint. These techniques may be used to optimise visual appearance and clarity where elements overlap, or to produce interesting graphic effects.
Surprint A surprint is defined as two elements which print on top of each other, and that are tints of the same colour. Reverse out A reverse out removes parts of a flood colour, which leaves white space in the shape of a given design, letters or characters. Overprint An overprint describes two elements that are printed one on top of the other; usually a darker colour is printed over a lighter colour.

Surprint

Reverse out

Overprint

Colour Using Colour

Metis Urban Cartographies (right) This book was produced for Black Dog Publishing by Gavin Ambrose, and features a combination of surprint and reverse out typography on the breaker pages for each chapter. Notice that the surprint is a lighter tint of the solid colour, while the reverse out is marked by an absence of colour. The titles of the five chapters appear on the breaker pages so that the reader knows where they are within the book, in this way the use of surprints and reversal outs further enhances navigation.

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Client: Black Dog Publishing Design: Gavin Ambrose Colour overview: Surprint and reverse out used on each of the breaker pages

Colour Colour layers

Tints

Tints The reproduction of colour is achieved by screening the three trichromatic process colours: cyan, magenta and yellow usually in increments of 10%. There are 1,330 available tints from these three process colours, and many more (nearly 15,000), are obtainable by incorporating black as well.
The two sets of colour bars show 10% increments of each of the three process colours. Generally, tints of stronger colours are more distinguishable, even at lower concentrations, than tints of lighter colours. This distinction will be affected by the surrounding colours of the design as well as the colour of the stock it is to be printed upon. Notice how the yellow bar disappears into the colour of the page at high concentrations, and yet is visible at lower concentrations.

A Contemporary Cabinet of Curiosities: Selections from the Vicki and Kent Logan Collection (right) A Contemporary Cabinet of Curiosities: Selections from the Vicki and Kent Logan Collection is a book produced for the Californian College of Arts and Crafts by Aufuldish + Warinner design studio. Images of works by different artists in the collection are reproduced in a single, warm-grey tint that produces a faint, ghostly representation of the original image. The same colour treatment on all the images unifies the works as a single collection.

Colour Using Colour

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Client: The CCAC Institute Design: Aufuldish + Warinner Colour overview: A single tint used throughout to unify works from the collection, and creates a ghostly effect

Colour Tints

Overprinting

Overprinting An overprint is a specific technique that is applied by printing one element of a design over another. This creates multiple layers of information and adds texture to a design. The overprinting of different inks will create different colours; often, in order to preserve the dimensions of a design, ink trapping or knocking out will be required.

The above illustrations demonstrate the different results achieved through overprinting and knocking out. On the left, knocking out retains the purity of the printed colours. On the right, overprinting effectively blends the printed colours to produce new ones. No green was printed, but the overprinting of cyan on yellow produces this. Likewise, a red is produced where magenta overprints the yellow. Ink trapping refers to the overlapping of areas of coloured components to account for any misregistration on the printing press. This process is required because the halftone dots that form printed images are of different sizes and are arranged at different screen angles. If the coloured elements are overlapped it will prevent the appearance of white gaps at the point where they are supposed to meet. A knockout is a gap which is left in the bottom ink layer so that an image printed over it (that overlaps it), appears without colour modification from the other ink. The bottom colour is literally knocked-out of the area where the other colour overlaps.

Colour Using Colour

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These four squares demonstrate how the traditional four-colour printing inks cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y) and black (K) behave when reproduced separately.

Here, the four colours are printed in sequence from cyan to black, but they overprint one another.

When the individual blocks are printed as solid colour, as they are here, the results are very rich and without halftone dots. Here magenta overprints cyan to create a rich, royal blue.

Overprinting yellow on magenta and cyan results in a rich black, which is far darker than a black printed on its own.

The darkest black, a four-colour black, occurs when all four colours are overprinted over each other.

All colours are set to default so that they knock out or fail to print at those points where the shapes intersect.

All colours are set to overprint in the CMYK sequence, and this results in additional colours being formed at those points where the shapes overlap.

Colour Overprinting

Client: Museon Design: Faydherbe / De Vringer Colour overview: Four-colour overprinting and embossing

Museon This identity system was created by Dutch design studio Faydherbe / De Vringer for Museon. It is formed from four basic shapes and the three primary colours, which have been applied with overprinting techniques and enhanced by an embossed initial. The structural and modernist approach results in a memorable and playful identity, and the addition of an embossed initial create a non-static logo. The design is revisited on page 148 to show how it has been further developed through an extended use of colour.

Colour Using Colour

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Client: Victoria State Government Design: 3 Deep Design Colour overview: Layering that creates deeper colour overlaps

The State of Design This project was produced by 3 Deep Design for the Victoria State Government in Australia. The combination of coloured typography and the marque of interlocking coloured circles was created to satisfy a range of different design specifications, determined by printed media and electronic media requirements. The coloured circles in the marque (bottom) and design (top) use a layering effect that combines the pale colours of the individual circles to create deeper colours where they overlap.

Colour Overprinting

Client: CBK Dordrecht Design: Solar Initiative Colour overview: Knockouts and overprints of coloured inks to provide visual effects

Colour Using Colour

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Proeftuin This catalogue was created by Solar Initiative for Dutch art centre CBK Dordrecht. The catalogue features various knockouts and overprints, which have been used to achieve specific visual effects. The spread featured at the top of this page has a yellow knockout; the following spread also has a yellow knockout, but gives the impression that it has been overprinted; while the bottom spread (also enlarged and shown on the facing page), has a cyan and magenta overprint on its verso page. The catalogue also features a cyan and yellow overprint on the gutter.

Colour Overprinting