The Psychology of Color

It was Carl Jung who first noticed that  certain colors had an effect on the behaviors of his patients, and since  then color psychology has intrigued those who study human behavior.It  was business and advertising who saw the potential of color psychology  to influence people to buy their products, and some of the best experts  on the subject work for the major retailers.Fashion stylists too saw the importance in color in making someone look great as opposed to merely good. 

How colors trigger moods in people

Have you ever wondered why all the "add to cart" buttons on Amazon  are a rich yellow? Or why most banks tend to have blue somewhere in  their color scheme?

It's because these colors trigger certain emotions they want you to experience and associate with them.Here are some of the moods generated by the main colors:

Blue  - this is the color of the sky and is associated with feelings of  safety. Dark blue is known to make people feel secure (hence the dark  blue suits worn by most bank managers) and light blue is known to  generate peaceful feelings (if you've gone into an Italian church you'll  be struck at the light blues that surround the images of the Madonna).

Orange  and Yellows - these are the colors of ripe fruit and make people feel  cheerful. Most supermarkets will incorporate the color somewhere in  their design, because they symbolise food ready to eat. Amazon and many  other retailers use this in their buy buttons because it stimulates  impulse buying. Indeed studies have shown that anything with yellow in  it sells fast. 

Green - this is a neutral color in the middle of the spectrum and  thus the easiest on the eye. It stimulates feelings of wealth in people,  probably because in nature an abundance of green signifies an abundance  of rain and ease in growing food. The leisure industry uses this color  to make people feel prosperous and luxurious about their leisure - think  racing green. All prosperous or "elite" activities feature green  heavily - think of the manicured lawns of Wimbledon or the greens of the  Augusta National Golf Club. Think about how the upper class English  insist on having expanses of lush green lawns. And of course the dollar  bill is green - this is the color of money.

Red - this color makes  you feel aggressive and passionate. It's the color of blood and war -  back in the day the Spartans used to strike fear into their opponents  just from a glimpse of their red cloaks. Lab tests show that it makes  your heart race and tests also show it is associated with impulse  buying. However you rarely get a retailer using this color a lot for  fear it may scare away their customers, it's safer to use yellow. 

Color in the Home

Our homes are the only environment we can truly control, which is why most of us take so much care over how we decorate it.

Have  you ever slept in a room which makes you feel uneasy? When I bought my  current home, the bedroom had been painted a bright hot pink by the  previous owner. I had been planning to redecorate the entire house, so  though I had noted that the color was ugly, I didn't think much more  about it. I had a plan for the order in which I was going to redecorate,  and the bedroom was at the bottom of the list.

However - the  bright pink really started to grate on my nerves - it got to the stage  where I couldn't bear to go into the room till I was ready to sleep, and  I undressed in the dark so I didn't have to look at the walls. It was  obvious I'd have to change my plans and re-do this room first before it  drove me mad.

Strong bright colors are very hard to live with,  especially in those parts of the house we rest in. Shocking pink is a  stimulant, as is bright yellow, which is why I found it so hard to sleep  in that room. However, pale pinks can be very soothing, and creams can  be restful - they are basically the same colors, but have been diluted  massively by the addition of white. Therefore, when choosing colors for  bedrooms, the intensity is important - no matter which color you choose,  go for a low-intensity one (i.e. the color is a weak/whiter version) in  order that you can sleep peacefully.

Be careful about using red  in the bedroom - some people use it because they believe the bedroom  should be a passionate place, and red is a stimulant, it's  associated with passion and war. But you'll want to sleep in the room as  well as make love in it, so it might be better to decorate the room in a  neutral cream, and bring the passion in the form of a red nightgown  when you are in the mood. 

When decorating corridors or other small spaces, remember that light  colors make a room look bigger and dark colors make the room close in,  so go for lighter tones.Living rooms are the spaces you can  experiment with most if you like strong colors, especially if they are  large areas (which means the room won't close in on you). When choosing,  take account of whether you will be selling the house later or living  in it permanently. If you are going to be selling, choose a neutral  cream or magnolia for the walls, and use furnishings to add the colors  you want.And of course you can add pops of color anywhere you want in the house simply by adding vases of flowers in the color you want. 

The Importance of Color in Clothing

The fashion industry has always pushed certain colors each season,  because it makes it easier for them to manufacture their clothes, and  women dutifully bought the in-season color regardless of whether it  suited them.

All this changed in the 1980's when a lady called  Carol Jackson wrote a book called "Color Me Beautiful" which pointed out  that we all have our own natural coloring and thus we should only wear  clothes with colors that complimented our natural look, because that way  you'd always look your best. Women have always known that certain  colors suited them, and now Carol Jackson confirmed it and provided a  systematic way of choosing only those colors that are in your personal  "pallette".

She pointed out that you could divide people into  those with warm natural coloring (such as redheads) and cool natural  coloring, such as blondes. And amongst these two groups, you could  further divide them into those who looked better in muted low intensity  colors and those who looked great in high intensity colors. She named  the four groups after the seasons.

Though there are some  exceptions, for the most part she was right - take Grace Kelly for  example. She was a "summer" - i.e. she belonged to the low-intensity  cool group - and looked great in soft blue or pink gowns. One of the  most iconic pictures of her is of her wearing a pale blue-green gown to  collect her Oscar for Best Actress of 1955. It's actually rare to see  pictures of Grace Kelly in the wrong colors, but you catch glimpses of  it in her earliest pictures where a brown cardigan suddenly makes this  cool beauty look plain. 

So how can you tell which group you belong to? People who suit cool  colors will have a pink undertone to their skin, and people who suit  warm colors will have a golden undertone to their skin. The easiest way  to check this is to place your arm next to that of your friend or  sister, and you can immediately see differences. This applies to African  Americans as well as to Caucasians - if Rihanna put her arm next to  Beyonce's, you'd immediately realize that Rihanna had a cool skin tone  and Beyonce a warm skin tone.

Judging intensity is just a matter  of trial and error. You actually need to try clothes on, and try to view  them in daylight rather than in the florescent lights of the dressing  room. After a bit you can see which ones look good, and other people  will see it too - they'll say things like "you look great" rather than  "I like your dress". If you've got it right they won't notice the dress,  they'll only see your face and you. Be aware that when you buy  clothes online, the color on screen might look different to how it is  in cloth - therefore don't hesitate to return it if it turns out to be  the wrong shade.