The Color Diaries

Black is back...

Very Basic Black

After several years of brilliant color, black is back with a vengeance.  This year it's unadorned and painfully plain, displaying it's nuances primarily through texture:  the shadings of slippery velvet, shiny vinyls and supple leathers; the ambiguity of heavy black rubber soled boots underscoring a long black lace skirt.

What has plunged many designers into darkness?  Who turned off the lights?  There are several answers--the first being pure practicality--its low maintenance yet hi-tech demeanor travels well.  Black is the perfect background for all manner of accessories and makes the wearer feel wonderfully slim.

Black is not a color, it's an attitude.  As a personal or fashion statement, black's message comes across loud and clear: I'm chic, I'm cool, I'm in control.  It's the ultimate when-in-doubt, I never have to be worried clothing choice.

But is it technically a color? In terms of lighting it has been described as the negation of color; in pigment, it is said to contain all color.  We do know that it is a strong psychological presence:  powerful, dominant, pervasive, persuasive.  Consumers buying habits and attitudes concerning black have altered drastically in the last decade.  The "no--no's" of the past have gone away.  Food is served on black plates, children are dressed in black and we are no longer obliged to wear black to funerals.

Occasionally we read that navy blue, brown or charcoal is replacing black, but this hasn't happened.  Just as there are infinite shadings of red, green, blue, yellow, purple, etc., there is no generic, one-size- fits all, definitive black.  Black can range from Raven to Phantom or Licorice to Caviar and just as the names imply, all very capable of creating a variety of moods, attitudes and ambiance.

Because the consumer continues to demand black, like the Ever-Ready battery commercial on television, "it just keeps going... and going... and going..."

More on white, symbology and meanings....

 The purest of pure.

· The white dove of peace and freedom

· A choir of angels with filmy white wings

· White is unsullied, divine and pristine

· In Greek mythology, the great gods lived on snowcapped mountains

· The Romans marked auspicious days in white and inauspicious ones in black

· In the Christian church white represents heavenly joy, purity and truth

· The Egyptians saw white as the light giver for life

· To the Japanese white is the color of the gods

· But unlike most of the world in China and other countries of Southeast Asia white is the color of bereavement and mourning since it considered to be the proper color to escort the dead to a perfect state of purity and perfection. This though has changed through changing traditions and the influence of younger generations who are embracing western traditions.

· There is an innocence to white, a christening dress a kind of chasteness

· It is traditionally the color of babies or brides

· Baptismal and confirmation dresses are white and some orders of nuns are married ceremonially to the church in white gown

· The ancient Greeks started the tradition of white at weddings which they saw as a bridal symbol of joy

· White can also mean extreme minimalism and sterility

· The medical profession started to wear white at the beginning of the 20^th century when it was discovered that dirt and grime easily hidden on dark colors could spread disease and infection, but that too has changed

· The human eye sees pure white as a brilliant color so it can actually create glare which in turn can cause headaches and eyestrain

· But remember white is never just white because of its numerous tints and undertones

Psychology of color

Everyone loves a form of red in some way, every emotion comes from looking at red!

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Following are some insights into 2008 reds..

Re-defined for next year the red family contains options inspired by the shades of poppy flowers to the dramatic influence of ancient chinoiserie .....
for next year look for a return to brighter defined corals and blue casted pinks
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Speaking in tongues, I mean hues...
With all the mobile phones out there, those that are able to program uniquely to your every wish and anticipate your messages, why not have diverse colors for your every mood as well?

Well now Softbank has done it…
20 Pantone Colors, chic, from vivid to metallic  are available on their phones and the key buttons. These favorite colors suit individual tastes, personalities and styles…
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THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT GREEN and BLUE

There are more shades, tints and tones of green than any other hue.

Green represents spaciousness

Green gemstones have been among the most highly prized and collected. Every green has a different meaning.

The emerald promises faithfulness and love, the peridot erases envy and fosters friendship, while the malachite protects the wearer from evil.

The exotic stone Serpentine, named for its similarity to speckled snakeskin, is said to increase the effectiveness of medicines.

And the gardeners among us can expect an abundant harvest when wearing the moss agate, with its stylized markings resembling tees and vegetation.

Chromotherapists believe filtered colored light cures what ails you…rheumatism, arthritis, poor circulation and stiff joints…blue soothes inflammaton

Green has not always been a popular color, although it is abundant in nature. Because of its use in pagan ceremonies, green was banned by the early Christians. It was later adopted by Robin Hood and his band and stands as a symbol of their life and vigor. It is a sacred color to the Moslems. Green is associated with luck, particularly by the Irish. It denotes life, spring, hope and also envy. It is cool enough to be restful, yet warm enough to be friendly. Green is applied extensively in home decorating, but in clothing, it is seldom worn as a suit or coat.

