Reinventing the wheel: Incorporating colour theory into flooring design

Across Australia, the emergence of new guidelines for best practice in design and specification, including code requirements, sustainability outcomes, and concern for occupant wellbeing have impacted the flooring industry.

One crucial component of flooring design and specification demands more attention: colour. An understanding of colour theory and how it can be properly applied to flooring specification can help designers and specifiers deliver successful, vibrant projects.

Understanding Colour Theory

Colour theory is an organising framework used in design to enhance the understanding of colour and how different colours interact with each other. It also provides a means to standardise colours across different materials and methods.

Colour theory can assist designers in terms of visualising the interaction of colours and finding complementary and analogous shades.

How Colour Vision Works

Understanding how colour vision works is a key component in creating vibrant living spaces. The human eye can perceive over 200 different shades of colour and distinguish between more than 20 levels of saturation and 500 levels of brightness.

The colour we perceive on an object is affected by that object’s physical characteristics, as well as lighting conditions and surrounding context.

The Natural Colour System

A “logical colour system” for communicating colours between designers and manufacturers, the Natural Colour System (NCS) is a valuable design tool. The NCS enables accurate recreation of colour across all surface materials and in all viewing environments, incorporating four distinct elements:

1. One of six elementary colours perceived as “pure” by human vision, namely yellow, red, blue, green, white and black. 3. 4.

Position within the NCS colour space, in which all possible surface colours are given an exact NCS notation.

The colour family of a particular shade, as shown on the NCS colour circle, which identifies the colour family of a particular shade. The nuance of a colour, or its levels of blackness, whiteness, and chromaticness as demonstrated on the NCS colour triangle.

Polyflor

Polyflor has led the global flooring industry in high performance, stylish flooring solutions for over half a century. Across multiple segments, from aged care to residential, and retail to commercial spaces, Polyflor products are specially engineered to meet the needs of different user groups with unmatched functionality and design flexibility.

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