Style Guide: Face Color Contrast
LOW CONTRAST (A)
(Figure A) Has a low contrast level because of his light skin and light hair color. This means that a low contrast shirt would fit him best. The dark blue striped shirt has a high contrast and takes away attention from his face. All the focus would be on the high contrast blue striped shirt. The light blue checkered shirt has low contrast and forms a harmonious blend with his face.
HIGH CONTRAST (B)
(Figure B) Has a high contrast level, because of his dark hair and skin color; therefore he should wear a high contrast shirt. The low contrast shirt, on the right, looks dull and drains the color from his face. Since we want the attention on his face, he would look best with the dark stripes, which compliments his hair and skin tone.
Examples of High Contrast and Low Contrast For Patterned Shirts
The patterned shirts on the left are high contrast while the shirts on the right are low contrast. You can distinguish the difference by comparing the background color of the shirt and the color of the patterns. If the background and pattern have similiar tones they are low contrast, but if they have a noticeable difference they are high contrast. For example, the bottom left shirt is high contrast because its background color is brown and the checks are white. The bottom right shirt is low contrast because its background color is white and the checks are tan and light blue.
High Contrast Low Contrast
Solid Shirts for High Contrast and Low Contrast
White is a neutral color that looks good on all face color contrasts. High contrast face is best suited with darker colors, such as black, dark blue and red. Light contrast face is best suited with light blue, and yellow. This way the face and shirt tones blend and do not surprass one another. Shirts on the left are high contrast, while shirts on the right are low contrast.
Written by Giselle Diaz
