COLOR September 2014
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The Power of
COLOR
COLORS Of the Year
COLORS IN
Psychology
TOP 10 WEDDING COLORS for
SPRING 2014
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ORCHID BLUSH
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MINT
PALE YELLOW CORAL
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CERULEAN
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GRAYED
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GLITTERY GOLD
DUSTY BLUE
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ROSE GOLD
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POWER O
Photographed by Amazing Milky Way, Robin De Blanche, Chris Blph, FraggerMT
Color defines our world and gives definition to the objects around us. The human reaction to color is based on nature’s symb stimulate positive emotional reactions, which promotes conditions for recovery. We are just beginning to understand the subtl
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F COLOR
Written by Laura Guido, Susan Minamyer, Jude Stewart, Gregory Ciotti
bolism, and the human psyche is what interprets these colors and gives them meaning. Color is a powerful medium that can leties of the influence of color on our moods and emotion, and how we can use this influence to set a positive tone for our life.
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“Color is a powerful medium that can stimulate positive emotional reactions, which promotes conditions for recovery.” The word healing comes from the Anglo-Saxon word Haelen, which means to make whole. Healing reduces stress and anxiety, which in turn positively impacts us. There are several factors involved in creating an environment and color is an important component. There is a great deal of research that links physical environments in hospitals to health outcomes. According to Ulrich and Zimring, authors of the 2004 report, “The Role of the Physical Environment in the 21st Century Hospital,” there are now more than 700 credible studies that link healthcare design and its influence in medical outcomes. Despite the varying research, we believe we can engage in a color dialogue and the way we use it within healthcare environments. It is clear that color can be used as a powerful tool and can provide interesting, rich and arresting breaks from the expected neutral palettes of the past. We can also learn much about the healing power of color by observing how it appears in nature. EffECTs of Color The impact of color far exceeds aesthetics. “The truth is,” states British color psychologist Angela Wright, “that color affects us physiologically as well as emotionally.” Since colorstimulates the nervous system, it can influence mood and provoke reactions. As a consequence, the use of color can make environments more peaceful and less anxiety provoking. This translates into a positive mood, which encourages the healing process. Faber Birren conducted color research and determined that bright and vivid color could arouse and increase autonomic functions, blood pressure, heart and respiration rate. This results in a tendency to direct attention outward. Conversely, his studies showed that dimness and softer colors create an inward response - one of calm and repose.
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Over the centuries, many cultures employed color for its healing powers. Egyptians designed chambers to produce a ray of prism light for healing the sick. In the Indian culture, each color is assigned to energy centers in the body. The field of Chromotherapy uses color as a therapeutic tool for treatments. One of the first examples of color application and healing is the Paimio Sanatorium. It was built in the woods of Finland to help those suffering from tuberculosis. The architect, Alvar Aalto (1898-1976), devised a creative palette that was proven to aid in the healing process.There have been numerous studies published about color in healthcare. The Coalition for Health Environments Rsearch conducted a study to determine what is really known about color influence. They concluded that the study of color in healthcare settings is challenging because it occurs in the context ofmeaningful settings and situations where personal perception and judgment come into play. This is further influenced by physiology, culture, time and location. It is also important neither to separate the perception of color and light, nor to oversimplify the application of color in specific healing environments. While scientists, designers and healthcare professionals agree that color can have an effect, it should not be viewed as a simplistic remedy. There are many other factors that must be considered when selecting healthcare colors such as the generational preferences and needs of the patient as well as the physiological perception of the aging eye. Being familiar with the meaning of color and its impact on emotions provides the basis to engage in a color dialogue and the way in which color can be used as a powerful tool to enhance the healing environment. “Research shows that you can change your mood by the colors you surround yourself with,” says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute and author of Colors For Your Every Mood (Capital Books, 1999). “Even a small colored object, like a bracelet or a handbag, can give you benefits,” she says. Scientists have studied the effect of color on our mood and way of thinking for many years. Since the time of Pavlov and his experiments with salivating dogs, psychologists have known that stimuli can take on the properties of other stimuli with which they are associated. Pavlov used a bell and some meat; current theorists are focusing on colors and the moods with which they are associated.Since everyone has different experiences, there will be some variability of associations to colors. There also are some correlations that are specific to particular cultures. However, there are also universal associations that are applicable to nearly everyone. There is surprising consistency among authors who describe these associations. (Eiseman, Holtschue, McCauley,Morton). Jill Morton (1997) determined the accuracy of these associations with an international database of over 60,000 individuals.In addition to mental associations, there are also physical responses to color. Light energystimulates the pituitary and penal glands, and these regulate hormones and our bodies’ other physiological
