Introduction

Ever since Grecian times philosophers such as Aristotle have pondered the nature of colour. Many have followed in their footsteps, from Ibn al-Haytham to Leonardo da Vinci. However in 1704 our conceptualisation of colour shifted dramatically with Newton’s “Opticks” and their revolutionary colour wheel. This shift inspired many to see if a model could be created to account for all the colours a human could perceive. In the 300 years since, this model has taken many shapes, and been used to explain many phenomena from the physical to the emotional, and even the spiritual. This timeline serves as an overview of a handful of the most significant developments in that time, and as a launching point into one of the world’s most colourful histories.

Methods

For this project a timeline was constructed using TimelineJS, which allowed for automatic generation of the graphic from a Google Sheets template. The dataset for the project was created by hand based on readings around colour theory. These readings include The Smithsonian, Programming Design Systems, Wikipedia, and Pigment Pool. A list of possible entries was compiled and then shortlisted down to ten, based on criteria such as contribution to the field, historic impact, and creating an overarching narrative. Once the shortlist was completed, it was entered into the TimelineJS template, along with an appropriate image and a brief blurb as to it’s relevance. Lastly, aesthetic decisions were made as to the timeline itself, including fonts and colours, in order to create a more appealing visual.

Discussion

Attempting to distill a topic as large as colour theory down to a few key moments is no small feat, so several decisions were made to help limit the scope of the project. Firstly, Newton was chosen as the starting point for the timeline, which informed the focus on the colour wheel/model itself rather than colour theory as a whole. Secondly, the list was created using singular publications, as condensing someone’s life work to a single slide seemed disingenuous, and also allowed for posthumous works. Lastly, some consideration was given to the distance in time between each item in order to better tell a continuous story, although several large gaps still appear.

In some cases the choice of image to accompany each slide was obvious, such as Newton or Goethe. However for others it was less so. The depiction of Munsell’s colour model comes from a much later edition than was initially published, but better articulates the point they were trying to make. Albers was a prolific artist, so while their colour triangle may not be their most prominent work, it better fits the theme of the timeline.

For the timeline itself the decision was made to stick largely to the default aesthetic. Early drafts had a much more colourful layout to match the theme, but as images were being inserted it became increasingly noisy. TimelineJS also automatically changes the font colour when changing the background which limited the options i.e. grey backgrounds with white text decreased legibility.

Reflections

While this is a fascinating topic, the breadth of it combined with the practical limitations (e.g. time and space constraints) left the project trying to strike a difficult balance of brevity and accuracy. While the project was able to present a brief overview on the topic, the majority of information collected was not included in the final version. This is only amplified by the authors inexperience with the topic at hand, meaning more time needed to be dedicated to sourcing information. Being able to dedicate more time to the project to better understand and explain the topic, including diving into the primary sources, would be a boon.

TimelineJS is a wonderful tool hindered by two key factors. The first is that what it gains in ease of use it loses in functionality. Often times changing a single thing, such as background colour, would trigger unintended consequences. Some custom CSS was injected, such as for line breaks, to help alleviate the issue. The second is that due to it’s online nature latency can become an issue. Often times changes would be made but would take a noticeable amount of time to appear, leading to some frustrations.