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Practical Color Theory for People Who Code

Session scheduled at 1:30-2:20 in Room 2 (Swain)

Something that sounds as simple as picking a color palette is often the very thing that scares developers away from diving into design. Design decisions are so open ended and exposed, and everyone’s a critic. Plus, there is no compiler throwing an error or tests failing if your colors clash. No wonder Natalya has seen amazing developers clam up when it’s time to make some design decisions, deferring to “someone creative, who knows more about design” even if she know they want to be good at design themselves.

After this presentation, developers will be able to do the basics of color theory, and to feel confident about learning more on their own if they are inspired. How will this happen? The developer way – by abstracting away domain knowledge as an artist into variables and functions and sharing that information with others. Natalya will demystify design decisions and reveal them to be logical, predictable, and driven by principles that anyone can learn.

This isn’t a talk about how colors make us feel – this is science! Natalya will be talking wavelengths, old school fine art resources, and code code code!

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Presented By

Natalya Shelburne

Natalya is a classically trained fine artist who spent 6 years lecturing and teaching people how to paint, draw, and grow their creativity. Upon realizing that the Renaissance had in fact already ended, she decided to join the modern world and is now a front end developer at Rooster Teeth. She loves writing code as much as she loves painting, and she wants to convince the world that writing code is an art form. She gets excited about updating and sharing old school design theory and knowledge and applying it to the infinite canvas that is the internet.

Natalya loves sharing all kinds of knowledge. In addition to her BA in Studio Art, she also earned a bachelor’s in Developmental Psychology and a master’s degree in Creativity and Talent Development, and does her best to weave interesting facts about how our brains work, learn, and develop into every talk. When she’s not writing code, she paints, travels, and drinks absurd amounts of coffee.

Follow @natalyathree on Twitter