Image: Shining Space-Digital Universe
systems. Red, for example, stimulates, excites and warms the body, increases the heart rate, brain wave activity, and respiration (Friedman).Bright colors, such as yellow, reflect more light and stimulate the eyes. Yellow is the color that the eye processes first, and is the most luminous and visible color in the spectrum. There may be effects from colors that we do not even understand yet. Neuropsychologist Kurt Goldstein found that a blindfolded person will xperience physiological reactions under rays of different colors. The skin may be able to “read color” and our bodies, minds, and emotions respond (Santa Lucia, p. 12). The effect of colors on emotion is currently a topic of much interest. Magazines such as Self, Cosmopolitan, McCall’s, American Health and Psychology Today have articles describing the association between color and mood. The November 6, 2004 issue of the Cincinnati Post contained an article about the effect of color on mood, and Realty Times featured and article on November 5, 2004, about the way that color affects how people feel. Color therapy is gaining acceptance in the scientific community. In England, a headteacher improved behavior in students using “Kaleidoscope Therapy” in which colored lights are projected around a therapy room, and children explore emotions through color and positive affirmation (Lubbock). In the United States, Baker-Miller Pink has been used in jail cells to calm prisoners. Dr. Alexander Schauss Ph.D., director of the American Institute for Biosocial Research in Tacoma Washington stated, ” (pink is a)
tranquilizing color that saps your energy. Even the color-blind are tranquilized by pink rooms” (Walker, pp. 50-52). Intermittent use appears more effective than long term exposure. Mood-lites White Paper Page 2 12/1/2004 University of Hawaii associate head coach George Lumkin was a member of the 1991 staff that saw visitor’s locker rooms at Iowa and Colorado State painted pink in the belief that the color made players passive. Now there is a rule that a visiting team’s locker room cannot be painted a different color than the home team’s locker room. In other words, it can be pink, black or any color of the rainbow, as long as both locker rooms are the same color. (Color Matters) Alternative medicine is embracing the concept of color t herapy. Like aromatherapy, color therapy is used to rebalance and heal the body. Accordingto the International Association of Colour, the body achieves psychological and physical harmony through the use of color’s vibrational energy (Raines). Products such as Philosophy’s color therapy bubble bath called Rainbow Connection, and Tony and Tina’s nail polishes named for the aura they emit (such as deep red for courage) reflect the popular interest in color and emotion. There are also psychological tests where your personality or career needs are determined by the colors you prefer. Color defines our world and gives definition to the objects around us. The human reaction to color is based on nature’s symbolism, and the human psyche is what interprets these colors and gives them meaning. We are just beginning to understand the subtleties of the
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influence of color on our moods and emotion, and how we can use this influence to set a positive tone for our life. Color sells, it persuades, it cajoles, but how exactly does it wield such power? In the book “Drunk Tank Pink” author and NYU professor Adam Alter peers into how seeming innocuous factors of daily life—colors, names, visual s ymbols—can drive consumer behavior in unimaginable ways. The book’s title stems from a 1979 psychiatric study in which 150 strapping young men were asked to stare at a card colored either blue or pink, then take a strength test. Those who gazed on blue apparently amplified their own strength by doing so, while the pink-starers seemed weakened just by gazing at pink. Pink’s supposed tranquilizing effect rapidly gained currency among psychologists of the day. Two corrections officers, Gene Baker and Ron Miller, daubed holding cells in their respective facilities a bubble-gum shade, reported an immediate subduing effect, and boom: BakerMiller Pink, aka Drunk Tank Pink, became the prison industry’s latest brainwave. Enthusiasm for Drunk Tank Pink colored the efforts of charities and football coaches through the 1990s.“I have a Ph.D. in social psychology, and I study human judgment and decision-making, both within and beyond the marketing world,” explains Alter in an email interview with Print. “When I came across Drunk Tank Pink and its effects, I realized that it was a perfect emblem for the vast array of effects that I described in the rest of the book.” Personal and professional reasons motivated him toexplore color, too: “I’m color-blind, so I’ve always been attuned to the question of how different people perceive colors and how those colors go on to shape their interactions with
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the world,” Alter continued. “We know, for example, that people who wear red fare better on dating websites, athletes who wear black are called for more penalties, and teachers are more critical and find more errors in written work when they use red pens.”What other color-revelations does Alter’s book explore? Chapter seven opens with Glasgow’s decision to install blue outdoor lights around the city, a beautifying move with an unexpected bonus: crime dropped precipitously all around town. Police forces as far away as Japan flocked to imitate the success of Glaswegian blue lights, reporting similar drops in crime wherever the lamps cast their cool blue nimbus. The trend hopped to sawmills in Montreal, where night-shift workers were bathed in a blue-green light as they worked, mimicking daylight’s predominant hues. Previously rumpled by disrupted sleep cycles, the blue-bathed night workers reported feeling and sleeping better and error rates at themill dropped from 5% to 1%. It’s tempting to assume blue light contains magical spores that pervade our psyche with its properties, but the effects of these experiments might well be traced to a broader suggestibility. In other words, a pervasive halo of blue light at nighttime arguably reminds criminals that cops’ revolving blue flashers could be always nearby. Similarly, sawmill workers who know why they’re bathed in blue-green light may make fewer errors simply because they feel more appreciated by their employer, who cared enough about their circadian-rhythm woes to try to fix them. Every color fan likes the wrong-headed tale of a global brand venturing into an international market without researching what associations their brand’s name or color palette conveys to local folks. Yet as
