Colour Psychology

Samantha FreemanCMM1108 Assignment Two

The invest of colour on human behaviour and feeling

Do you ever wonder why a certain colour makes you angry? Or another makes you relaxed? Strange, but colour effects the human mind in bazaar and uncanny ways.

The human experience of colour comes from personal and cultural associations.

It is culturally constructed to invest on human behaviour and feeling, although the way it invests varies from time to time, place to place, culture to culture. We’re all culturally different, anyway!

Different colours and their meanings

http://fudgegraphics.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/colour-wheel.jpg

PINK?

?

YELLOW?

VIOLET?

TURQUOISE?

RED?GREEN??

BLUE?

Certain colours perform different functions symbolically and psychologically.

According to colour consultants and practitioners, common physiological effects accompany the psychological effects, as colour acts on the body as well as the mind.

Colours can stimulate, excite, depress, tranquilize, increase appetite and create a feeling of warmth or

coolness. This is known as chromodynamics.

Yellow, orange and red are associated with the heat of sun and fire; blue, green and violet with the coolness of leaves, sea and the sky.

Warm and Cool Colours

Warm Vs. CoolWARM• Active and exciting• Increase bodily tension• Stimulate autonomic

nervous systemCOOL• Soothing and passive• Release tension• Studies show weight

lifters are more powerful in a blue room than a red one!

Colour Harmony

• For most people one of the first decisions of the day concerns colour harmony. What am I going to wear?

This question is answered not only by choosing a style and fabric appropriate to the season, but by making the right color choices.

http://www.fernsgeneralstore.com/images/color-chart1.png

http://www.fernsgeneralstore.com/images/color-chart1.png

• Red - Power, warmth, energy, passions, love, aggression, danger. Red changes meaning in the presence of other colours. E.g. With green, it becomes a symbol for Christmas. In Eastern cultures, when combined with white it symbolizes joy.

* Blue - Trust, conservative, security, technology, cleanliness, order, depression. Symbolises trust in the army. Dark blue symbolizes sadness and depression.

• Green - Nature, health, good luck, jealousy, renewal. Problems associated with green packaging in some countries. Used to symbolize envy and jealousy as well as greed. It does not do well in a global market, but also indicates freshness and natural things.

• Yellow - Optimism, hope, happiness, dishonesty, cowardice, betrayal. A sacred colour, depicts happiness and hope. When pale can indicate cowardice.

• Purple - Spirituality, mystery, royalty, luxury, cruelty, arrogance. Rarely appears in natural circumstances, was the hardest colour to make in history, therefore seen as a colour of luxury and wealth.

• Orange - Energy, balance, warmth. Signifies inexpensiveness, positive energy.

• Brown - Earth, reliability, comfort, endurance. Brown discourages sales, used in natural circumstances, a comfortable colour.

• Grey - Intellect, futurism, modesty, sadness. Easiest colour for the eye to see, depictive of dullness.

• White - Purity, cleanliness, precision, innocence, sterility, death. Significant of marriage but in some Eastern cultures it symbolizes death.

Although a meaning of a colour may vary within time, place and culture, the basic meanings generally apply. So next time your stuck for something to wear, try think of what kind of an environment your going to be in that day and what

kind of mood you want to achieve.

A little colour goes a long way!

Design RationaleI used balance and proportion to guide the layout of my slides. This aided in the even spread of information and the legibility of the slideshow.

A legible font was used (Calibri) which is a sans-serif font. It was kept simple, not bold nor italic in order to improve the legibility of it. I also made it a either black or white in order to contrast with the background and size 18 all the way through (apart from headings) as I felt it was a legible reading size. Consistency was kept through the slideshow in order to keep the viewers focus and attention. Typography plays a large part in communication design as it functions as shape and line as well as verbal meaning. Although the design lacks a lot of images, I feel the type enhances the information I am presenting in this slideshow.

Repetition of a few images was used when presenting the same information. Space was filled efficiently and I allowed for negative space in each slide in order to balance the pages. The effects I used were in order to show dominance and hierarchy, as the important points came first and had a defined entry path.

ReferencesColour Psychology [n.d.] Retrieved August 17, 2009, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org./wiki/color_symbolism_and_psychology

Colour Psychology [n.d.] Retrieved August 17, 2009, from google: http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/Pantone.aspx?pg=19382&ca=29

Evans, P., & Thomas, M. A. (2008). Exploring the elements of design. Canada: Thomson Delmar Learning.

Meaning of colour. [n.d.] Retrieved August 22, 2009, from garrettmedia: http://www.garrettmedia.com/color_psych_chart

Images retrieved from:

www.fernsgeneralstore.com/images/color-chart1.png

http://fudgegraphics.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/colour-wheel.jpg

www.hongkiat.s3.amazonaws.com/colorfulwp/Spectrum_by_GRIMGOR.jpg

www.lifetracker.com.au