Investigating colour in interior design education: an observational study about colour in the first design stages

Colour is a very important element in the interior setup, and in interior design education. It is important to educate students in design schools about colour, and how this element can play a big role in transforming the whole creative design process. Theorists disagree regarding the stage at which colour is considered. For example, many references, such as Pile (2007), showed that colour choices occurred in a later stage of design, concept development, while Attiah’s 2016 study demonstrates that designers consider colour in the first stage of a design project. The aims of this study are to determine the stage of colour thinking and choices by observing interior design and furniture students in King Abdulaziz University, who were undertaking commercial design studio, where their task involved designing retail interiors (stores) from scratch. The study will be in two stages, the first one is determining the stage of colour thinking and choices when students were building their design concepts, and the second one is to compare the findings with the results of Pile’s and Attiah’s theories. The result of this study showed that colour thinking and choices were activated in the earlier stage of design projects, which adheres with Attiah’s theory. The contribution to new knowledge in this study should help design educators teaching interior design students focusing on colour knowledge in the early stages of the course and design studios to allow them making appropriate colour decisions.