Colour Training

📣 Next Colour Literacy Forum! - ‘Colour Misconceptions and their Impact in the Classroom’

📅 Saturday March 1, 11:00am-12:30pm EST
Facts and Myths about Colour Series, Part 1

Speakers:

🔹 Robert Hirschler (co-chair 2010-2024 AIC Study Group on Colour Education, SGCE; co-chair 2019-2024 AIC+ISCC Colour Literacy Project)

🔸 Andreas Schwarz (author, Farbkompetenz: Orientierungshilfen für eine Didaktik zum Umgang mit Farbe im Kunstunterrich, 2022; team member AIC+ISCC Colour Literacy Project)

The 2025 series will delve into widespread misconceptions about colour found in textbooks—including those from prestigious publishers—as well as in scientific and popular articles, magazines, and the Internet. While the Colour Literacy Project has previously addressed some of these myths, this 2025 series will take a deeper dive, with insights from experts across various disciplines. The discussions will cover several key topics, starting with Forum 11 will address the limitations of traditional colour theory, exploring how outdated models continue to shape education, their shortcomings in the classroom, and why a new approach is needed.

The CLP Forums are virtual gatherings featuring presentations and discussions related to updating and expanding colour education in art and design programs at the university level. The forum convenes three events annually to share information and offer dynamic networking opportunities for participants.

Information and registration here: https://colourliteracy.org/

On Friday, September 13, I lectured a workshop called “Colour Research for Design” for master’s and doctoral students of the course “Experimental Processes and Language in Visual Design” of the Graduate Program in Design at the University of São Paulo, in Brazil.

The workshop lasted 3.5 hours and addressed first, an introduction to colour design, as a sub-discipline and contemporary and emerging field of knowledge. Then we delved into the actuality of colour research, and how to approach it starting either from a design need related to colour or from a colour need related to design, exemplifying with several real research projects that I have developed in the past. Towards the end of the workshop, we reviewed some of the current social and ethical issues the design discipline addresses and how colour can play a fundamental role in proposing meaningful, sustainable and people-based solutions. Students had time to discuss in teams how colour relates to their research topics and to propose new ways of working with colour.

I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the students who participated, to Professor Clice Mazzilli, coordinator of the course, for her invitation, and to her colleagues Gustavo Curcio and João Paulo Schlittler for the interesting conversation. Thanks to all for a very insightful and promising discussion.