Meanings...

Fresh, clean, restful

Ecology nature balance, envy, fertility, spring

Stabilizing nurturing, healing revitalizing

Green symbolizes the true heart and an opening up to the world. Wear a green fragrance if you’re going after a second-in-command or personal-assistant spot-it flags you as a compassionate unintimidating soul.

Green grows like a garden, from the perfect blend of blue and yellow, water and sun. As the color that best expresses the balancing and restorative powers of nature, 90’s green has evolved from dark to bright to light.

Those who like the cool colors of blue, green-are more secure, they have more emotional control, greater perseverance, and a stronger sense of order. Most people can be divided into those who are neurotically-oriented and those who are psychotically-oriented. The first usually prefer warm colors and the second, the cool colors.

Green

Symbolic and personality descriptors: Stable, orderly, fertile, balanced, solid, natural, cool, clear, peaceful, refreshing, focused, earthly, quiet, moist, meditative, concentrated, enduring, self-respectful

Emotional descriptors: persevering, tenacious, constant, selective, dignified

Other: indicative of an active inner life

Symbolic source: green plant life

Bl-gr energy combination has exceptional healing qualities and makes for a feeling of assurance and self mastery…

Forever associated with the sea and sky, teal and turquoise are symbols of infinity…

Sea is man’s tie to the physical world and sky is man’s tie to his spirit…teal light absorbs all negative thoughts…

In many cultures, green is the color of rejuvenation and replenishment. In the Aztec society, a jade colored skirt was worn by the goddess of eternal renewal as a symbol of everlasting life. In Egypt it represented immortality. The gray-green of the olive branch is the hopeful symbol of a new beginning.

Turquoise is the nat’l color of Persia, source of some of the oldest and finest stones called pinish, meaning joy…this lively bl-gr warded off the evil eye…soiurce of protection is from wearing it

For one out of 200 people (usually men, rarely women) it is not possible to see green as those of us with normal vision see it. Many people are not completely “color-blind.” They would be more aptly describes as “color deficient.”

Green follows blue as the most popular choice.  It is especially favored by a demographic group called the “Influentials.” These are the opinion leaders, the people that others go to for advice. They are the very vocal 10% of the population who embrace newness and will spread the word about a new product, design or color. They are the trendsetters. Their favorite green? Pineneedle, PANTONE 19-5920 TC.

Blue

Blue is thought by anthropologists to have been unidentified as a separate color for the first few thousand years of modern man; until around 5000 B.C., it was considered a form of black. The Hebrews, however, did not distinguish between blue and purple. Blue is the rarest color in nature-hence the origin of the terms “true blue” and blue blood.” It is the symbol of happiness, hope, truth, honor, repose, and distance. In its various hues, it is widely used in medical practice, clothing, and interior design.

Wear a blue-based scent and you’re trumpeting your honesty to the world. A very popular color, the shade of the sky, the sea, and one of the colors of the flag, symbolizes security. It’s always there. Bankers, politicians, and anyone making a speech should surround themselves with a blue aura-it engenders trust. A sense of lofty ideals is also conveyed through blue. It steadies the emotions-it is, after all, the complement to orange, the emotional color-and adds an impression of serenity and balance. Higher energies such as communication and creativity come into play under a blue light.

Meanings....

Calm, tranquil, holy

Constancy, dependability, water, sky, holiness protection purity peace, trust, loyalty, patience, hope, perseverance, sadness and depression the future

Calming, cleansing, cooling

Colors have a strong effect on our moods, and in this hectic, stressed-out world we live in, the color blue can help restore serenity and calm. Like the sea and the sky, blue is forever. It speaks of constancy and trustworthiness, which is why the blue suit has become such a classic, conveying solidity and power.

Blue

Symbolic and personality descriptors: dignified, harmonious, poised rational, loyal, trustworthy, contented, tranquil, serene, subdued, virtuous, passive, cold, ethical, slow, wet, organized, relaxed, balanced, self-centered

Emotional descriptors: melancholy, contemplative, and tractable

Symbolic sources: sky, water

History Color and the church

Green is the color of the Epiphany season in the Church. It marks the visitation of the Magi and the initiation into the life of Christ.

