Colours (Red)

Being the week of Remembrance Day, the colour to talk about this week is Red.

Red is one of the most energetic colours, and the warmest of the warm colours. It is associated with blood and fire, meaning Love and War at the same time. It is a colour of extreme energies: positive (love, positiveness, courage) and negative (war, rage, devil) as the same time.

Red is a highly visible colour: stop signs and fire tracks are red for that reason. In lighter hue it usually has the positive symbolism, while the more deep & dark hues (associated with blood) will bring to mind more of the negative symbols.

In design should be used with care, as it ca overwhelm the design with its power.

I a monochromatic scheme red will be combined with lighter & darker hues, and various saturation. The monochromatic scheme is elegant and classic - and has a soothing effect (something you might want with reds :)).

If you prefer some contrast try the analogous scheme (combine red with red-orange and purple) - be careful of the combination, you need a good balance of the 3 colours, as it is quite difficult to match the purples with red. The complementary scheme is a very high-contrast one (red-green) and can be used successfully if one the complementary colour is in much less volume than the main red. If the 2 colours are 50-50 balanced you'll end up with a Christmas design (which is very good if that's what you meant to do!).

Another scheme to be tried is the triad (with yellow & blue). It's probably a good idea to use the triad with the more subdued shades of yellow & blue (yellow-orange & teal) for a better balance between the 3 very rich colours.

Whatever scheme you choose - remember to wear The Poppy this week: its deep red will remind you of the sacrifices our grandparents did.

Their courage and will made it possible for us to live in freedom.

Lest we forget!