What is the impact of using Color Rendering on design drawings?
Graphics Report 04/05/24
Introduction
Our drawing sessions consistently wrapped up with swift rendering exercises throughout the Charette Graphics course. Among the focal points of our in-class discussions, color application and rendering techniques stood out prominently. This report seeks to gather and analyze student feedback regarding using color as a rendering method. The core objective of Charette graphics is to convey design decisions rapidly and clearly. Within this context, we examine three test rendering options:
1. Linework
2. Greyscale monochrome rendering
3. Color rendering
A Case for Color
Color is more than just a primal part of seeing the world; it is also a tool for representing and evoking emotions.1 It provides ways to attract and direct viewers to critical information in design.2 In Charette graphics, this focus helps to stick to communicating the main ideas on a drawing. Color wheels guide color schemes through various selection modes: monochromes, complementary, split complements, triads, analogous, mutual complements, near complements, and double complements.3 During the charette class, students shared a need for more confidence in choosing colors as it was clear that the wrong choices would be evident and mess up the drawings. This concern, although beyond just drawings to material finishes, is expressed by architects as well, and options of colors are likely to be driven by client preferences rather than contextual drivers.4 This is evident through the need for more interest in research and limited publication of color in architectural representation since we can understand architectural drawings devoid of color.5 Yet, color on drawings provides visual explorations through visual impact beyond cultural associations, clarity of understanding, and symbolism.6 There is a case for considering color in architectural drawings, but it is optional. Three sets of drawings are presented to students to obtain their preferences among line drawings, greyscale monochrome, and color renderings.
1 Garvin Ambrose and Paul Harris, Basic Design 05: Color (Lausanne, AVA Publishing SA, 2005), 6
2 Ambrose and Harris, Basic Design 05: Color, 11
3 Ambrose and Harris, Basic Design 05: Color, 19-21
4 Motamed Bahareh, Richard Tucker, and Margaret Grose, “Learning a colourful language: Investigating colour in architectural education,” (paper presented at ACUADS Conference 2015: Art and Design Education in the Global, 2015), 15-16
5 Basile Baudez, “Inessential Colors: A History of Color in Architectural Drawings, 16th-19th Centuries.,” Francoise and Georges Selz Lectures on Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century French Decorative Arts and Culture, October 3, 2017, educational video, 5:00 to 9:45, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyy7p8hlwiw&t=554s
6 Virginia Seymour, “Elements of Design: Spotlight on Color,” Jstor Daily, January 19, 2023, https://daily.jstor.org/elements-of-design-spotlight-on-color/
Test Drawings
Using a base drawing of an interior perspective, this report tests the response from students based on three rendering options: linework, greyscale monochrome, and color. The drawings, shown below, were rendered on bond paper, and physically presented to 18 architectural students in the master's and undergraduate programs at Clemson University Through individual dialogue with each student at their studio desk, students answered the questions: What is your preferred drawing? And why? What aspects of the other two drawings did you not like?
Feedback
Out of the 18 student responses, the results of preference and standard terms used to describe the drawings are listed below:
Test Drawing 1- Linework the interior perspective rendering.
Score: 10/18 detailed, shadow lines, less prescriptive, line weights, plays it safe, textures
Test Drawing 2- Greyscale monochrome interior perspective render
Score: 6/18 light &shadow, deep and ambiguous, muted tones
Test Drawing 3- Color interior perspective render
Score: 2/18 depth, saturation, materiality, clarity, and overwhelming
Conclusion
Although most students liked all the rendering options, many preferred the line work drawing because it left room for interpretation, showed textures, and played it safe since it did not suggest a subjective color This result is aligned with the need for more research or interest in color theory in architectural drawings Architectural drawings can communicate without color. The greyscale monochrome render provided depth and a mood due to the focus on light and shadow. Some students were interested in the color render but mentioned that it would be great to combine these renders to provide texture, depth, and clarity. There was also a suggestion of only using color to highlight specific information.
Bibliography
Ambrose, Garvin and Harris, Paul, Basic Design 05: Color (Lausanne, AVA Publishing SA, 2005)
Bahareh, Motamed, Tucker, Richard, and Grose, Margaret, “Learning a colourful language: Investigating colour in architectural education,” (paper presented at ACUADS Conference 2015: Art and Design Education in the Global, 2015), 15-16
Baudez, Basile, “Inessential Colors: A History of Color in Architectural Drawings, 16th-19th Centuries.,” Francoise and Georges Selz Lectures on Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century French Decorative Arts and Culture, October 3, 2017, educational video, 5:00 to 9:45, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyy7p8hlwiw&t=554s
Seymour, Virginia, “Elements of Design: Spotlight on Color,” Jstor Daily, January 19, 2023, https://daily.jstor.org/elements-of-design-spotlight-on-color/