Color & Light ― Navigating Color Mixing in the Midst of an Led Revolution, a Handbook for Lighting Designers

Color & Light is an essential practical guide to how color works in light. Written from the perspective of a theatrical lighting designer, it discusses how to see color, how to construct effective lighting palettes, and how to make use of both color filters and color-mixing LED fixtures to create compositions that work well with scenery and costumes to tell compelling stories.We are presently at the leading edge of a revolution in theatrical lighting, redefining how it can be used to create and communicate. Today’s LED-based additive color-mixing fixtures require new methodologies and new ways of thinking, and Color & Light directly addresses this technology’s potentials and challenges.But underpinning lighting’s many recent technological changes is the fundamental language of color that artists have worked with since the birth of humanity’s artistic urges.More saturated vs. less, warmer vs. cooler, more green vs. more magenta, recessive vs. dominant—the bedrock language of color manipulation endures, whether you are putting paintbrush to canvas or calling up color attributes on a high-tech lighting console. Balancing the basics and the latest innovations, Color & Light is a book for everyone involved artistically with light and color. It will enhance your understanding of how a lighting setup works from a color perspective, while equipping you with the language to communicate about color with your collaborators.

Clifton Taylor has created designs for theater, dance, and opera companies on Broadway, regionally across the United States, and in 17 countries around the world. His designs have been seen in productions by the Alvin Ailey, Martha Graham, and Paul Taylor dance companies, as well as in numerous works for the American Ballet Theatre and the ballet companies of Boston, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Rio de Janeiro. His international dance credits also include the Mikhailovsky Theatre (St. Petersburg, Russia), the Rambert Dance Company (London), the Ningbo Song and Dance Company (China), the Ballet de Lorraine (Nancy, France), and many others. Designs by Clifton Taylor for opera and classical music performances have been commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra, Italy’s Haydn Orchestra, France’s Opera de Lorraine, the Tanglewood Music Center, the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Yokohama Noh Theater, and both the Japan Society and the Japan Foundation. He is a sought-after teacher and lecturer on theatrical lighting, especially in the areas of color and light, regularly speaking at NYU and at LDI (Live Design International). He presented lectures on color at New York’s Broadway Lighting Master Class for 17 years and is a former member of the Juilliard School’s dance faculty.