ColorFULL of Meaning: PURPLE

ColorFULL of Meaning: PURPLE

This series of posts delves into the meanings, associations, and symbolism of color…starting with the color wheel above.  We have explored the Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Colors…let’s go deeper with those now, and learn a bit about color psychology.  Now that’s a horse of a different color…but not necessarily a dark horse. Off to the colorFULL races. Today let’s play with  magical, mystical, provocative  PURPLE!

  PURPLE associates with internalization, depth of feeling, dignity, wealth, exclusivity, mysticism, and magic. No wonder we are provoked by it.

In Europe and America, PURPLE is the color most associated with vanity, extravagance, and individualism. Among the seven major sins, it represents vanity. PURPLE is a color which is designed to attract attention.

Lighter, and containing more red, PURPLE can become sensual, seductive, secretive, sweet, cosmetic, intimate, and can associate with love. Closer to blue, it can associate with nobility, borne out by its association with royalty, and use in royal garments. It is the color most associated with  royalty. perhaps because  Tyrian purple was expensive. PURPLE is also associated with piety, and is religious color worn by priests.

According to Max Lüscher /the  Lüscher color test, PURPLE (technically violet, a lighter shade of PURPLE) can also express magic and romance, as expressed above, as well as perception.

Child of blue and red, PURPLE  suggests blue’s integrity, and red’s strength. PURPLE can also give lonely, mournful and pompous effect, hence its use in Victorian times as a color to be worn after the first year following the loss of a loved one. Certain PURPLE hues can appear, or “feel” unsettling, degenerate, morbid, and narcotic. When very dark in value, PURPLE can appear “strict”.

As regards to Synesthesia, or  associations with other senses, PURPLE (technically violet)  associates this way: Sound: sad, deep, minor key/light PURPLE – weak and restrained. Temperature: depends on the ratio of red to blue in the hue. Taste/Odor: narcotic, heavy, sweet/light PURPLE – sweetly tangy. Tactile: velvety. Weight: heavy/light PURPLE – light

On an energetic level, PURPLE (technically violet) corresponds to the vertex chakra, symbolizing wisdom and spiritual energy, and influencing the pituitary gland.

How do YOU respond to PURPLE? Do You see it as passionate, provocative, pensive or playful? Does it express mourning , morbidity  or money to You? Are You attracted to its magic and mysticism, or penitence and piety?

Kings and Cardinals have worn PURPLE.  It can express vanity, dignity, strictness and sensuality. PURPLE can seduce, exclude, unsettle and sedate. How do YOU weigh in on this bewitching and complex color which changes its meaning, feel and effect so drastically depending on its hue? What does PURPLE mean to YOU?

ColorFULL of Meaning: ORANGE

ColorFULL of Meaning: ORANGE

This series of posts delves into the meanings, associations, and symbolism of color…starting with the color wheel above.  We have explored the Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Colors…let’s go deeper with those now, and learn a bit about color psychology.  Now that’s a horse of a different color…but not necessarily a dark horse. Off to the colorFULL races. Today let’s jump into a color that can be both juicy and burnt…can it transcend its own contradictions? Here we go with ORANGE!

The primary associations of ORANGE are stimulating, happiness, joviality, warmth, sociability, and pleasure. It is lively,  outgoing and energetic. According to Max Lüscher /the  Lüscher color test, ORANGE can also express  competition, excitability, and excitability. Bright ORANGE excites and stimulates,  while light ORANGE cheers. When it is highly saturated, ORANGE can feel intrusive, brash, or aggressive. Next to red, it is the colour most popular for extroverts, and is a symbol of activity

ORANGE also associates with nature in a way very different than green:  Fall foliage…Autumn leaves,  harvest, (think Halloween pumpkins, Thanksgiving centerpieces replete with brilliant leaves and Indian corn), sunsets, the canyons of the Southwest. Although ORANGE closer to the actual color of fire…red is fire’s symbol (“fiery red”).

On an energetic level, ORANGE corresponds to the spleen  Chakra, symbolizing energy,  and influencing the heart and the spleen and pancreas.

ORANGE may be used as a color of warning, or caution in temporary and construction signage  specified by the US Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices  A skull with an ORANGE background indicates a toxic substance or poison, possibly also hearkening back to the scary aspect of Halloween. Level ORANGE is second only to level red in the US Department of Homeland Security‘s color system indicating  the threat of terrorist attack.

