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CITY LIFE Whilst researching into the different areas of Birmingham, I noticed there where many different styles of design from various places from around the world. I wanted to capture this notion but in an artistic way. In the style of the digital artist Steve Goodin, I wanted to show that Birmingham is a Universal place, that anybody is welcome no matter what their creed or religious views. That is why I decided to set the piece in a space themed background. I tried to use the iconic buildings of Birmingham as they show off its wealth of design culture.
ELLIE does ADVERT
Colour is meaningful and a powerful psychological tool. Colour is widely used in commerce, fashion, logo design and merchandising, from ipods to cars, and from sweaters to nail polish. Different companies have different methods to make people buy their products and one of them is colour. Why do people like certain colours? Why do they prefer some colours than others? There are some people who would turn the world upside down just to find a yellow car and others who would hate the idea of having one. It is very important to understand that the psychological perception of colour is subjective, for example what appeals to various cultures is different. As one of the explanations to that question scientists think that evolution is the answer. The sense of self preservation in humans is a survival instinct which has been with us probably since the beginning of our existence. In the past humans had no knowledge of the food that we have now, so when they found a new source of food they were relying on their senses. If the food looked bad for example in the shades of dark brown or blue it might be rotten or mouldy. Brown also evokes the feeling of dirt and faeces and there is a dip in preferences of that colour in countries around the world. Humans also had to protect themselves from different creatures, for example if an animal (snake, frog) has really bright yellow or red skin that most commonly means that they are poisonous and people should stay away from them. Scientists think that another possible answer to the question is that our colour preferences are based on our positive experiences with a certain colour. Studies show that if we had a pleasant experience with a certain colour we might continue liking objects in that same colour in the future. “I might like purple more than you because my sister’s bedroom
was purple and I had positive experiences there,” says Karen Schloss, a graduate student in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. “Your own personal preference is determined by all the entities you’ve encountered of that colour and how much you liked them.” In order to look closer to that theory I am going to use my friends as an example. I asked them which is their favourite colour and looked into their lifestyle on how they show that preference in their lives. I asked them also why they were so fond of that particular colour and if it reminds them of something pleasant in the past. Sarah, aged 20 loves turquoise, blue and green. Those typical colours remind her of the sea and her childhood memories where she spent her days in the seaside with her friends.
Her room is decorated only in those colours and you could see pictures of the sea and ocean on everything you set your eyes on. Charley, aged 21 says that her favourite colours are black and white, she is mad about pandas, she has a huge collection of panda objects. Her room is also based on those colours and she wears lots of black. The fondness of pandas might be the connection of her choices of colour. Sophie, aged 20 loves red, the prevailing clothes in her wardrobe are red. Most of the accessories she uses are in that hue. She says that she loves red because it stands out and is a very passionate and romantic colour- it also reminds her of pin up pictures which she also collects. After I talked to them I reached to the conclusion that sometimes our love for a certain colour is unconscious and lies deep in our minds, other times we just like a particular colour just because it evokes pleasant feelings of a past experience. Colour is like the smell or the music that recalls memories and brings them back to life, and after all who doesn’t like to remember the good old times?!
Will talks about his art
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