Munsell Colour Theory



 

 

Whilst on my visit to Graham & Brown Julian had mentioned about how strict they were on colour and that they used a colour theory, the theory being The Munsell Colour Theory.
I was interested to find out about what this was as it plays such a vital part in the processes of colour being correct. Julian also metioned that any one applying for a job at Graham & Brown will need to take a colour test. This will determin whether they are considered a successful or unsuccessful candidate for the job. So this just shows how important it is to Graham & Brown to employ staff that have an eye for colour.



The Munsell Colour Theory is a legacy created by Albert H. Munsell in the first decade of the 20th century. His intentions were to help people communicate colour easily and accurately. It provides reliability, flexibility and logical simplicity to visual colour matching and colour identification.

The Munsell system organizes color the way the human eye see colour, making it easy to identify the colors you want. It also serves as the basis for the way color is manufactured, making it accurate and reliable for visually matching color.

The Munsell color order system is based on a three-dimensional model depicted in the Munsell color tree. Each color has three qualities or attributes:

1. Hue – color such as red, orange, yellow, etc.
2. Value – the lightness or darkness of a color
3. Chroma – the saturation or brilliance of a color

Hue is that attribute of a colour by which we distinguish red from green, blue from yellow etc. There is a natural order of hues: red, yellow, green, blue, purple. One can mix paints of adjacent colours in this series and obtain a continuous variation from one to the other. For example, red and yellow may be mixed in any proportion to obtain all the hues red through orange to yellow. The same is said of yellow and green, green and blue, blue and purple, purple and red. This series returns to the starting point, so it can be arranged around a circle. Munsell called red, yellow, green, blue and purple ' principle hues' and placed them at equal intervals around a circle.

Value indicates the lightness of a color. The scale of value ranges from 0 for pure black to 10 for pure white. Black, white and the grays between them are called “neutral colors”. They have no hue. Colors that have a hue are called “chromatic colors.”

Chroma is the departure degree of a color from the neutral color of the same value. Colors of low chroma are sometimes called “weak,” while those of high chroma are said to be “highly saturated,” “strong,” or “vivid.”