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Color Theory, Part 4Covers, Color Theory, Color Theory Part 2, Color Theory Part 3, Part 4, covers, cover artist, working with a cover artist,

Color Theory, Part 4

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on August 15, 2024

Color Theory, Part 4

I made it all the way to part 4? Cool!

Time to look at Color Theory, Part 4 – If you are interested in creating your own covers, or if you are a part of selecting your cover in your published work, you will need to understand color theory.

But what does it mean when you add blue to your cover? Blue is the favorite color for so many people, you would think it would always be a good go-to for a book cover.

Er, not quite. Read on.

Part 4 of The Basics

Color theory is the associations and impressions we get when we are confronted with a certain color or set of colors. Color matters.

Blue and its Family of Colors

Here, in part 4, let’s delve into blue’s families. The subtypes of blue all have their own quirks and associations.

Blue, Glorious Blue!

Blue works as a lot of people’s favorite color. We associate it with both the navy and sadness. It is the color of both the sea and the sky. It is also has associations with the Union during the Civil War.

Many websites use blue as an accent in their designs or even in their logos. Facebook and Twitter, anyone? PayPal and Dell also use blue in their commercial logos.

Blue also figures in the colors of numerous sports teams, from the LA Dodgers to the Carolina Panthers. Often, we associate blue with masculinity, particularly as a counterbalance to pink. But there’s no particular shade of blue. Light or dark, it doesn’t seem to matter.

Blue eyes aren’t too terribly rare, but at least two famous men were known specifically for the allure of their blue eyes—Frank Sinatra and Paul Newman.

A blue moon is a rarity. Winners get blue ribbons. We also associate blue with the Democratic Party, and with business, particularly conservative business attire.

But it is also the color of blue jeans. Well-known blue books include the Uniform System of Legal Citation, Kelley’s used automobile values, and the Handbook of United States Coins.

More Blue, Please!

Also, blue can mean depression, i.e. getting the blues. Talking until you are blue in the face means going past the standard and arguing until you run out of breath. And blue babies are in physical danger. It’s only fairly recently that medicine has been able to treat them.

Blue even figures in the titles of at least 100 films!

So, there are positives and negatives when it comes to blue. And there is a ton of ubiquity. You might want to avoid blue (or at least too much blue, that is) in order to not fade into the background and be lost amidst so many choices.

Purple & Violet

Violet and purple are not exactly the same color, although we often use them as synonyms. Many people will use the two terms interchangeably. But that’s not quite right.

Violet skews bluer; purple skews redder. And purple reminds us of gay pride, grapes, and Barney the dinosaur. Purple is also a color we associate with royalty, as is blue.

Purple prose is overly flowery and ornate; we tend to see it as over the top. Both shades remind us of flowers; purple is more reminiscent of wine and cranberries.

Violet is a woman’s name. The character Violet Bick in It’s a Wonderful Life is the town bad girl. And Violet Beauregard, in  Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, is overcome by a gigantic blueberry.

Violet Gray was a main character in Peanuts, and she was the original mean girl. But she was relegated to the background, probably due to the popularity of Lucy Van Pelt. I imagine even Schulz got tired of writing a drawing a one-note bully.

So, even the name Violet is fraught.

Sports teams with purple or violet include the LA Kings and the Minnesota Vikings.

If you have regal or LGBT characters in your book, why not consider accents on the cover in either of these colors?

Going Green

Green is the color of early spring and Ireland. It is inextricably associated with both St. Patrick’s Day and Christmas, and is often associated with resurrection in culture, probably because of evergreens.

Green reminds us of aliens (little green men!), sickness, and poison, but also limes and mint. It means go and was also the lowest level of terror threat according to Homeland Security.

In the United States, it is also quite literally the color of money. Who doesn’t want greenbacks?

It can also mean that someone is new or has no experience. While this term is rarely in use today, the term greenhorn was once a common slang term for an immigrant.

And, we often will associate it with forests, gardens, and ecology. If you are setting your book in an agricultural society, then a green accent or two might be a good choice.

Sports teams with green as one of their colors include the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia Eagles.

The fact that green can mean both fresh and spoiled means you will need to choose your shade rather carefully if you decide to go with the green.

Upshot: Part 4

Add green to your book cover and bring out nature or evoke business, or add purple to connect with gay pride. Or add blue for a conservative look, or to evoke the ocean or sky.

Colors are going to matter when it comes to your book cover. They can make or break your sales, so choose wisely.

Color Explorations

Color Theory
Part 2
Part 3
also, Part 4

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Color Theory, Part 3Covers, Color Theory, Color Theory Part 2, Color Theory Part 3, Part 4, covers, cover artist, working with a cover artist,

Color Theory, Part 3

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on August 13, 2024

Color Theory, Part 3

For color theory, Part 3 – If you want to create your own covers, or if you are a part of selecting your cover in your published work, you will need to understand color theory.

