  Color design is essential in areas such as product, graphic, and fashion
design. However, current tools like Photoshop, with their concrete-driven color
manipulation approach, often stumble during early ideation, favoring polished
end results over initial exploration. We introduced Mondrian as a test-bed for
abstraction-driven approach using interactive color palettes for image
colorization. Through a formative study with six design experts, we selected
three design options for visual abstractions in color design and developed
Mondrian where humans work with abstractions and AI manages the concrete
aspects. We carried out a user study to understand the benefits and challenges
of each abstraction format and compare the Mondrian with Photoshop. A survey
involving 100 participants further examined the influence of each abstraction
format on color composition perceptions. Findings suggest that interactive
visual abstractions encourage a non-linear exploration workflow and an open
mindset during ideation, thus providing better creative affordance.
