Design Nomenclature / Color
Tetradic
Also called double complementary, square scheme, rectangular scheme
- Color
- Composition
- 2D & 3D
Two complementary pairs together, arranged as a square at ninety degrees or as a rectangle at unequal intervals. Four hues is more than most compositions can carry, so the scheme needs a firm hierarchy and in practice collapses to one dominant hue, its complement, and two accents.
Not to be confused with
- TriadicThree hues spaced 120 degrees apart: maximum spread with perfect symmetry, which is also the difficulty. Three equally strong hues compete for the same job, so a triad only resolves once one hue takes the field by area and the other two are demoted to accents.
- ComplementaryA pair of hues opposite one another on a color wheel — but which pair depends entirely on the wheel. In RYB, blue opposes orange; in additive light, blue opposes yellow; in an opponent space, opposition is the negation of both axes. The schoolroom red-green pairing is a pigment convention, not a fact about light.