What happens when you select a cover color predominantly from the family of yellows?

The Basics of Color Theory, Part 3

Color theory is the associations and impressions we get when confronted with a certain color or set of colors. Color matters. What do we think of, when we think of yellows?

Yellow and its family of colors

Yellow is a vibrant color but it is rather difficult to see against a white background. If your cover is mainly white, then yellow is a poor choice for author or title lettering unless you outline the yellow in a darker color.

We associate yellow with sunshine but also with lemons, which can evoke either cleanliness or a car that just never seems to work right. Yellow can also evoke cowardice and caution. It can also feel like early springtime, particularly in the northeastern United States. This is because two early flowers, forsythia and daffodils, are primarily yellow in color.

It can also remind us of taxis and urban living. But it can also remind us of Buddhist monks’ saffron robes, or even the spice saffron itself, which is rare and expensive. In science fiction, it signifies an intermediate alert, a cause for concern but not out and out panic. But we also use an amber alert for locating missing children.

And, sorry to the squeamish readers among us, but we all know that it’s the color of urine.

Gold

Gold more closely aligns with wealth and winning. We may also associate it with wedding rings and even old-fashioned false teeth. Gold is scarce. At least, that’s what we tend to believe when it comes to gold.

Gold is also something we use in electronics, due to its inherent properties. But if you want to dissolve gold (as opposed to just melting it), then you’ll need to make aqua regia. Oh, you don’t have hydrochloric acid and nitric acid just lying around? So, maybe hold off on dissolving it just yet.

So, gold can be pretty. However, adding it can feel a bit much, like gilding the lily, as opposed to illuminating a sacred manuscript. Gold has ancient associations with wealth, and was reportedly used in the Ark of the Covenant.

Add yellow to your book cover for a splash of sunshine or wealth, or scarcity, depending on the shade. And watch the darker shades. Unless, of course, for some reason you want people to think of #1 when they think of your book.

Want More of the Color Theory?

If color theory resonates with you, then check out my other articles about how colors can work with covers and more.

Color Explorations

Color Theory
Part 2
Part 3
also, Part 4

Videos: Color Theory Videos

Next article

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Color Theory, Part 2Covers, Color Theory, Color Theory Part 2, Color Theory Part 3, Part 4, covers, cover artist, working with a cover artist,

Color Theory, Part 2

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on August 8, 2024

Color Theory, Part 2

Time to look at Color Theory, Part 2 – If you want to create your own covers, or if you are a part of selecting your cover in your published work, you need to understand color theory. Knowing what works together—and what does not—will help you and your cover artist, big time!

The Basics of Color Theory, Part 2

Color theory is the associations and impressions we get when confronted with a certain color or set of colors. Color matters, even when we unconsciously do not realize that it does.

Red and its Family of Colors

Red tends to be a bold, standout color. It works with a lot of other colors. It can also help if you’ve got a mainly black, white, or gray image for your cover. Red lettering can potentially work with such a background.

However, if the value (brightness) of the red is the same as the gray behind it, you may find it feels like the color is vibrating.

Red means stop or anger or ripeness. It can also feel like excitement or danger, as it can remind us of everything from sports cars to raspberries to stop signs. The Twilight book covers in particular rely on red accents to great effect.

Red is also common in sports teams, like the Boston Red Sox and the Arizona Cardinals. But the latter, clearly, is getting its red from the name of the bird.

We also associate red with the College of Cardinals in the Catholic church.  But it evokes heat, too. Red eyes mean someone is either tired, or they have been crying. Drinking too much alcohol can eventually give you a somewhat red face. And, a classic clown will wear a big, red nose.

Pink

Pink comes across as a softer version of red. We often associate it with health and ballerinas, but also baby blankets and Barbie dolls. But its current association with femininity is fairly recent. Until about the Second World War, people considered it more of a masculine color.

The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation has leaned rather heavily into pink being seen as feminine, and essentially appropriated the color for its own use. And, this may do a bit of a disservice to the men who get breast cancer (yet, it’s possible). The fatality rate for men is far higher than it is for women, and men may even feel a stigma that to get breast cancer is somehow unmanly.

But I digress.

Sports teams tend to not use pink as a color. But they will break out the pink for Mother’s Day, and for breast cancer awareness.

Color Theory, Part 2: Orange

Orange is more likely to be associated with hunters or the harvest or prisons. But it can also be associated with traffic safety. It can remind us of sunshine and, of course, oranges, but also the toxin, Agent Orange.

And, let’s face it, we also associate it with the forty-fifth president of the United States. But a part of that has to do with spray-on tanning gone awry.

Sports teams which wear orange include the Syracuse Orangemen and the Baltimore Orioles.

