Blue-yellow contrast

The blue-yellow contrast is a special complementary contrast , consisting of the colors blue and yellow. If a dark blue is present, it also forms a light-dark contrast. In some cases gold can be used instead of yellow. Some authors such as Johannes Itten name violet and yellow or blue and orange as possible complementary color pairs. However, this contrast is rarely used in the designed environment or in art.

use

Flags

Since the color combination blue-yellow is particularly striking, some states use it in their flag. The Swedish national flag with the yellow Scandinavian cross on a blue background is particularly well known. Ukraine, the island nation of Palau in the Pacific Ocean and Bosnia and Herzegovina also use the colors blue and yellow. The blue usually stands for the sky and the yellow for the sun.

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  Flag of Sweden since 1906. The colors come from the colors of the coat of arms of the Wasa royal family (16th century).

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  National flag of Ukraine since 1918. According to popular interpretation, the colors azure blue and yellow / gold represent the sky over a cornfield.

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  Flag of Palau since 1980. It depicts the full moon over the Pacific Ocean.

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  Flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1998. The color yellow stands for peace and the sun. The blue color and the stars symbolize Europe.

Legibility of the font

Especially with logos, flyers, posters or pictograms, a strong light-dark contrast is noticeable, easy to read and easy to remember. The classic combination of black and white creates the strongest light-dark contrast and is therefore particularly easy to read. When using pure, bright colors, yellow and blue are ideal, as they form the strongest contrast among the bright colors. On the other hand, the small light-dark difference in yellow and cyan or green and magenta makes reading difficult. With the latter, the flicker effect is an aggravating factor.

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Visual arts

In the fine arts, the color combination blue-yellow or blue-gold occurs again and again.

• As early as the Middle Ages, artists used contrast, for example by depicting Mary's blue cloak next to a gold background. The blue shows Maria's closeness to heaven and to God. The golden background is a symbol of heaven and the glory of God. The proximity of the two color meanings results in a well-considered harmony. On the other hand, the contrast of blue and gold / yellow indicates certain tensions. The coming suffering of Maria, the flight to the Egyptians, the alienation from her son and the death of her son are already hinting at.

• When expressionists place a bright dark blue with sharp contours next to a strong yellow, they represent extreme emotional tension. Vincent van Gogh illustrates in his picture Cornfield with Crows his dramatic, hopeless situation shortly before his death and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner denounces in his painting Women on the Street the alienation and superficiality of glamorous city life.

• In the modern, abstract painting Yellow Blue by Rüdiger Pfeffer, the colors are very light and have blurred contours. The relaxed, airy shapes are reminiscent of clouds, the sky and the sun. The result is a dynamic, cheerful picture that leaves a lot of scope for associations.

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  Fra Angelico (around 1395–1455): Madonna of Humility , around 1440, tempera on wood, 74 × 52 cm, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

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  Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890): Cornfield with Crows , 1890, oil on canvas, 51 × 101 cm, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.

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  Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938): Women on the Street , 1915, oil on canvas, 126 × 90 cm, Von-der-Heydt-Museum Wuppertal.

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  Rüdiger Pfeffer: Yellow Blue , 2018, acrylic on canvas, 175 × 195 cm.

Bloi

In the Middle Ages, the old French word bloi was used, among other things, for the color combination blue-yellow. In a French treatise of the late Middle Ages on the physiognomy of man, bloi characterizes the yellow skin color and at the same time the blue eyes, both of which mean bravery. Today, however, the term is rarely used.

literature

1. Max Jürgen Kobbert: The book of colors . 2nd Edition. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2019, ISBN 978-3-8062-3920-1 , pp. 215 and 218.
2. John Gage: Cultural History of Color from Antiquity to the Present . Otto Maier Verlag, Ravensburg 1997, ISBN 3-473-48387-7 .
3. Barbara Schäfer-Prieß: "blue", "pale" and "blond". On the meaning and etymology of old French "blo / bloi" . In: Ingrid Bennewitz, Andrea Schindler (Hrsg.): Color in the Middle Ages. Materialist - Mediality - Semantics . Volume 1. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-05-004640-2 , pp. 313-324.

Individual evidence

1. ^ The German physiologist and brain researcher Ewald Hering (1834–1918) names the color pair blue / yellow as complementary in addition to red / green. More often, however, yellow and violet or blue-violet are referred to as complementary.
2. ↑ Johannes Itten: Art of Color. Subjective experience and objective recognition as ways to art . 3. Edition. Otto Maier Verlag, Ravensburg 1967, p. 78 .
3. ↑ Kerstin: 7 + 1 color contrasts - how complementary colors and co. Work together. Die Druckerei - Magazin, July 25, 2015, accessed on March 7, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Max Jürgen Kobbert: The book of colors . 2nd Edition. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2019, ISBN 978-3-8062-3920-1 , p. 215 .
5. ↑ John Gage: Cultural History of Color from Antiquity to the Present . 1st edition. Otto Maier Verlag, Ravensburg 1997, ISBN 3-473-48387-7 , p. 284 .