ORANGE can stimulate the appetite, and is often seen in the cheerful decor of casual dining establishments. It is the color of a wealth of fruits, vegetables and spices; from oranges (of course)  to carrots to pumpkins to salmon to paprika, and can be a great choice of hue for a variety of eating environments.

In fact, the “…colour orange is named after the appearance of the ripe orange fruit.^[2] The word comes from the Old French orenge, from the old term for the fruit, pomme d’orenge. That name comes from the Arabic naranj, through the Persian naranj, derived from the sanskrit naranga.^[3] The first recorded use of orange as a colour name in English was in 1512,^[4][5] in a will now filed with the Public Record Office. Before this word was introduced to the English-speaking world, the colour was referred to as ġeolurēad (yellow-red)….” the parent colors of ORANGE!

ORANGE is the hue most visible in dim light, or against the water.  It is  the color of life rafts, life jackets or buoys. It is worn by people wanting to be seen, including highway workers and lifeguards, and people who others want to keep track of, like prisoners (“Orange is the New Black“).  San Francisco’s  Golden Gate Bridge  is painted international orange to make it more visible in the fog that often shrouds the San Francisco Bay.

As regards to Synesthesia, or  associations with other senses, ORANGE associates this way: Sound: loud, major key. Temperature: warm, flame-like. Taste/Odor: strong. Tactile: dry

Born of red and yellow, ORANGE enlivens and cheers us, cautions us, encourages us to eat and warns us not to,  illuminates both what we want to see, and wish we didn’t have to. Always warm, and often inviting, ORANGE encourages, expresses, beckons, halts and screams both yes and no.

What does ORANGE mean to YOU?

ColorFULL of Meaning: GREEN

ColorFULL of Meaning: GREEN

This series of posts delves into the meanings, associations, and symbolism of color…starting with the color wheel above.  We have explored the Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Colors…let’s go deeper with those now, and learn a bit about color psychology.  Now that’s a horse of a different color…but not necessarily a dark horse. Off to the colorFULL races. Let’s delve into the many nuances of not always serene GREEN!

Melding the happiness of yellow and the dignity of blue, a GREEN centered between it’s “parent” hues, blue and yellow, is calming.

  GREEN is the most restful color to the eye, as it focuses GREEN exactly on the retina.

When GREEN holds more yellow then blue, it becomes more stimulating, lighter and less serious,

and when GREEN contains a higher proportion of blue than yellow, or “leans to the blue”,  it becomes colder.

As regards to Synesthesia, or  associations with other senses, GREEN associates this way: Sound: dull = muffled, saturated = shrill. Temperature: cool. Taste/Odor: sour/juicy. Tactile: smooth to damp.

On an energetic level, GREEN corresponds to the fourth, Heart Chakra, Anahata, symbolizing love, sympathy, and harmony,  and influencing the heart and the thymus gland.

 GREEN associates with  relaxation, calm, freshness, contentment, tranquility, refreshment, quietness and Life! By the same token, it may be used to refer to youth and inexperience, (possibly relating to unripe or GREEN fruit) embodied in the term  “greenhorn“.

We can also be “GREEN” with jealousy or envy. The expression “green-eyed monster” was first used by William Shakespeare in Othello: “it is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.” Shakespeare also used it in the Merchant of Venice, speaking of “green-eyed jealousy.”^[59]

We associate GREEN nature, strong growth, regeneration, and new life.  However, GREEN is also the color of decay, mold, poison, sickness and death (in humans). How often do we say someone has a “greenish” cast to their skin when they are ill? Do we ever say, something has gone “GREEN” in the refrigerator?

GREEN can express hope. It can offer a sense of safety and shelter. We may use the term “GREEN light”, when we feel permission to go ahead with something, referring to GREEN traffic lights which signal that it is safe to proceed. Our reaction to GREEN is  emotional AND rational..(apparently these are not mutually exclusive), which shows the tremendous range and complexity of GREEN!

What does GREEN mean to You? Do You like to use it in your work or living spaces, design with it in your marketing materials, or express with it artistically? Do you prefer yellow-GREENS, or blue-GREENS? Or, the “just-right” in-between GREEN?  What about GREEN rooms, and GREEN screens? There’s just too much to talk about…regarding GREEN!

ColorFULL of Meaning: YELLOW

ColorFULL of Meaning: YELLOW

This series of posts will delve into the meanings, associations, and symbolism of color…starting with the color wheel above.  We have explored the Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Colors…let’s go deeper with those now, and learn a bit about color psychology.  Now that’s a horse of a different color…but not necessarily a dark horse. Off to the colorFULL races. Let’s look now at the not always mellow YELLOW!