Copper

Closely related copper associates best with pennies or cookware more than anything else. However, we also associate it with bronze (about 90% of bronze consists of copper). And so we may link it to the idea of third place medals.

Sports teams rarely use copper. In fact, the only example I could find was the football team at Arizona State University!

It might be a good idea to choose a color from the red family for your cover or for its accents. And expect some strong associations but also a cover that can really stand out.

Want More of the Color Theory?

If color theory resonates with you, then check out my other articles about how color can work with covers and more.

Color Explorations

Color Theory
Part 2
Part 3
also, Part 4

Videos: Color Theory Videos

Next article

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Writing about Technology

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on February 21, 2023

Background – Writing About Technology

When we think of writing about technology, inevitably a lot of us think of computers and such. But if you go back in time, what’s the cutting edge tech? And if you’re writing about a primitive people off earth, their development should probably be similar.

So, instead of looking forward, let’s look backward for a moment. Because even that can inform writing about the future.

Types of Technology

Writing about technology inevitably means going into a few basic categories. Of course, there are plenty of other types of tech. But the earlier you go, the more basic they become. You can divvy them up more or less this way.

Agriculture and Animal Husbandry

When we go very far back, your writing about technology may very well involve paragraphs about domesticating animals. The creation of towns (and, eventually, cities) goes hand in hand with agriculture. For hundreds if not thousands of years, the most sophisticated tech people knew about was probably grain milling.

Communications

When does language come about? How about writing? What happens when people start to carry messages for each other? How about when they start telling and writing stories?

From the telegraph to the walky-talky, communications tech is some of the most familiar tech to many people.

Medicine

Do your characters have antibiotics? What about anesthetics? Do they use leeches, or pray for cures? Are they bleeding people, or beating the so-called demons out of the mentally ill? And do they realize the importance of hygiene?

Also, take into account the differences between midwives and doctors, from about 1850 and earlier. Why did so many higher class women die in childbirth? Because (in general) doctors would go from autopsy to birth and not wash their hands. But midwives were specialists who did one thing very well—and they would wash their hands.

Metallurgy and Toolmaking

Of course, tools predate metallurgy. But eventually, someone starts to notice that there are some rocks which give off shiny substances when they get too close to the fire. Who made the leap of logic to melting those shiny substances down and making something from them?

Transportation

This dovetails, at least in part, with domesticating animals. Transportation speed is also vital because it can get materials to people faster (or more slowly). This might make a difference in other inventions. Imagine an inventor dying because the medicine didn’t arrive in time.

Warfare

Like it or not, it’s an enormous part of our lives. When people graduated from rock throwing to spears, what did they dream of making?

You will need to do much more in-depth digging than I have done here. But these should get you started in writing about technology in history. These are down and dirty, mostly from Wikipedia (yeah, I know, I know. This is for illustrative purposes and not scholarship!). You should go to primary sources instead.

But let’s go back in time and see what the tech was like.

In the Year … 1900

If you’re writing about technology at the turn of the last century, then you’re probably writing about trains. Penicillin doesn’t happen until the 1940s. Cars and airplanes are from the first decade. And in the 50s and 60s, we even start to go to space.

Of course, computers are invented during this time, and they start off being the size of a room. Allegedly portable phones come about, but they’re often clunky and heavy, with little to them beyond simply making and receiving calls.

Writing About Technology In the Year … 1800

It’s the start of the nineteenth century. President Washington has just died. What sort of tech are people using? The horse and carriage (or wagon) is like the family car. To communicate, they are writing letters or sending messages with people. Pony Express? Not until 1860.

The US Civil War is probably the first truly modern war. There was trench warfare, and they invented the submarine. But soldiers with crushed limbs would get field amputations. At least ether existed, and it was already used in the 1840s. But if you think they had enough to go around…

In the Year … 1600

Let’s skip a century. The further you go back, less happens and there are fewer inventions. So, Queen Elizabeth I is nearing the end of her reign and life. But hey, how ‘bout that Italian Renaissance?

The first known opera premiers. In about 1606, Galileo invents a thermometer based on the expansion of gas.

In the Year … 1200

This is just after the Renaissance of the 12th century. It’s the end of a period called the High Middle Ages. In the 1210s, Genghis Khan mobilizes his troops, preparing for war with China.

In the Year … 1000

We’re just starting the High Middle Ages. And one vital piece of tech has been invented but isn’t in wide usage yet—the compass.

In the Year … 700

We’re around 47 years before the birth of Charlemagne. And about 18 years after the Eastern Roman Empire started using Greek Fire in warfare.

In the Year … 500

It’s not too long after the Roman Empire collapses in the west. It’s about 8 years after Aryabhata, an Indian astronomer and mathematician, calculates pi to the fourth digit.

