STOP! Design Ahead!

Everyone with a driver's license [as well as those who don't have one] should be able to recognize a traffic light.  It has become a universal symbol for "Stop, Go, and Slow Down" in our modern society.  But this machine's design would not be possible without the use of color.  The changes in colored light from green to yellow to red within the traffic light transforms its design to convey different messages each time the shift in color occurs.

An object that would normally look like a piece of industrial machinery becomes an animated visual display of light and color.  Though it employs basic colors of the RGB color model, each color takes on a life of its own.  Red and green are two of the colors that comprise the RGB color model, as well as the color blue.  When red and green light are added simultaneously, the result is yellow light.  Traffic lights depend upon these basic colored lights to dictate when cars should stop, slow down, or continue driving.

The convention of using traffic lights to control busy intersections on the road has become widely accepted in today's world.  Each time a specific colored light turns on, it corresponds to the action that drivers are supposed to take.  The transformation of color from green to yellow to red is what makes the traffic light an effective design.  We have even created road signs that display graphic representations of nearby traffic lights.

While exact color descriptions can be subjective, according to Albers, there is still a science behind color theory.  Therefore, we can understand the differences between colors as they relate to one another.  Red, yellow, and green are unmistakably different hues, just as their attached meanings greatly differ.  Red is symbolic of danger, yellow is representative of warning or cautioning, and green is associated with safety, or "all clear."  These color meanings are incorporated into our society as accepted fact, so that if one disobeys the traffic light they are violating the law.  Because we comprehend each of these colors in great contrast to one another, each light effectively catches our attention and triggers the appropriate response while operating a vehicle.