The psychology of colour

It is known by artists and designers that colour can dramatically affect moods and a powerful communication tool. However this is not exactly the same for everyone. People's feelings on colour can be deeply personal and rooted in different experiences or culture. An example of this is the colour white, in Western culture is symbolises purity, whereas in Eastern countries it is often a symbol of mourning.

There are colours that seem to have a universal meaning such as the warm colours (reds, yellows and oranges) that can create a range of feelings from warmth and comfort up to anger and hostile. On the flip side are the cool colours (blues, purples and greens) that are calm but also can represent sadness or insecurity.

Each of your favourite colour's are seen to represent something:

• Black - A symbol of mourning in many cultures
  - Absorbs the light of the other spectrums
  - Can be used as a symbol of menace or evil but also power
  - Represented life and rebirth in Egypt
  - Slimming quality in fashion/ black is used in language (black belt, black tie, black cat, blackout, black list, black market)
  
• White - Purity or innocence.
  - Bright and creates a sense of space or adds highlights.
  - Cold, bland, sterile
  - Rooms painted completely white can be spacious but also unfriendly.
  
• Red - Bright and invokes strong emotions.
  - Love, warmth and comfort
  - Intense and angry colour
  - Red in language: redneck, red-hot, red-handed, paint the town red, seeing red.
  
• Blue - A favourite of many people - most preferred by men
  - Calmness and serenity,
  - Sadness
  - Encourages productiveness
  - Not appetizing - diet plans recommend eating off a blue plate as you will want to eat less! Humans natural instinct is to avoid food that is poisonous and often blue is a sign of food spoiled or poison.
  - Lower pulse rate and temperature.
  Blue in language: blue moon, blue Monday, blue blood, the blues
  
• Green - Nature
  - Tranquility, health and good luck
  - Researches have found that it improves reading ability.
  - Symbol of fertility.
  - Calming
  - Relieve stress
  
• Yellow - Cheery and warm
  - most fatiguing to the eye
  - can create frustation and anger
  - increase metabolism
  - most attention grabbing colour
  
• Purple - Symbol of royalty and wealth
  - Wisdom and spirituality
  - Does not often occur in nature and so can be exotic or atificial.
  
• Brown - A natural colour that invokes strength.
  - Sadness and isolation
  - Warmth, comfort and security
  - Sophisticated
  
• Orange - Energetic colour
  - Excitement, enthusiasm and warmth.
  - Often used to draw attention.
  
• Pink - Love and romance
  - Calming effect
  - Researchers have found the calming effect is only during initial exposure and that overtime it can cause agitation.