The Colour Wheel

The color wheel or color circle is a tool for choosing the right colours for for your designs. It was designed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666.

Colour Harmonies

Complementary color scheme

Colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel are considered to be complementary colors (example: red and green).

The high contrast of complementary colors creates a good colour scheme for things such as logos as they work well when you want something to stand out. It is not a good choice for text.

Analogous color scheme

Uses colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel. They match well and are comfortable to look at. They are pleasing to the eye as the similar schemes are found in nature. One colour should be used to dominate and the second one to support. A third colour can be used as an accent.

Triadic color scheme

Uses colours evenly spaced on the colour wheel to create vibrant colour schemes even when using pale colours. 1 colour should be used to dominate and the others for accents.

Split-Complementary color scheme

Is a variation of the complementary colour scheme but use 2 colours adjacent to the first to complement. By doing this is has less tension.

Rectangle (tetradic) color scheme

Uses four colours arranged in two complementary pairs. It allows the possibility of more colour varrity in your designs. You should pick one colour to dominant.

Square color scheme

Is same as the rectangle scheme but the four colours are spaced evenly around the circle. It work very much in the same way.  

Laser cutting is a technology that uses a laser to cut materials, and is typically used for industrial manufacturing applications, but is also starting to be used by schools, small businesses and hobbyists. Laser cutting works by directing the output of a high-power laser, by computer, at the material to be cut. The material then either melts, burns, vaporizes away, or is blown away by a jet of gas,  leaving an edge with a high-quality surface finish. Industrial laser cutters are used to cut flat-sheet material as well as structural and piping materials.

1. As with the other processes the image has been considered to make sure it will work.

2. The next job was to convert it to an illustrator file so that it would work on the laser cutter’s software. I did this by first converting it to an outline on Photoshop, than importing it to Illustrator to be turned into a vector version.

3. Once happy I was ready I booked a room slot through Moodle.

4. Although I had used the cutter before I followed the on wall instructions so I didn’t miss anything.

5. For the first cut I decided to do a simple cut through. I used 2mm card and didn’t clean up my double lines to see what would happen.

6. I was quite happy with how the image worked with the process but wanted to try engraving some of the more detailed areas. I decide to work on white mount board first as I have lots of it and didn’t want to waste my card. Also I want to see if I can get the double lines to burn.

7. This was an improvement, but for my final cuts I deleted the double lines on the computer and used the card again.