8
The old theater marquee in Portland showed me how much lighting matters
Last Tuesday I was walking by the Bagdad Theater on Hawthorne and noticed their marquee bulbs looked warm yellow against the deep red letters. Up close each bulb sat in its own little socket, and the effect changed completely when the sun went down. It hit me that the palette itself wasn't the star, the glow around it was. I started paying attention to how the same brick wall looks gray at noon and almost purple at dusk. For product mockups and UI work I usually ignore ambient light, but now I'm testing my color sets under warm, cool, and dim conditions. Has anyone else built a lighting check into their palette process, or am I the only one who never thought about it until seeing a movie sign?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
avery72115d ago
Man, imagine being a movie theater and accidentally solving everyone's color theory problems. Pretty sure I've spent more time adjusting my monitor brightness than thinking about actual light hitting real objects. Now I'm side-eyeing every sunset like it owes me an explanation for why my UI colors don't pop the same way.
3