Tono Theory Part 1

Tono originated from the Italian phrase “tono colore,” meaning color tone. This is a reference to the color wheel and where our passion for color stems from. All of our colors are carefully hand-mixed and continually tested over time. We know color matching and creating a professional color theme can be challenging, so we have created our “Tono Theory” series to make things easier. 

Let's get down to basics! We all know that building a color story or theme is the most fun (or terrifying) part of a project. But having a good foundation is crucial to learning more advanced color techniques. Each Tono color collection is inspired by a different color on the color wheel (like our Limited Edition RED Collection). And each color has its own classification and origins. Primary colors are those colors which cannot be mixed to be created and create all other colors through mixing them. These are our most basic colors, but without them, many of our beautiful and complex colors in the world would not exist.  

Secondary colors are the result of mixing any two of the primary colors. These are the building blocks to creating our most basic rainbow... and every other viewable color in the universe. Most of us learned how to mix these colors in school, but let's refresh. Orange is the result of mixing yellow and red. Green is created by combining yellow and blue. And lastly, violet is made by mixing blue and red.  

Tertiary colors are created by combining any primary color with a secondary color. Their names give us a pretty good idea of how to create them and once added to the color wheel give us the complete, full-sized color wheel that we are accustomed to viewing.