A SYSTEMATIC METHOD FOR COLOR PLANNING IN PRODUCT DESIGN

A quantitative approach for color planning in product design is addressed in this article. The color image that a product has is quantified by using the membership function of a fuzzy set. The color plan for designing an ice shaver is used as an example to show the procedure. The Hue and Tone System and the Color Image Scale are used to transform colors into images or images into colors. The composite operation for fuzzy sets is used to simulate a color projection technique to get the semantic equivalence of words and colors. A computer program is built to get the membership functions between the colors and image words. The membership functions are arranged by size and suggested to the designer to help make a decision on what color should be used. In this manner, the psychology of customers can easily be captured by the designer, consequently increasing the efficiency of the decision process. Though a simple product is taken as an example here, this systematic method can be used to design other more complicated products. In addition, the results can be used to investigate the color psychology. (C) 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.