Description

This package includes teaching material on colour semantics, colour exemplars and assessment rubrics on colour semantics.

Teaching Material on Colour Semantics

Literature of fundamental colour theories and semantics were collected and being edited in the form of teaching course pack. The teaching content can be categorised into three topics, namely:

1. Colour theories and science (elementary colour physics/ optics and colour terminology are focused);
2. Semantics theory (basic colour application and colour meaning related issues are focused); and
3. Colour psychology (basic colour perception and cases are focused). Several papers on design research of colours are provided as supplementary teaching materials.

Colour Exemplars

In order to facilitate student's learning and assure teaching quality, exemplars based on these three objectives were compiled into a portfolio:

1. To introduce students the colour study methods in product design discipline and fashion design discipline through samples.
2. To show exemplars of colour scheme generation, colour image and textual concept association and student's perrsona in terms of colour language.
3. To show exemplars of colour research on people perception, for instance, student's response to different colour associations and user-centred research on colour application.

Assessment Rubrics on Colour Semantics

Assessment rubrics on colour semantics were formulated. It was expected that both subjects under the General University Requirements and Discipline-Specific Requirements may adopt it. These rubrics are:

1. Rubricsc for the exercise, "Making a colour well"
2. Rubrics for the exercise, "Constructing gray scale" or "Making colour value wheel or scale from white to a pure hue and from a pure hue to black", and
3. Rubrics for assessing the exercise on the application of colour theory in design project.

Application of the Package

Around 50 Year-One Students of the Higher Diploma ini Product Innovation Technologies Programme (HDOIT, School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University) have been offered colour theories and hands-on colour mixing exercises at Year One studio class SD2452 Product Visualisation and Communication. A teaching material package was made for elaborating theories and showing examples and the results informed the project team to construct rubrics for assessing students' achievement of the learning outcomes in similar assignment

Around 25 Year Two students of the HDPIT have been assigned to conduct colour research in the subject SD3401 Design for Humanities. The results informed the project team to construct rubrics for assessing students' achievement of the learning outcomes in similar asssignment. Exemplars were compiled.

Around 75 students from ITC departemnts and HDPIT have been asked to complete a colour-adjectives assignment, and cases were drawn from students' submissions for them to understand colour perception.

Evaluation and Comments

Two major issues regarding student's feedback on decoding colour images (both abstract and contextual) were obtained from the review of the assigned colour exercises and students' reflections.

Visual Language Issue

Between the teacher and students, or between students, they may find the below situations difficult to have common agreement and show deviation which affects judgment and assessment:

1. Individual viewer may decode varied associations or to draw uncertainty onto the same colour scheme/ palette if those perceived meanings share similar qualities induced by similar hue and hone, for instance, colour scheme of "Cool" VS "Cyber".
2. Same logic as above, two color schemes may signify (or be decoded to) similar associations/ textual meanings by single person if the associated contexts of images are close and ambiguous for differentiation.
3. Responses on some colour schemes and contexts are found matching at high consistency in majority group of students. For instance, pink and low value (pastel colour) = "Romantic". It may be induced by common social norm or cultural perception in Hong Kong.
4. There is image or context that is difficult to decode for the majority of students, and shows weak relationship to the colour scheme. For instance, "Heavy metal" is a concept highly motivated by some specific cultural activities, historical movement and artefacts which does not carry obvious or common colour code to this particular group of students.