Circle Model
The foundation of The Circle Model
Insights from literature review
The Circle Model was developed as a structured tool to reflect the comprehensive insights gathered from the extensive literature review. By studying historical and contemporary sources from fields spanning art, science, and color theory, I uncovered fundamental shifts in the way color is researched and utilized.
The Circular Model presents 10 fields within color theory. Each field reflects unique aspects of color research, from technical and scientific foundations to artistic and emotional implications. Through a process of affinity mapping (1), I systematically analyzed my literature review, uncovering themes and intersections that reveal contemporary topics at the intersection of multiple fields. These themes informed my research focus and contribute to developing tools and insights tailored to today’s digital and multisensory design environments.
In the process of making The Circle Model i also became aware of, where my contribution of knowledge lies. I defined 4 contribution areas that this project are affecting and supporting.
The 10 pillars
Color History
Technological progress
Historical color systems
Cultural influence
Exploring the evolution of color science, this category traces shifts in how humans understand, produce, and use colors. From early pigment production to the digital age, it reflects on how technology has democratized color availability and influenced our aesthetic norms.
Color Wheels
Color physics
Hue definitions
Historical models
The color wheel is foundational to color theory, helping designers understand and position colors in relation to one another. This category covers the evolution of various color models and their applications in design and visual perception.
Color Psychology
Cultural connotations
Mood impact
Perception theories and mappings
Color psychology examines how colors influence mood, identity, and cultural interpretation. Given the subjective nature of color perception, this area emphasizes careful, context-based analysis over prescriptive interpretations of color impact.
Color Branding
Visual mapping
Competitor analysis
Strategic positioning.
In branding, color plays a vital role in establishing identity and differentiating from competitors. This category introduces analytical tools for visual mapping, enabling brands to strategically position themselves within their market.
Color Control
Calibration & Consistency
Screen vs. print
Color systems and codes.
Color management addresses the technical tools and systems developed for ensuring color consistency across digital and physical formats. This includes standardizing colors via systems like RGB, CMYK, and Pantone, essential for accurate reproduction in diverse media.
Color Testing
Target group testing
Systematic approach
Emotional associations to colors
This field focuses on assessing whether chosen colors communicate intended messages to target audiences. Recognizing the variability of color perception, it advocates for systematic testing to support consistent emotional and rational responses across different viewers.
Color Palettes
Color relationships
Visual hierarchy
Integrated design.
Color palettes organize colors harmoniously, often drawing from visual sources or artworks. This category provides strategies for creating cohesive palettes that support design goals and establish visual consistency.
Color Trends
Seasonal colors
Trend analysis
Cultural zeitgeist.
This category addresses the dynamic nature of color trends in fields such as fashion and interior design. It highlights how color preferences evolve over time and are systematically tracked by industry experts for applications in consumer products and lifestyle design.
Color Functionality
Accessibility
Colorblind considerations
Functional design
Color functionality emphasizes the importance of accessibility and usability in color choices, particularly in wayfinding, web design, and other interface contexts. This field examines how color can enhance usability and communication for diverse audiences.
Color Presentation
Color naming
Presentation techniques
Inspiration sources
This category explores how colors are presented within industries like retail and trend forecasting. Emphasizing sensory engagement, it encourages us to articulate and communicate color choices in a compelling and precise manner.
Affinity diagramming and thematic mapping
To construct the Circle Model, I employed a structured methodology incorporating affinity diagramming, mind mapping, and systematic brainstorming. Affinity diagramming, introduced by Jiro Kawakita in 1970 in Japan, commonly used in qualitative research to identify and group themes, allowed for an organized approach to the vast and diverse information within color theory (1). This method was instrumental in identifying ten distinct categories within color theory: Color History, Color Wheels, Color Control, Color Functionality, Color Palettes, Color Psychology, Color Trends, Color Branding, Color Presentation, and Color Testing. Each category represents a unique aspect of color research, providing a typology to facilitate deeper exploration and analysis within this complex field. The categories (that I call pillars) appeared after analyzing my literature reviews by grouping the focus and keywords from each source written on post-its.
