Ruben Pater, 2016
How people respond to colour is of great interest to those who work in marketing. Colour psychology research is often focused on how the colour of a logo or a product will yield higher sales, and what colour preferences can be found in certain age groups and cultures.
The study of the psychological effects of colour have coincided with colour theory in general. Goethe focused on the experience of colour in his Zur farbenlehre from 1810,1 in opposition to Sir Isaac Newton’s rational approach. Goethe and Schiller coupled colours to character traits: red for beautiful, yellow for good, green for useful, and blue for common. Gestalt psychology in the early 1900s also attributed universal emotions to colours, a theory that was taught to students at the Bauhaus by Wassily Kandinsky.
The best known colour psychology test was conducted by Max Lüscher in the 1940s, when he tested the responses of people to a series of coloured cards. A psychologist could interpret the person’s character based on the test results. The interpretation of this research in colour psychology is disputed, since it is not clear whether people respond to the colours or the cultural concept of the colour. It is more likely that the cultural context, our upbringing, and personal preferences influence our interpretation of colour more than anything else.2
Some colour psychology findings have been proven to work. ‘Cooler’ colours can have a calming influence on people, which is why hospitals and prison walls are often painted in a soft greenish colour. Another research shows that the colour of placebo pills influences their effectiveness. Blue coloured pills work better as depressants, and red colour pills better as stimulants.3
1. goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, Zur Farbenlehre, 1810.
2. gage, John. Color and Meaning: Art, Science, and Symbolism. Berkeley: University of California press, 1999. 31.
3. Cohen, Tessa Fiorini. ‘The power of Drug Color.’ The Atlantic. October 13, 2014. www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/10/the-power-of-drug-color/381156.
4. Holtzschue, linda. Understanding Color. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2002.
Research shows that ninety-eight languages have words for the same eleven basic colours;4 however, the meaning a colour may have can be very different. There are conflicting theories on whether the cultural meanings of colours can be categorised. Meanings can change over time and depend on the context. Black may be the colour of mourning in many countries, though a black book cover or a black poster is not always associated with death. Another example is that brides in China traditionally wear red, but many brides have started to wear white in recent decades.4 The cultural meaning of colours is not set but always changing. The next few pages list some of the meanings of colours in different cultures.
was the colour of mourning during the Roman empire, and in Judaism and Christianity it is associated with death and evil. During the Middle Ages, black clothing became popular, and during the Renaissance it was worn by the wealthy and nobility in all parts of Europe. In the nineteenth century, the black army was the nickname of the Russian anarchists. In the twentieth century, black became the colour of Italian and German fascism, who were called blackshirts. In Shia Islam black is a very devout colour. The black standard is one of the flags of Muhammad in Islam. The black standard has been appropriated as a symbol by jihadism since the late 1990s.
is the colour of death and mourning in China, Vietnam, and Korea. In India, people wear white after the death of a family member. Jewish, Christian and Hindu religions use the colour white in rituals to indicate purity, chastity, virginity, and peace. White is the traditional colour of bridal dresses in Western cultures. In Europe, white was historically associated with absolute monarchy. It became synonymous in the twentieth century with anti-communist and counter-revolutionary movements in Russia. A white dove is an international sign of peace, and a white flag is the international sign of surrender.
is the most visible colour from a distance, so it is often used for objects that need high visibility, such as ambulances, road maintenance equipment, and taxis. In East Asia, yellow is considered sacred and imperial. In China it is the colour for royalty, and during the Qing Dynasty, only members of the imperial household were permitted to wear yellow. In China it is still seen as the colour of happiness, glory, wisdom, harmony, and culture. Yellow is used to symbolise gold as one of the colours of the Catholic church and the Vatican. Yellow in Italian is giallo and a nickname for crime stories. The demonstrations in the Philippines in 1986 were also known as the yellow revolution.
is the colour of nature in many cultures. Early rituals centred on the hope of a good harvest with green vegetables. Green is the traditional colour of Islam, the colour of the prophet Muhammed, which is why many flags in the Islamic world use the colour green. Since the 1980s, green has become the colour of environmental parties and organisations. Green parties in Europe have programmes based on ecology and environment. The word greenwashing is used to describe the advertising of companies that use positive environmental practices to cover up environmentally unfriendly activities. A ‘green room’ is used in television and theatre to quiet nervous performers.
is tested as the colour that is best liked by all cultures, which is how it became the colour for international business. The United Nations chose blue as a colour in 1946, but the colour has no special significance. Bluewashing is a term for companies that join the United Nations ‘Global Impact Initiative’ only for PR reasons. ‘Blue collar worker’ refers to the shirts worn by people working manual labour jobs. The Tuareg of North Africa wear blue turbans, dyed with indigo. Azure blue is the national colour of Italy, the national soccer team is called the Azzurri. Several languages, like Japanese, Thai, Korean, and Lakota Sioux, use the same word to describe blue and green.
comes from the Sanskrit word for blood. In Greek mythology it was the colour for the planet Mars and the god of war. Red is the most important colour in China and means good luck and happiness. Red promotes long life, and it is used in Chinese new year celebrations. Red is the traditional colour for brides in India and Nepal. In Japan, a red kimono symbolises happiness and good luck. In Japan’s Shinto religion, red is the symbol of life. The Russian word for red has the same root in Old Russian as the word ‘beautiful’. The oldest symbol of socialism is the red flag, and red is still associated with socialist and communist parties. The red shirts, or the red movement, was the name of those who opposed the 2006 military coup in Thailand.
Color definitely plays a very important role in the design world. I think it’s fascinating that it’s not just typography that is used to deliver messages to the audience, but colors also have a huge impact in expressing the emotions and the main idea a piece of artwork. Not only it stimulate our minds when we look at colours, but in advertising, designers use colors to express the idea and evoke the audience’s emotions as well as interpretations. Color is one of the most powerful tools designers use because it directly influences how people perceive a brand, product, or message.
As someone who’s very interested in playing with colors in a lot of my designs, this reading gave me more understanding about how we interpret colors, and a huge part of that is the cultural interpretations that we’ve learned.
“The interpretation of this research in colour psychology is disputed, since it is not clear whether people respond to the colours or the cultural concept of the colour. It is more likely that the cultural context, our upbringing, and personal preferences influence our interpretation of colour more than anything else”. – Gauge, John.
The passage mentioned that “ ‘Cooler’ colours can have a calming influence on people, which is why hospitals and prison walls are often painted in a soft greenish colour”. Sometimes when I go on a city stroll, I look at different business stores and see how they do their own branding. I noticed that a lot of health clinics or offices such as “Carbon Health”, “Tend” or “Tia” tend to lean towards pastel colors, light green or blue because they’re often associated with calmness, hygiene, or a lot of the pastel palettes are generally neutral, giving off a light and calm atmosphere. Quite a while ago, I worked on a fun project where I designed a mood tracker app that is also a mental health service application, and the main colors that I used were dark blue and teal green. I tried to avoid bright red or any other colors that can evoke certain heavy or sad emotions.
It was fun to read through different paragraphs of the reading that explained different cultural associations of each color, and I learned some historical contexts of different colors as well. Knowing this made me wonder: If we didn’t have knowledge of these cultural associations with specific colors, would we still interpret a color in the same way, or would its meaning be different? I think the main idea of this whole reading is that our interpretations of colors are mainly shaped by cultural and historical contexts, but is there any way or a world where our interpretations of colors come from universal, innate reactions?