Evaluation of Color Contrast Arrangements in Terms of Harmony, Preference and Liking

Color Contrast Arrangements constitute one of the systems developed for use in color design. Based on Albert Munsell’s work and the Munsell color system, and later developed by Prof. Dr. Şazi Sirel through the proportioning of hue–value–chroma contrasts, Color Contrast Arrangements are known to evoke affective responses on users compared to environments colored at random. Although numerous studies in the literature examine the effects of color on humans, no research has been identified that investigates the affective responses of Color Contrast Arrangements constructed through a mathematical approach. Therefore, the present study aims to examine Color Contrast Arrangements in terms of harmony, preference, and liking by evaluating their affective responses. In line with this objective, a research method was devised and a two-phase online survey was conducted. In the surveys, a total of twelve color arrangements were generated, consisting of two examples from each of the six Color Contrast Arrangements created by Prof. Dr. Şazi Sirel. The colors of these twelve arrangements were applied to the façades of buildings in a visual representation of a street silhouette. In the first survey, participants were asked to evaluate the visuals in terms of harmony, preference, and liking, and to provide three adjectives describing the color arrangement in each image. In the second survey, adjective pairs were formed based on the most frequently mentioned adjectives and their associations with the concepts of harmony, preference, and liking; the visuals were then evaluated using a semantic differential scale. In line with the survey results, the affective responses of the Color Contrast Arrangements and their associations with the aforementioned concepts were examined. The analysis revealed that the strongest relationship among color harmony, preference and liking concepts was between color preference and color liking, while the weakest was between color harmony and color liking. In this study, the arrangements found to be the most harmonious, preferred, and liked were those based on value contrast, whereas the negatively evaluated arrangements across all three concepts were the equivalent chroma arrangement where hue contrast was dominant.