Colour Literacy Forum #11 Colour Misconceptions and Their Impact in the Classroom

The Colour Literacy Forum is an international, collaborative effort to align university-level colour education with current design needs in the culture. The goal of the Forum is to connect faculty, students, and administrators with interdisciplinary professionals to provide cutting-edge research, curricula, tools, and resources.

The Colour Literacy Forum is a virtual platform featuring presentations and interactive conversations focused on updating and expanding 21st century colour education at the university level. The goal of this global collaboration is to develop an interdisciplinary STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) model that positions colour as a Meta-discipline and aligns colour education with current needs in the culture, providing cutting-edge resources, and offering dynamic networking opportunities for all stakeholders.

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2025 Series: Facts and Myths About Color

Colour Misconceptions and Their Impact in the Classroom

Saturday March 1, 2025, 11am ET

Talk 1: Colour Misconceptions...

An overview of Forum Series 2025 and a historical perspective on enduring colour misconceptions that have shaped teaching practices for centuries. Robert will present a rationale for adopting a 21st-century approach to Colour Literacy education—one that combines scientific principles with experiential learning. From among the many misconceptions encountered in books, articles and on the Internet, he will briefly discuss four:

1. All colours can be mixed using a ‘primary’ set of three.

2. A single simple hue circle or ‘colour wheel’ is all that is needed to illustrate all colour relationships.

3. There are simple rules that guarantee colour harmony.

4. Colours have universal symbolic meanings. Using colour categories or simple hue names are sufficient to attach meaning and effect to colours (red is arousing, blue is calming).

Traditional Colour Theory, or rather its various manifestations, owe their popularity to being vague, simple and easy to explain; however, this simplification makes the theory inaccurate, very often laden with misconceptions which are widely taught and publicized. Decades of intensive work on the use of colour in art lessons by Andreas Schwarz (speaker of the second part of this Forum) reveal serious deficiencies that urgently require fundamental rethinking in this field —deeply and firmly rooted in the tradition of the subject and virtually dominated by ‘traditional colour theory’. In the 21st century, colour education can break the shackles of traditional colour theory and respect colour as a personal, cultural and scientific phenomenon to be experienced, enjoyed and applied as a dynamic tool across multiple disciplines and industries.

The Speaker: Robert Hirschler

Robert Hirschler graduated at the Technical University of Budapest in chemical engineering/textile chemistry. In 1967 he presented his first paper on computerized colour matching and has been involved in colorimetry and colour science ever since. He has been involved in AIC activities for over 50 years since his participation at the second AIC Congress (York, 1973). He is an active member of both ProCor (Brazil) and the Hungarian National Colour Committee and a past member of the AIC Executive Committee. On 2010 - 2024 he was Co-Chair of the Study Group on Colour Education and in 2019-2024 Co-Chair of the ISCC/ AIC Colour Literacy Project. His current research interests include the teaching of the basics of colour science to architects, artists and designers as explained in his CR&A article “How much colour science is not too much”, and the colour theory of neo-impressionist painters.

Talk 2: ...and their impact in the classroom

The Speaker: Andreas Schwarz