Bottom Left Image: Nebula Universe Bottom Right Image: Star Wars Foctopm Planet
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acculturated as color’s meanings often seem, Alter argues there are more supra-national color associations than not. “Color preferences vary surprisingly little” across cultures, Alter remarks. “There are certainly some cultural differences, but they’re vastly outweighed by our preference for blues, and our general distaste for ellows. Many of these associations have biological origins, which explains why they cut across cultural barriers and seem to apply quite broadly. The easiest way to gauge whether there are cultural differences—which may emerge from time to time as fashions change—is to run simple questionnaires that assess both how much people like different colors, and what they associate with those colors. Brands do plenty of this sort of research, particularly when they launch in new markets.”Pick up “Drunk Tank Pink” for eye-widening observations beyond the realm of color, too. Did you know, for instance, people whose names began with K gave more generously to victims of Hurricane Katrina than those whose names began with other letters? If you wonder at how unseen forces impinge on our thoughts, motivations, and reactions all the time, “Drunk Tank Pink” renders those forces m o m e n t a r i l y visible—a fun, engaging read as well as an occasionally spooky one. Color can make all the difference when attempting to evoke specific emotions in your design work. The Pantone Color Guide ensures you are never without the right shade.In an appropriately titled study called Impact of Color in Marketing, researchers found that up to 90% of snap judgments made about products can be based on color alone (depending on the product). And in regards to the role that color plays in branding, results from studies such as The Interactive Effects of Colors show that the relationship between brands and color hinges on the perceived appropriateness of the color being used for the particular brand (in other words, does the color “fit” what is being sold).The study Exciting Red and Competent Blue also confirms that purchasing intent is greatly affected by colors due to the impact they have on how a brand is perceived. This means that colors influence how consumers view the “personality” of the brand in question (after all, who would want to buy a Harley Davidson motorcycle if they didn’t get the feeling that Harleys were rugged and cool?).Additional studies have revealed that our brains prefer recognizable brands, which makes color incredibly important when creating a brand identity. It has even been suggested in Color Research & Appliction that it is of paramount importance for
new brands to specifically target logo colors that ensure differentiation from entrenched competitors. When it comes to picking the “right” color, research has found that predicting consumer reaction to color appropriateness in relation to the product is far more important than the individual color itself. So, if Harley owners buy the product in order to feel rugged, you could assume that the pink plus glitter edition wouldn’t sell all that well.Keep this information in mind when choosing your brand’s primary color palette. Given the starkly different taste preferences shown, it pays to appeal more to men or women if they make up a larger percentage of your ideal buyers. Pallas Textiles and KI have researched color to develop a deeper, holistic understanding of its power inhealing and the healthcare environment. The following chart summaries themeaing and effect of each color group relative to emotion, the body and healing from our research and a Western perspective. Nature has healing components. The Pallas Textiles product line has been thoughtfully organized intosimpl categories based on color and nature to serve as a guide for applying a particular group to a healthcare project. Most important is to use and mix color as purely and effectively as it is found in nature. light Cool neutrals Clean Often pale, white gives the feeling of purity and neutrality. It can connote mental clarity and fresh beginnings. Overall, white projects cleanliness and purification. Gray is a true neutral and can be restful. It can create a noninvasive feeling and can cool more vibrant colors. dark Cool neutrals – Clean Black is authoritative and can evoke a feeling of mystery or emptiness. Culturally, we have come to view black as sophisticated. The earth tone color family is approachable and warm. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur elit. Sed imperdiet libero ante. Phasellus adipiscing, dolor vel iaculis tincidunt, velit leo sodales tortor, in iaculis magna neque non ante. Ut ac aliquam nulla. Sed et quam scelerisque, convallis nisi eu, porta diam. Aliquam iaculis, magna et sodales bibendum, est dui feugiat enim, quis vehicula lacus lectus sollicitudin augue. Donec mollis elementum pulvinar. Aenean ut pretium eros. Mauris felis dui, vulputate vitae est ut, viverra suscipit dolor. Donec sit amet dui hendrerit, feugiat eros quis, pretium arcu. Phasellus blandit ullamcorper massa a fringilla. Aliquam a erat consectetur, iaculis dolor ac, gravida purus. Duis eleifend purus quis orci volutpat aliquet. Maecenas vel volutpat risus, eu ornare turpis. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora.
“Research shows that
you can change
your mood by the
colors you surround yourself with.”
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Top right: Milky Way Bove Bottom right image: Milky Way Mountains
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