Green for Earth

Isidore of Seville, in his Etymologiae, the great schoolbooks of the Middle Ages. In the section “On War and Games” comes a chapter “on the colours of horses”-the colours, that is, of their trappings in the circus. Isidore adds to Tertullian’s scheme elemental significances-red for fire, white for air, green for earth, blue for sea.

The Sung period, tenth to thirteenth centuries A.D., produced the profusion of delicately colored porcelains, which exemplify the all-time peak of color art. Chinese ware dating back to that period offers bluish-green grays whose delicacy is almost transparent. Sung porcelain presented fine buff interpretations of biscuit colors and creamy whites whose excellence is imitated to this day. Apple green was the best-loved color. A darker bluer green called “cucumber,” a brilliant emerald green, and the royal family’s yellow-the “color of dried bones”-all these are still much admired. Tang yellows (from the seventh to the Ming specimens (fourteenth through seventeenth centuries).

The American Indian had a name for green-blue=grue

For modern wall and woodwork decorations, oriental tints are particularly favored. For these, the delicate colorings of the early Ming and Sung porcelain are excellent inspirations. The dainty transparent quality of their bluish-green grays, their exquisite pale and gray blues, their pale translucent greens, and the light gray-green and opaque blue-green grays-developments of Lung-Chan are unexcelled. Certainly few modern color adaptations can compare with remarkable buffs, creams, and biscuit colors of the early Sung porcelain.

Another high point of color development was reached in the East centuries later-this time in Persia. Here, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, carpets, embroideries, pottery, and frescoes became famous for their colors. In fact, a special powder blue of that period is still considered remarkable.

The Persians are recognized as among the greatest decorative colorist of all time, because of the rich beauty of their color selections and the rare skill with which these colors were combined and applied. The most notable color prepared by the Persians, a favorite with them, is a soft, grayed, turquoise, similar to the color in certain Ming creations. Its subtle gray undertone lends itself admirably to a wide range of secondary color accents. Green was another hue much favored in oriental art, particularly lemon greens.

The highly civilized Mexicans and Peruvians as well as the primitive Apache and Pueblo tribes of Arizona and New Mexico were interesting and consistent users of color art. They made extensive use of red, yellow, brown, green, orange, purple, and solferino. Even in ancient times among primitive peoples, we see that color application in on form or another-was truly a universal phenomenon.

Colors as primal powers

Green: the primal power of fertility, which makes seed sprout, force of peace and prosperity, symbolic color of rest.

Blue: the might of the infinite, the heavens and the firmament, of thoughts and meditation, symbolic color of space and eternity.

Green: Symbolic and personality descriptors: stable, orderly, fertile, balanced, solid, natural, cool, clear, peaceful, refreshing, focused, earthly, quiet, moist, meditative, concentrated, enduring, self-respectful

Emotional descriptors: persevering, tenacious, constant selective, dignified

Other: indicative of an active inner life

Symbolic source: green plant life

Green is the balance color. It is halfway between the warms-red, orange and yellow-and the cools-blue, indigo and violet.

Green is the color of abundance. Fruits, vegetables, herbs. Green is the color of wanderlust; a day in the country, surrounded by greens, will revive and nourish you. This is one of the reasons for the indoor plant explosion; greens in the home help restore your nerves.

Where did all the green come from?

For several decades green has been the most widely used color in hospitals, particularly in critical care areas. However, studies on color perception indicate that blue-greens are more soothing and therefore more suitable to medical environments, than yellow-greens. Research also reveals that warm colors should be used for appropriate balance to cool hues in “non-critical” areas. Today’s thoughtful designer has the opportunity not only to learn more about color usage in the past, but even more importantly, to utilize research to plan for the effective use of color in the healing world of the future.

Green is the ubiquitous hue that Mother Nature used most lavishly on quiet forest and leafy glad, scented meadow and flowering foliage. Of all the hues discernable to the human eye the widest range distinguishable is in the green.

The ancient Greeks revered green as the most fruitful of all hues, inevitably destined for renewal every spring. It is the most restful, refreshing color to the eye. Pliny, the Roman philosopher, said, “Emerald delights the eye without fatiguing it.” Nero heeded Pliny’s words and watched his gory Green entertainments through a very large emerald. While doing close work, engravers of ancient times intermittently gazed at a greenberyl gemstone kept close at hand. (This was a precursor to the green eyeshade worn later by office clerks.)

Indian mystics see green as the marriage of balance and harmony, the ray that bridges cause and effect. The dark green gardens of eternal abode are promised to the devout Moslem. To the Japanese, “midori” is seen as the color of eternal life.

