This color wheel is laid out using the geometric shape of six intersecting circles known as "the flower of life." I thought the shape would lend itself well to the primary, secondary, and tertiary colors, because it is geometrically "sound" as shapes of both 3 (the primary colors as a triad), 6 (primary and secondary colors as a flower), and 12 (all colors combined as a larger flower). For the same reason, I thought it may be interesting to try and see how a geometric representation of the 12 note chromatic scale would interact with this same shape.

 

The 12 note chromatic scale represented as a geometric figure is something I have been intrigued by since back in my days as a musician, long before I even considered a career as a graphic designer. Essentially, every song written in the Western scale can be drawn using that shape as a template. You can see it represented by the dotted lines inside the white circle, with twelve points. Each line shifts in color from its origin to where the vector finishes. The colors coincide with the flower (yellow at 12 o'clock, red-orange at three o'clock, etc... maybe this needs to be a watch... another project for another day) .

 

I also wanted to see how the golden ratio (1:1.618) interacts with these shapes and you can see it represented by the thin concentric circles originating from the tips of each of the primary color "petals" (yellow, red, blue).

The circle which contains the chromatic scale is sized in relation to this golden ratio, as is the black ring; however, the strong white line is the edge of what would be the "flower of life" design. You can see the shape continued on over that section of the black ring.

 

The whole project came from the desire to make a color wheel as geometrically interesting and solid as Johannes Itten's "Farbkreis." I think I went a bit overboard with it, it obviously doesn't hit that simplistic beauty of Itten's, but I'm still happy with it. It was a fun project for a Sunday afternoon.