Color Stories | Red

A force for attraction, survival, and vitality

Carrie PattersonReed
Olson Zaltman
4 min readFeb 12, 2015

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Josef Albers image via Gizmodo

The color red conjures up many extremes from love and anger; Communism and American Republicans; passion, pain, danger and excitement.

Red is a very primal color rooted in our understanding of blood. This origin may have something to do with why it was repeatedly one of the first colors to be named across various cultures. The Greeks considered blood to be one of the four humors, which represented elements of having a sanguine temperament such as being courageous, confident, lively, or spirited. This humor was later linked to the element of fire, another symbol of power and intensity.

Ayurvedic tradition builds upon a similar belief that has long associated red with the root chakra which is thought to govern our survival instinct. We have a need to feel grounded and secure. When this is threatened in any way, it triggers our desire for self-preservation. For this reason the color red is often one that creates a fight or flight response; fittingly translated into a role in both traffic lights or “buy it now” calls to action.

red army image via Diesel Punks

Not surprisingly in Russia (a very red country in my mind) there is the concept of tonus which lacks a corollary word in Western culture. Tonus roughly means life force, or having a sense of vitality and energy, which seems a fitting description of the meaning of red across many cultures.

If you think about this idea of energy and vitality being on a spectrum of sorts it starts to make sense why the color red can be invigorating and thought to spark lively conversation in a dining room. When taken to an extreme or used in the wrong context it can induce stress or anger. These are all exciting emotions that are rooted in our sense of security and power (or lack thereof) in a given situation.

Similarly studies have shown that men and women wearing red are seen as being more attractive, sexy, and powerful — all outward projections of one’s life force. This is thought to be due to some of the historical associations of the color mentioned already, but also because of the color rituals and traditions over time.

Red lipstick and rouge, made of crushed bugs or ochre, were used as early as 3,000 BC in Ancient Egypt to attract a mate by mimicking the flushed look that one gets when aroused. While the ingredients have since evolved, the association has remained largely the same which has been in vogue depending on the reigning mores of the day. Some eras have considered it garish and unbecoming, suited more to lower class women and prostitutes. Conversely, red lipsticks have often been popular during economic downturns for their mate attracting powers in times of scarcity.

image via Lipstick Queen

In the realm of fabric dying, red was quite a rarity in Roman times and beyond, and reserved for those with power and money. The Aztecs used a crushed bug called Cochineal to create a brilliant crimson red — this was popularized by the Spanish through exporting, making a fortune in the process. To this day cochineal is used to give color to food products, cosmetics, fibers, etc. As with many dyes, once synthetic alternatives became available, it was much more accessible and therefore lost some of the prestige associated with it.

image via Villa of Mysteries

Red has represented passion and power in literature and artwork throughout time. The arousing effect has even been found to result in paintings being auctioned at higher prices. This sense of urgency related to red can be seen in its political use as well. Red has been used by many revolutionary regimes, possibly to represent a new power and acting as a call to arms.

Whether thinking about the enduring reddish pigments (containing iron oxide) used in early cave drawings, the human experience with blood and life forces, or the aesthetic rituals of attraction and power, it’s easy to see the strength that a single color can have on us. Inciting passions from desire to rage, red is part of our universal experience of surviving in this world.

This is the second post in a series on color. See here for the first post on Indigo.

Carrie Patterson Reed is a Senior Manager at Olson Zaltman, where she analyzes the stories we craft about ourselves and the world around us, to better understand how we unconsciously frame ideas, values, and identity.

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Carrie PattersonReed
Olson Zaltman

cultural observer and storyteller — always with an eye towards what has been and what could be