In ancient Rome, blue was despised: it was a symbol of ridicule and even associated with barbarians.įrom the Middle Ages, the color took on a divine connotation and it started to appear on many religious works of art. Today, blue is a color that is part of our daily lives, but this was not always the case. It is interesting to note that although blue did not yet have a name, human beings already seemed to be fascinated by this color to the point of trying to create pigments. Prussian blue, Cobalt blue and Phthalocyanine blue are some other examples of synthetic blue pigments. The first of these was invented by the Egyptians in ancient times, called Egyptian blue.
#Unique blue colors how to#
As a matter of fact, the only natural blue pigments come from indigo (a plant), pastel (a plant) and lapis lazuli (a mineral).Ĭivilizations quickly learned how to create synthetic blue pigments. It’s very difficult to conceive of in this day and age! A history of pigmentsīlue is rarely found in nature, and natural blue pigments are therefore scarce. Anything blue was described with the colors that existed at the time. However, this does not mean that there were no blue objects, just that blue was not considered a color in its own right. In other words, blue was not a notion that existed at that time for human beings. Before that, neither its name nor its concept had been defined. This may surprise you, but blue was only born in the Middle Ages. A short history of the color blue The birth of “blue” Now that we have defined the color blue, let’s begin to answer our question about the ubiquity of this color in graphic design by focusing on its history and its relationship to past and present civilizations. Blue and civilizations: history and perceptions 💡 TIP: The choice is yours! Be creative when choosing a shade of blue, don’t use a shade that is too close to your competitors’. You probably have a preference between navy blue, pastel blue and electric blue! So, if you used to say that blue was your favorite color, you can now be more precise! As we have just seen, the range of blue is very wide. In addition, saturation also plays an important role: from a dull hue (blue-gray) to a vibrant hue (electric blue).įinally, brightness will also determine your shade of blue: from a deep, dark shade like midnight blue, to a light shade like sky blue. The undertones are the secondary colors that are mixed with your blue: a little green will give you a peacock blue or teal, for example. The printing industry uses the subtractive color model, or CMYK for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black.īlue is a chromatic color, composed of hundreds of shades between green and violet.Īlthough blue is considered a cool color (as opposed to a warm red), shades of blue can be warmer or cooler depending on their undertones. Yet for printed materials, the primary blue shade used is actually a cyan tint (blue-green).
In the additive color model (or RGB for Red, Green, Blue), which is used to define the colors diffused on our screens on websites and digital communications, blue is indeed a primary color. Blue: a simple primary color?Īs we learned early on at school: blue is a primary color. Let’s start with an accurate definition of the color blue.
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