Colour Literacy Tenets

The Colour Literacy Project’s approach to colour is based on the best available peer-reviewed research on colour. The following tenets describe our understanding of the fundamental facts about colour. They are what we support and believe to be useful as of now, but we remain open to new findings.

1.     Colour is a highly complex and multi-faceted topic. Research is on-going and knowledge is expanding, but it is not likely that knowledge about colour will ever be complete. 

2.     What colours are, whether they are properties of substances or light, manifestations of radiant energy, pure subjective experiences, or results of interactions between the perceiving subject and any of the above is a matter of ongoing scientific and philosophical debate. In any account it must be recognised that colours are, ultimately, a visual phenomenon.

3.     The perception of colours involves adaptation to the environment and its visual stimuli.

4.     Colours are perceived in all natural conditions of viewing in either a spatial or a temporal contrast to other colours.

5.     The experience of colours involves psychological and cultural factors, such as emotions, expectations and memory, as well as artistic and aesthetic evaluations.

6.     Understanding colour requires first-hand exploration. Theoretical knowledge is helpful in explaining colour and colour phenomena, but a deeper understanding of colour requires the direct experience of perceiving, judging, comparing, using and appreciating colours and colour phenomena.