Colour Heals! — By Nicole Weatherby
Imagine the world and life itself in just black and white. It would feel meaningless!
Colour plays a vitally important role in the world in which we live. Colour can sway our thinking, change our actions, and cause reactions. It can irritate or soothe your eyes, raise your blood pressure, or suppress your appetite. When used in the right ways, colour can even save on energy consumption. As artists, we learn how to use the positive or negative attributes of colour in our works to subliminally send a message.
As many people may know, all colours begin with the primary colours (red, blue and yellow), which are colours that cannot be created by mixing any other colours together. In the early twentieth century, German painter, Johannes Itten, extended the colour wheel to include secondary and tertiary colours. He also pioneered the idea of warm and cool colours, as well as the principle that any shade of colour can either have a warm base or a cool base. There are complimentary colours, and the list goes on, but do you want to know how to evoke a certain feeling or send a specific message?
The meaning of colour
RED is the colour of assertion, strength, romance, excitement, vitality, physical power, outgoing natures, ambition, and impulsiveness. It is a colour that flatters the skin and can make an excellent background. Pale pinkish reds are warm and peaceful, and they combine well with greens. The deeper shades of red create an atmosphere of retrained opulence and power. Red elicits an uncomplicated nature with a zest for life. But red can also connote danger or threats! It’s a very versatile colour.
ORANGE is made up of a mixture of yellow and red. It can be assertive, dynamic, and spontaneous, it signifies youth and fearlessness. Orange stimulates the brain and encourages oxygen production and mental activity. Dark orange signifies deceit or distrust, whereas red oranges can correspond to aggression, domination, and a thirst for action.
YELLOW is a colour that is associated with sunshine and which represents light. It creates feelings of hope, happiness, and wisdom. The colour evokes an optimistic sense of wellbeing, and it gives the feeling that all is OK with the world. That’s why it is the Pantone colour of the year for 2021 — to create a sense of hope! However, yellow is a complicated colour. While light yellows represent intellect, freshness, and joy, dull yellows are associated with caution, decay, sickness, and jealousy. Yellow can also signify cowardice in some contexts. Overall, though, yellow is remarkably effective at attracting attention.
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GREEN is formed by mixing blue and yellow. Green is the colour of harmony, balance, and safety. Green also has a calming effect and a symbolic meaning of hope, peace, gentleness, and modesty. It is soothing, refined, and civilised, and it has great healing power. Green suggests stability and endurance, hope and growth. It can also denote lack of experience.
BLUE is a primary colour that transcends all models of colour space. It often symbolises serenity, stability, inspiration, wisdom, or health. It can be a calming colour, and thus it often symbolises reliability.
PURPLE is a mixture of blue and red. The colour purple is often associated with royalty, nobility, luxury, power, and ambition. Purple also represents meanings of wealth, extravagance, creativity, wisdom, dignity, grandeur, devotion, peace, pride, mystery, independence, and magic.
BROWN is the colour of living wood and the earth. Rich, subtle, and extraordinarily restful to look upon, brown creates a feeling of coolness and warmth at the same time. It combines well with rich colours such as purple and gold, combinations which were popular in the Victorian era. It is a steady, dependable, conservative, conscientious, and reliable colour. Brown evokes a sense of nostalgia and reminds us of the great works of Rembrandt, Titian, and Rubens.
GREY can represent caution and compromise. Many beautiful greys can be made by mixing complimentary colours together. Greys give a sense of peace to the viewer. Grey is also a Pantone colour of the year for 2021!
WHITE is symbolic of safety, cleanliness, and purity. White emanates feelings of youth, perfection, and innocence. White represents simplicity and freshness, but too much white can give a clinical feeling. Low fat foods and dairy products use white in their packaging. However, in many Eastern cultures, white signifies death, mourning, funerals, and unhappiness.
BLACK is mysterious and hidden, and at times it can have a feeling of morbidity. It gives us a sense of the unknown, and sometimes carries negative connotations with it. In most Western cultures, black is symbolic of grief. However, black can be dignified, and is often synonymous with sophistication. Black will also punctuate colour schemes which rely on strong contrasting colours. Try mixing your own shades of black, as opposed to using it straight from the tube.
In conclusion, when thinking of what message, you want to send with your marketing materials, logo, or brand, or even when deciding what flowers to send someone, then it’s important to really consider what colours to choose, as you don’t want to give off the wrong message.
Nicole is a senior graphic designer and the “boss lady” of Green House Media. She is based in South Africa, but has worked with businesses across the world. Nicole is passionate about animal welfare, and her dream job is using graphic design to help animal charities to promote the work they are doing.
Would you like to share your story or expertise with our readers? Contact our editor-in-chief, Rafael dos Santos, by clicking here.
