If complimentary colors are "ideal" then why is yellow/purple not more common?

Factual Questions
1

If complimentary colors are “ideal” then why is yellow/purple not more common?

Complimentary colors: explanation: [1], [2], [3]

Is it my lack of recall/lack of observation, but are red and green and orange and blue much more common color combinations in advertising, graphic design, etc, than purple and yellow? Bonus question… do you think color theory according to the standard color wheel is valid/accurate etc?

2

We see it all the time around the Twin Cities. Go Vikings!

3

yes, and with the nexium pill i think? i really can’t think of many examples…

4

I’m not sure they really are “ideal.” From the first paragraph of your first link:

In some situations, a striking contrast isn’t really what you want.

5

One learns in quilting that yellow is a difficult color, that it tends to overpower the other colors. It could be that orange/blue and red/green are more “equal”/less contrasty when it comes to a pleasing design, the red/green vibration notwithstanding.

6

Well, it depends upon the situation. For a portrait you want the subject in the center of the frame, where it has emphasis and draws attention. If you want a natural looking “man on the street” photograph (technically called candid photography) you want the subject to the side, or,more specifically, where they would actually be in the normal course of events in the frame of the photograph.

Rules for are are never/rarely 100%. I am interested in learning more about the use of yellow/purple…

7

a good example of this is blue/yellow

it has high contrast and is used quite often. michigan football helmets, the flag of sweeden, and the san diego chargers are 3 examples that come to mind…
ETA: oops, thought you said a striking contrast is what you want. There are example of when a striking example is not what you want. That is called monochromatic or analogous coloring…

8

Another vote for “No, complimentary colors are rarely ideal.” (And that’s from a design teacher, so there…).

How often do you wear a dress with fluorescent red and green stripes? Or a three-piece suit with a big, electric-blue-and-orange plaid? (By the way, the technical design term for that is “The Kowalski Tartan”)

9

The yellow and purple combo is used in The Minions as well as How I Met Your Mother.

Coincidentally, I read a buzzfeed thing or watched one of those ‘93 facts you didn’t know about’ things on HIMYM AND Minions/Despicable Me and they both mentioned the color thing.
WRT HIMYM, if you didn’t watch it. The Umbrella did become ‘a thing’ for the rest of the series, also that show almost went out of it’s way to be clever (like Arrested Development), so it’s not that someone noticed some purple and yellow in one episode and shoehorned it into theory (I supposed it’s possible, but I doubt it).

10

I can’t say I’ve ever seen an orange/blue combination. Yellow/blue, yes.

11

Orange/blue… new york mets, fed ex, syracuse university… a few others probably if i thought of it…

12

ok… but i was taught in art school about complimentary colors… i never used them much but we were taught… they even have things like this, a color guide. well you can’t see it there but it has a section for “triads”… there colors selected to go together… then it has the section on complementary colors… i guess really they don’t get used much?

13

So you went from <red/green and orange/blue get used, but why not yellow/purple>, to <why no complementary color combinations>? They are used when you want high-contrast graphic stuff, like as you have said, flags and sports logos and such. They just aren’t as pleasing for other applications. And I mentioned my theory on yellow/purple above.

14

Orange and blue seems like the most commonly discussed one.

15

Denver Broncos, and sorta the Miami Dolphins.

My junior high school and both of the high schools I attended used “purple & gold” as their colors, and had I decided to attend the University of Washington instead of Washington State, so would have my college.

16

Let’s also not forget Planet Fitness.

17

To go in the opposite direction from the Twin Cities :slight_smile: Mardi Gras decorations!

18

IDK… I’m just seeing what other people have to say…

19

Chicago Bears; Fighting Illini…

20

OK, first, you’re talking about complementary colors, not complimentary.

Second, the primary colors red, blue, and yellow, while not completely arbitrary, are much more arbitrary than we were led to believe in grade school. At least, I came through grade school with the ideas that these three colors were impossible to produce by mixing and that any other color could be produced by mixing these three (possibly with the addition of black and or white). Neither of these ideas is correct. It’s also not correct to think of red, blue, and yellow as equally spaced on a conceptual color wheel. Therefore, it’s a bad assumption that the relations of red to green, blue to orange, and yellow to purple will be in any way equivalent. Basically, everything I thought I knew about color up till fairly recently was wrong. I wish I had ditched class more often.