Beginning the Journey: A Colour Exploration Roadmap

Before building any tools or writing poetic posts, Writ in Light exists to help me deeply understand colour. Emotionally, technically, visually, through both study and creation.

This post lays out the foundational roadmap for how learning will happen: not as isolated theory, but as an evolving system of posts, projects, and glossary development. Each learning arc is both an internal investigation and an outward construction.

Guiding Philosophy

Learn through making. Reflect through writing. Integrate through systems.

This project is a fusion of learning and building, where:

• Learning is documented as editorial posts in arcs.

• Reflection is journaled through experiments, notes, and diaries.

• Outcomes appear as glossary entries, colour tools, and UI themes.

Rather than teaching others directly, this site will record my own colour education in public. It will weave together curiosity, semiotics, development, design, and emotion.

Each arc is both a theme and an emotional orientation. These arcs will repeat and deepen as the site evolves.

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Arc: Undertone

The hidden layer beneath all colour: Structure, philosophy and system design.

This arc holds the meta; the design of learning, the tools behind the tools, the philosophy of the site itself.

Deep infrastructure is needed to stabilise before learning and creation.

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Arc I: To See

Understanding colour through perception, models, and structure.

Questions to explore

• What is colour made of; physically, perceptually, digitally?

• Why do we categorize by hue/value/chroma, and what are their limits?

• How do colour models ( RGB , HSL , Lab , LCH ) shape what we see?

Initial projects

To be developed and explored during the arc.

Reflections to follow

To be written as the arc unfolds.

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Arc II: To Feel

Exploring colour as emotion, memory, and mood.

Questions

• How does colour evoke tone, memory, and feeling?

• What makes a palette “wistful” vs “urgent”?

• Can emotion be translated into usable colour tokens?

Initial projects

To be developed and explored during the arc.

Reflections to follow

To be written as the arc unfolds.

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Arc III: To Use

Applying colour knowledge in design systems and interfaces.

Questions

• How can semantic tone systems drive actual UI design?

• What is a poetic yet usable approach to theme tokens (quiet-500, urgent-100)?

• How does colour scale across components?

Initial projects

To be developed and explored during the arc.

Reflections to follow

To be written as the arc unfolds.

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Arc IV: To Reflect

Colour as identity, archetype, narrative, and memory.

Questions

• How does personal identity manifest in colour preferences?

• What are the limits of generative or AI-based palette building?

• Can a system listen to someone and give them colour back?

Initial projects

To be developed and explored during the arc.

Reflections to follow

To be written as the arc unfolds.

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🗂 Structural System to Support the Arcs

• /glossary: A visual + semantic index of tone tags, colour tokens, archetypes.

• /journal: Unified feed that mixes learn, notes, experiments, diary.

• /learn: Longformed writing, grouped by arcs (e.g., To Feel, To See).

• /diary: Visual grid of palette-based emotional vignettes.

• /tools: Home for interactive experiments.

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Meta Notes

Arcs are non-linear. A single post may span To Feel and To Reflect. A diary may seed a glossary entry. An experiment may evolve into a tool. This is intentional.

Rather than enforce categorization, posts will be tagged by arc, type, and tone to allow for poetic flexibility.

The glossary acts as both naming structure and design foundation, shaping how themes and tools reference emotional colour.

I’ll prioritize posts that teach me something and contribute to building the system.

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What’s Next

I’ll begin with my initial goal ‘To See (colour)’:

• “The Colour Wheel Is a Lie” is already in draft.

The foundation is forming. From here, everything becomes colour.

Stay tuned.