Brainstorming approach
This phase of the research project involved a more intuitive and creative approach, blending systematic comparison with brainstorming to analyze the Circle Model’s categories. Adopting an open, brainstorming-inspired framework allowed for a freer flow of ideas, fostering connections across interdisciplinary domains within color research. Brainstorming, as described by VanGundy in 1988 (2), is particularly beneficial in research contexts where creativity and lateral thinking are needed to reveal less obvious relationships among established concepts. This method encourages spontaneous idea generation, enabling new perspectives that facilitate interdisciplinary integration (3). Through a systematic comparison of each category within the Circle Model, I aimed to uncover how different research themes intersect across fields like Color History, Color Control, and Color Psychology. This comparative approach is critical for mapping relationships in complex fields, as it provides a structured yet flexible method for examining connections between categories (4). Key concepts and recurring themes emerged, often spanning more than two categories and highlighting complex interdisciplinary interactions within the field of color research. To document these findings, I created visual diagrams with annotated connections. These intersections illuminate areas where new tools and methodologies can address specific challenges in contemporary design and color application.
The Circle Model as a compass
The Circle Model has shown to be a valuable compass in navigating the expansive field of color theory when I am teaching the subject of visual design. By organizing information from the literature review into distinct, interrelated categories, the model provides a way to explore color theory through multiple perspectives and cross-disciplinary insights. First of all it simply creates an overview and it enables a comprehensive understanding of color as both an artistic and scientific phenomenon.
The Circle Model has provided a comprehensive exploration across ten pillars, each contributing unique insights and perspectives on color science. While there is ample room to expand on each category and introduce additional pillars, this project will concentrate on three specific areas to develop concrete analytical models and tools.
On this page you can explore the 10 categories further (called the 10 pillars).
Practical contributions
It was essential that these findings became applicable and beneficial for both students and businesses, allowing my research, analysis and development to serve as a useful tool in real-world design environments. My approach was therefore oriented towards innovation and the development of frameworks. My professional experience as a visual designer was combined with the structured knowledge in the literature review. Through this analysis and the Circle Model, I identified my four core areas of knowledge contribution. These areas collectively offer both a theoretical grounding and practical tools for navigating the complexities of color application in design, aimed at fostering informed, intentional, and impactful use of color. The four contributions are:
1) How to navigate within color theory: This contribution represents the foundational structure of my literature research itself, encapsulated in the Circle Model. The model serves as a navigational tool for researchers, designers, businesses, and students, offering a comprehensive framework to understand and position themselves within the complex landscape of color theory.
2) How to analyze and choose colors (Color Branding): This section and framework provides a systematic approach to color selection, guiding designers through mapping in a visual competitor analysis. This support strategic, brand-aligned color choices beyond aesthetic intuition.
3) How to test your color choice (Color Testing): I developed VERT kit (Visual Emotional Rational Test), a structured testing method for designers and students to experiment with and evaluate color combinations or other visual prototypes. VERT ensures that color choices resonate emotionally and are grounded in rational applications, adding a new layer of depth to the design process. This is the biggest and most sophisticated part of my research project Visual Color Project.
4) How to communicate your colors (Color Presentation): By adapting sensory communication techniques from trend forecasting agencies and retail industries, this framework equips designers to convey color decisions effectively, filling a crucial gap in the practical application of color in professional settings. Furthermore I present an observed color related paradox within this area.
Sources:
1) Curedale, Robert, *Affinity Diagrams*, 2019, Design Community College.
2) VanGundy, Arthur B., Techniques of Structured Problem Solving, 1988, Van Nostrand Reinhold.
3) Osborn, Alex F., Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of Creative Thinking, 1953, Charles Scribner's Sons.
4) Flick, Uwe, An Introduction to Qualitative Research, 2018, Sage Publications.