Confused about the difference between Bright / Light and Light / Bright?
Bright / Light etc. are terms used in one particular tonal method for which all the tonal fans, 18 shades and 45 shades, and the add-ons, were devised in the early 1980s. The first tonal characteristic mentioned is the most dominant. Here’s an example:
- Bright / Light – means your client is Bright first, and Light second. This means that you could add this add-on tone to the Bright safe tonal fan for a client who is Bright first and also Light
- Light / Bright – means your client is Light first, and Bright second. This means that you could add this add-on tone to the Light safe tonal fan for a client who is primarily Light but also Bright
Personally, I do not teach this method at all. I follow and teach the method of always insisting on one of the two characteristics of a final seasonal diagnosis being either Warm or Cool.
The specific tonal method mentioned here uses the terms you can see (Light / Muted, Muted / Light, Dark / Muted, Muted / Dark), and I find them utterly confusing and extremely difficult to explain to a client – but that’s just me!
If you are wanting to work tonally only and want to give your clients more than 18 colours, then I can suggest two approaches:
- use the add-on tones to add to the safe tonal fans
- use the tonal fans containing 45 colours which have been put together for you
If you want to use the add-ons, I suggest you use the lists of contents of each fan, add-on, etc. so that you can work out what the differences are and, more importantly, whether they will provide you with what you’re looking to give your client.
