Tryggve Johansson

During his research into sensory perception in the 19th century, Ewald Hering required that the concepts employed—for example colour itself— should be derived solely by means of perception in order to avoid confusion with their physical or physiological causes. During the 1930s, the Swede Tryggve Johansson (1905-1960) adopted Hering’s ideas and attempted to promote them in his own country. His colour-solid draws upon E. Hering’s four fundamental colours of red, green, yellow and blue, which divide the basic colour-circle into four «colour-quadrants». In the Johansson solid, black fills the entire base while white is portrayed only by a point at the tip. (Detailed text)


Date: The Swedish physicist Tryggve Johansson presented his colour-system between 1937 and 1939.

Country of origin: Sweden

Basic colours: Yellow, green, blue and red

Form: Modified cylinder

Application: Architecture, design

Related systems:
HeringMunsellPopeHesselgrenDINN.C.S.

Bibliography: Hård, «Philosophy of the Hering-Johansson Natural Color System», Proceedings of the International Colour Meeting, Luzern 1, pp. 357-365 (1965); Die Farbe 15, p. 296 (1966); S. Hesselgren, «Why Color Order Systems?», Color Research and Application 9, pp. 220-228 (1984).