Scheming Swatches w/ Spell

Forum 4: Swatchy Schemey

Introduction

Starting this project, I wanted to find an object with lots of color and detail, but not basic colors like your typical blues and reds. I wound up finding one of my Funko Pop figures of the Marvel character Mysterio and really liked the coloring and detail on it, so I grabbed a photo of it and threw it into Photoshop to start looking at the colors. 

The Swatches

Once I had my image in PhotoShop, I decided the three overall colors I wanted to focus on were the green, gold, and burgundy that come from Mysterio's outfit and hand illusions. I zoomed in on each of these area's on the photo and using the eyedropper tool, selected the color to find the CMY values to transfer onto InDesign. Then, I used color and tint swatches to create my color variations, which I think turned out really well.

The Nameplates

For the nameplates, I wanted to use a fancier font for my name and then something more traditional for my heading. I found a cursive font for my name and then a spread out, more basic font for the headline. The main focus of my nameplates was ensuring that the colors contrasted each other, to ensure legibility as well as being pleasing to the eye. The readings helped with understanding contrast and realizing that a dark color on a dark color or a light on light combo do not make for a good scheme. This is why I had to play around with which tint swatch to use for the fill, name, and headline. 

Conclusion

I was happy with my final product, but after working through the assignment, can definitely understand how designers get caught up trying to create the perfect scheme and spend hours trying to fiddle with the most minor details. The color scheme I created gives off an Irish vibe to me with the green and the goldish-yellow and the name font, very Notre Dame-esque. The darker colors seem to give off a renaissance feel, which I think makes sense when you look at the original photo.