YELLOW associates with happiness, joviality, cheerfulness, optimism, high-spirits, and the sun. Related to light, and the most luminous of colors,  it  can symbolize a bright future, hope, expansiveness, and wisdom. It is also associated with gold, and wealth!

YELLOW is the color most often associated with the deity in many religions. Let’s remember that in Greek mythology,  Apollo is the god of light and the sun, as well as, truth, music and prophecy.  Perhaps that is where the idea of the “light of truth” originates!  The expansiveness of YELLOW means communication (which means mental and spiritual enlightenment).  It is the color of mail boxes in many places, and a symbol for the gods’ messenger, Mercury.  “You might have noticed the prevalence of the color yellow in stones and plants. YELLOW is a color of intellect and clarity. Wear yellow when you’re having a fuzzy-minded spell. Mercury’s attention is attracted to yellow, and offers clarity in response to it.”

When too strong, it can become glaring (think of about glaring sunshine). It is the color that most captures our attention, and thus can express egoism and madness. It is used to indicate caution, as the Green “GO” light turns YELLOW as a warning before it turns Red, demanding  that we stop! It is the color of pedestrian crossings  more easily seen than white. YELLOW is also used to express cowardice, jealousy and betrayal (“Yellow-bellied“)

In the world of advertising (and thus branding and marketing),  YELLOW communicates  activity and cheerfulness, expansiveness, search for new horizons, and  communication. Our reaction to YELLOW is primarily emotional. It alerts us, and activates out attention,and combined with  black, it communicates warning: think about bumblebees, black and YELLOW signage, the coloring of certain wild cats. Although we may respond to YELLOW with philosophical detachment, and also can awaken our anticipation.

As regards to Synesthesia, or  associations with other senses, YELLOW associates this way: Sound – shrill, major key. Temperature –  hot/warm. Taste/Odor – sour. Tactile – smooth. Weight – light.

On an energetic level, YELLOW corresponds to the Solar Plexus Chakra, symbolizing knowledge and intellect, as well as being the seat of tension. It influences the solar plexus and the adrenal body.

In conclusion, I am wishing you the happiness, enlightenment,  wealth and clarity of YELLOW, minus any egoism, betrayal or cowardice that this complex color associates with. May your paths be expansive, luminous, and paved with gold, or at least…YELLOW brick!

ColorFULL of Meaning: BLUE

ColorFULL of Meaning: BLUE

The next series of posts will delve into the meanings, associations, and symbolism of color…starting with the color wheel above.  We have explored the Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Colors…let’s go deeper with those now, and learn a bit about color psychology.  Now that’s a horse of a different color…but not necessarily a dark horse. Off to the colorFULL races. Today let’s look at and feel the confidence-inspiring hue of BLUE!

 BLUE can symbolize  calm and relaxation, security and comfort, tranquility, truth, spirituality and wisdom. It can feel sober, contemplative, and maternal. Nobility, dignity, poise, and reserve can all be associated or symbolized by hues of BLUE.

BLUE can also be frightening, depressing, cold, melancholy and sad. We speak of “Having the blues“.

We associate BLUE with passivity, quietness, wetness, cleanliness, having no odor, mental reflection,  sea and sky.  Light blue especially may associate with yearning or longing, as in the song lyrics, “Blue, blue, my world is blue…”

BLUE can symbolize “The best”.  Think  blue ribbon (winning first place!) and blue chip (enduring, and of high quality and value) companies and stock.

In the world of advertising (and thus branding and marketing),  BLUE communicates trustworthiness,  security, and quality, and is used to inspire confidence. BLUE may stimulate consciousness, consideration, and decision.  Our reaction to it is  primarily rational.  It expresses seriousness, clarification, certainty, and satisfaction.

As regards to Synesthesia, or  associations with other senses, BLUE associates this way: Sound:  distant, flute to violin. Temperature: cool. Taste/Odor: no odor. Tactile: smooth to not solid. Weight: relatively light.

On an energetic level, BLUE corresponds to the Larynx  Chakra, symbolizing religious inspiration, creativity, language and communication.  It influences the thyroid gland.

Pale blue, royal blue, true blue, feeling blue, which BLUE are You? The answer to this may only be found moment to moment, as our moods, and our associations change with our feelings and circumstances. As we found in our exploration of RED, colors may be inflected many different ways, and even contain within themselves systems of opposites (associating with both Love and Hate, for example). Mysterious and ever fascinating, our study, knowledge and experience of color is ever-unfolding, a journey, rather than a destination.