Tag Archives: colour education

A route to better colour knowledge

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I have been providing free information about colour on the internet since … well, almost since the internet existed! My posts here on colourchat have received over 300,000 views from more than 200,000 people. But before I ran this blog I ran something called an FAQ. FAQs were on the internet long before blogs and my colour physics FAQ was available for free for decades, providing free information about colour measurement to anyone who was interested. I have also contributed to TheConversation and my post there the effect of colour on our bodies and minds is the 7th most read article on TheConversation by anyone at the University of Leeds with about 170,000 reads. I am passionate about colour education and I am part of the colour literacy project.

Recently I had the idea to generate even better content that can educate about colour and to this end I started a patreon page. For some of this content I am charging a couple of dollars per month for access. But the idea is to generate some funds to allow the highest quality colour education material to be developed. That’s my dream anyway. If you would like to support me doing this – and also see the material that is being developed – please think about supporting me at the patreon website.

Whatever happens I will continue to keep this Colourchat resource free and will post here as often as I can.

Colour on Instagram

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Recently I had the idea of trying to teach the basics of colour theory using Instagram.

The idea is to keep the messages really clear and simple and combine them with colourful imagery.

You can see this on my Instagram account @colourchat.

I was inspired to do this after watching what GothamChess was doing on Instagram to teach some simple – and not so simple – ideas about chess. Who would have thought it? From chess theory to colour theory.

2020 wasn’t all bad

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2020 was a depressing year in many ways for obvious reasons. However, I was still really proud of the four PhD students who graduated with me during this year.

Keith Findlater graduated with a PhD in high-dynamic range imaging, Sarah Hasbullah graduated with a PhD in colour for colour in fashion and body image, Jing Lin graduated with a PhD in the effect of coloured light on alertness and Jie Yang graduated with a PhD in colour and landscape images. It’s always exciting to see where graduated students go next. I already know that Sarah and Jie have academic positions and Keith has got a great job in medical imaging in the NHS.

You can see find publications from these students and others at my personal page at http://stephenwestland.co.uk/

Colour Literacy Project

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Colour Literacy Project

I am really excited to be part of the team of people who just launched the Colour Literacy Project – for further details see https://colourliteracy.org/

I started teaching my own multi-disciplinary approach to colour at Leeds University in about 2005 as I became frustrated with the way that traditional colour theory was being taught and how it was often presented in textbooks. Over the last few years I have discovered I am not alone. I found out that Luanne Stovall (https://www.luannestovall.com/) and Robin Kingsburgh (http://robinkingsburgh.com/colour-literacy-project) were doing something similar in their universities. And it was a pleasure to come across the fantastic resources of David Briggs for whom I have the highest regard – you can see his brilliant resource here – http://www.huevaluechroma.com/. I first became introduced to these people through Maggie Maggio (https://maggiemaggio.com/color/) who came to Leeds a year or so away and gave a brilliant and inspiring colour workshop. So it turns out that I am not the only one who is frustrated with the way that traditional colour theory is often presented and taught. However, with the Colour Literacy Project – supported by both ISCC (https://iscc.org/) and AIC (https://aic-color.org/) – we hope to change the way the world views colour in the 21st Century one step at a time. You can get involved to by visiting the Colour Literacy Project website.