WorkGraphic Design

Nick Barclay's minimalist series explores RGB and shows us the world in its true colours

"The colours we see are the reflected light of objects not the actual colour of the objects. We see in RGB so a yellow banana is actually blue," explains Sydney-based designer Nick Barclay.

Written By:
Eight minimalist posters with coloured backgrounds and simple geometric shapes exploring RGB colour theory, including a blue banana on yellow, blue octagon on red, and white circles on black

In his latest series, following his usual trademark minimalist style, he considers how we perceive colour and translates his findings into simple graphical posters.

He adds: "Red, blue and green light hits the object and the blue light is absorbed and the red and green light is reflected. Red and green make yellow so that why we see a banana as yellow when it is actually blue

"It's a little hard to get your head around at first but I have simplified it so that people can understand and I have used objects that everyone can associate with a colour."

If you love this style of work, check out Nick's earlier works including a minimal movie poster series, and a simple take on classic album covers. Find out more about Nick at nickbarclaydesigns.com.

Two minimalist posters side by side: left shows "Bananas are blue" in navy text on yellow with a dark blue curved shape; right shows "Stop Signs are cyan" in blue text on red with a cyan octagon
Bright yellow poster with dark blue text reading "Bananas Are blue" and a large blue curved shape at the bottom resembling a banana silhouette
Minimalist poster with bright red background and large cyan octagon shape, titled "Stop Signs Are cyan" with "02" in top right corner
Two minimalist posters exploring colour perception: left panel shows magenta vertical stripes on green with "Grass is magenta" text; right panel displays a large blue circle on orange with "Oranges Are blue" text
Bright green poster with magenta text reading "Grass is magenta" and nine vertical magenta bars representing the RGB colour breakdown of grass
Bold orange and blue minimalist poster with text "Oranges Are blue" and a large blue circle representing an orange's true RGB colour value
Two minimalist posters side by side: left shows a yellow geometric sphere on blue background titled "Sapphires Are yellow"; right shows nine purple circles on green background titled "Limes Are purple
Bright yellow geometric sapphire with blue grid lines on a deep blue background, with the text "Sapphires Are yellow" in yellow at the top left
Bright lime green poster with purple text reading "Limes Are purple" and a grid of nine purple circles below
Two minimalist posters side by side: left shows a large black circle with white centre labelled "8 Balls Are black"; right displays scattered white circles on black background labelled "Golf Balls Are white
Large black circle with white centre on white background, titled "8 Balls Are black" with explanatory text about RGB colour perception
Black poster with white circles arranged in a grid pattern illustrating Nick Barclay's minimalist design exploring how golf balls appear white through RGB colour perception
Bright yellow poster with navy blue curved shape forming a banana silhouette and text reading "Bananas Are blue" by Nick Barclay, exploring RGB colour perception
Share

Further Reading

Take the Creative Boom survey

Take the Creative Boom Survey