Writing About Technology In the Year … 200

The Roman Empire is threatening to split up (and it does, in 286). It’s about 10 years after Greek astronomer Cleomedes teaches that the moon’s light is a reflection.

In the Year … 1 BCE

The Emperor Claudius takes a wife named Livilla (spoiler alert—it doesn’t go well). It’s about 10 years after the Aeneid is published.

In the Year … 400 BCE

Greek engineers invent the catapult! And London is just about being founded.

Writing About Technology In the Year … 700 BCE

In China, the minister of agriculture is teaching crop rotation to the peasants.

It’s been less than 50 years since the founding of Rome. And money is starting to become a thing. As a result, wealth starts to become more portable.

In the Year … 1000 BCE

David is about to become the king of the United Kingdom of Israel. This is when the Phoenician alphabet was invented.

In the Year … 2000 BCE

Horses are first being tamed. And the last woolly mammoth goes extinct.

In the Year … 5000 BCE

In China, people are starting to cultivate rice. And in Africa, herders are starting to move into the Nile Valley.

Writing About Technology In the Year … 6000 BCE

Cultures are starting to make wine. And in Poland in 5500, people start to make cheese.

In the Year … 7000 BCE

Some people are starting to domesticate pigs (although the earliest period is about 6,000 years before this). They are making bread.

Jericho becomes a 3,000-person settlement—probably the biggest ‘city’ of the time.

In the Year … 8000 BCE

About 10,000 years ago, people were planting crops—but the potter’s wheel hasn’t been invented yet.

In the Year … 10,000 BCE

Agriculture is starting. But pottery is already pretty old. Jericho is founded in about 9600 BCE.

Writing About Technology In the Year … 12,000 BCE and Earlier

The goat is first domesticated. Sheep are domesticated about a thousand years before. The first evidence of warfare is from 2,000 years previously. Right about then (14,200 BCE), we have evidence of the earliest known domestic dog. In about 20,000 BCE, pottery is invented in China.

And in about 50,000 BCE we have the first evidence of sewing needles.

Not too much earlier than this, and we modern humans are hanging around with Neanderthals.

Writing About Technology: Takeaways

All of the little things we take for granted were dreamt up by someone. Do your research when writing about technology, so you don’t accidentally introduce anachronisms. And have some fun with it!

Writing about technology means going way past computers and the present day! #amwriting

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White Space is not your Enemy by Kim Golombisky and Rebecca Hagen, a Book Review

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on May 30, 2019

White Space is not your Enemy by Kim Golombisky and Rebecca Hagen

I read White Space is Not Your Enemy on my own, and then for class.

White Space is not your Enemy by Kim Golombisky and Rebecca Hagen is a beginning design book. And I purchased it because I definitely need assistance with design. While I (at least I think I do) have something of an understanding of which color goes with which, it is sometimes difficult for me to make something look good. Seeking some inexpensive professional help, I turned to this book.

Practical Help With Your White Space and More

So apart from the obvious title, the book offers tips on color combinations, font selection, focal points and even how to prepare a document for a professional print job. And the chapter on design sins really resonated with me.

I have seen poorly designed advertisements (both online and offline) and websites, and have never really been able to adequately articulate just why they were so hideous. So now I can.

Exercises

The exercises in the back of each chapter seemed, I thought, somewhat superfluous. However, I did find myself beginning to look at designs with a more critical eye.

For example, I noticed a print advertisement where the background photograph was of varied colors. Some were light, some, dark. The print, however, was pure white, and cut horizontally along the middle of the photograph.

Hence this would have been fine, except the copy crashed straight into a white space, so some of the print was invisible. Which part? The company’s name. Epic design fail.

Foolproof

Another extremely helpful chapter: the one on the “works every time” layout. This layout is all over the Internet and all over print media, and for good reason. It is, essentially, a full width photograph or other graphic across the top third of the screen or page, with the remaining two-thirds divided into two vertical columns for text.

A cutline (caption) goes directly underneath the visual (if appropriate; some visuals don’t need a cutline), with a more prominent headline directly below that.

Break up the columns into paragraphs and beware widows and orphans (one or two short words on a line). Place tags (these aren’t Internet meta tags), which are the logo, company name and small nugget of information such as the URL or physical address, in the lower right-hand corner. In addition, round it all out with generous margins all around. Voila! An instant beautiful (albeit somewhat common) layout!

If nothing else, that chapter has a greater value than the price of admission.

Learning Creativity

Creativity cannot, truly, be taught. But the peripherals around it can, such as how to gather ideas and nurture them, and how to place those ideas together in a coherent format. It’s like teaching pottery and smithing but not cookery: you get enough so that you can set the table, but not nourish anyone.

For that, you need to be an artist. And that, sadly, no book can ever teach you.

Rating for White Space is Not Your Enemy

5/5

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