Green gemstones were used as a restorative in many cultures. In the Orient of the middle ages, jade was believed to have mysterious and occult powers, especially when ground into powder, combined with liquid and used as a potion by jealous lovers (the “green-eyed monsters” who turned “green with envy”) to regain the attention of the beloved.

Word Associations

Aqua Ocean Wave cool, fresh, liquid, ocean, refreshing soft, soothing, water

Turquoise cool, happy, Indian, jewelry, ocean, tropical

Gold Expensive, rich, warm, prestigious, opulent, valuable, radiant

Teal Blue classy, cool, expensive, sophisticated, pleasing, rich, unique

Olive Green Military, olives, camouflage, safari, European, classic

Bright Green fresh, grass, happy, Irish, lively, spring, foliage, outdoorsy

Green means rescue services, safety exit, etc. It is used to indicate all forms of rescue equipment and first aid;

Blue is not actually a safety colour, but is used for giving directions, advice, signs, etc.

Eye-catching colours are the little spots of strongly contrasting colours that are used to attract attention, to “catch the eye”. Colour is used in this way in nature: a red strawberry among green foliage; brilliant flowers which attract insects and other creatures by their colour contrast.

Color Space

The green hues occupy the largest color space visible to the human eye perhaps that’s why our feelings towards it can be fickle.

Psychology

Green represents optimism and a feeling that things are getting better; it represents life vegetation and the onset of the warmer seasons. But the duality of green has a negative side as it’s linked with envy, marstians and nausea, especially yellow-green. According to the Pantone Consumer Color preference study “Sulphur” chartreuse was the biggest loser.

Oddly enough, in spite of the plentitude of greens in nature, natural sources for green inks and dyes are hard to come by. In the 19^th century, the world of fashion and interior design was delighted with the fact that greens could finally be achieved with chemical processes. Paris green became a very fashionable emerald shade and was used extensively in decorating. It was eventually discovered that the deadly arsenic-based pigments used in wallpaper had caused several mysterious deaths; Paris green was aptly renamed “Poison Green!”

The color specialist, Faber Birren, found that green light had a retarding physical effect on muscular reaction; whereas the complement red would increase motor excitation up to 12%…studies are consistent for this.

As Nakshian says in his “Investigation of the effects on red and green surroundings on behavior”,…in the workplace, green produces an atmosphere which conductive to efficient performance levels…activities requiring good and clear judgment, precision and fine psycho-motor tasks…

Way back in 1930, Kurt Goldstein had found that people’s perception of time is very different in green rooms as compared with reds.

He says that green has a facilitating effect on the efficiency of performance of psychomotor coordination tasks…

The reaction to color is largely (but not entirely) inborn. It is important to understand the process of seeing color in order to appreciate how complex this system we take for granted actually is.

Visual information in the form of light energy is continuously reaching the retina and forming an image to the visual cortex which acts much like a computer, assessing retinal information and relating it to data stored in the memory. It is difficult to draw a clear distinction between the exact function of the eye and the interpretation of the brain because the psychological, emotional and aesthetic response to color is highly complicated. As a result we can never really separate what we “see” from what we “know.”

To further complicate matters, not all of the visual signals that leave the eye go to the visual center of the brain approximately 20% go to the pituitary gland, the master endocrine gland of the body. There is no better example of the results of glandular involvement that the color red.

Our cultural backgrounds and traditions influence our learned response and reaction to color as well. For example, Indian mystics believe green is the color that brings great harmony. If you (or your client) had been raised believing that green brings harmony, this color family would evoke positive responses however and wherever it is used.

Each culture has its own unique heritage of color symbolism and each of you is a product of your early environment and so are your clients. When you are dealing with specific cultural groups, it behooves you to do some homework on the background and perception of color in a given culture. As people move from place to place they will often carry their color baggage with them, but some individuals with try very hard to integrate into a newly adopted society by emulating the colors they see around them, so it is best not to make the assumption that all peoples of particular culture will have exactly the same reaction to color.

Cross-culturally, there are some generalities that can be made about the human response to color, largely because of the psychological associations and physiological reactions to color that are universal. For example, why does red always provoke attention? Why is it that in every spoken language; is it the first color to be named after black and white? The psychological association that goes back to the beginning of time is the association of red to blood and fire, two very important elements that are necessary to sustain life.

The colors that we see are invariably influenced by what we feel. From the time of early infancy when our eyes first perceive color, we start to formulate feelings about those colors that invariably carry over into adult life. Some experts believe that humans have an “ancient wisdom,” that throughout eons of evolutionary history going back to the beginning of time, we have an associative memory concerning space, form, patterns and colors.