Color

In connection with our ongoing HARTS project, I created an emergency contact poster for the locations and altered the color schemes in the two versions to give very different feels overall.

Here is the first version, in a primary color scheme with bold hues and three colors (red, blue, and yellow) working together in harmony.

This image clearly depicts that it is about an emergency situation, as red is the color that is associated with emergency items most generally (connotation). The theme is very bold and urgent, with the phone icon being large and easily viewed from a distance in emergency situations (attributes). The most important text is made largest with a hierarchy of size related to the importance of the information. Because the icon is so big and uses so much color, white space around the rest of the poster is important, as to not overwhelm the viewer with too many elements. I used a center alignment throughout the whole design (placement).

Here is the second version, in a secondary color scheme with bold hues again, and with orange, purple, and green.

This poster, with the secondary color scheme instead of primary, seems much more confusing and doesn't give the overall theme and message that it should. By not having recognizable colors that relate to the topic, this poster doesn't seem to make sense. The components of the poster are all the same, they are center aligned still, and the composition is exactly the same. But without colors that are associated with emergency begin used for an emergency contact poster, this just doesn't give the viewer the right message.