This project grew out of my experience teaching beginning design students who had been through a traditional color class and seemed to have no intuitive sense of the digital representation of color.

The device has three sliders and a toggle switch: in RGB mode, each slider represents proportions of red, green and blue respectively, and in HSV mode they represent hue, saturation and value. In both modes, the sliders regulate those parameters of a set of colorful LED lights.

By setting the mode and then playing with the sliders, a feeling for the proportions of red, green and blue or hue position required to make a particular color soon develops—and without the sometimes intimidating interface of an Adobe product.