Base sets the weight of the palette in authority and restraint, and Aberration Red is the swatch that breaks rank: a single red that stops the set reading as one note. Saturation averages 80 percent with Aberration Red at the top, which is loud enough that the palette will fight anything else on the page. Aberration Red and Aberration Blue sit on opposite sides of the temperature line, which is the tension the palette runs on and the pair to hold apart.
Base is black's softer relative, still authoritative, but with enough warmth to feel considered rather than severe.
Aberration Red reads as pure adrenaline: alarm, desire, the color of things that move fast.
Aberration Green an emerald or kelly green: vitality turned all the way up, confident and alive.
Aberration Blue a saturated ultraviolet-blue: intensity with a mystical, slightly electric edge.
Chromatic Shift a hot, saturated magenta: maximum visibility, unapologetically loud.
Human faces stretched, warped, or manipulated for emotional effect
Explore the full Distorted Portraits style guideIts decade on the timeline · 1940s