Category Archives: news

New Scientist colour quiz

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New Scientist recently undertook an informal study to see if red is off-putting in a testing environment. 

They set up two quizzes, each consisting of the same 15 anagrams. One quiz was predominantly red and the other blue.

On every attempt to access the article, a pop-up appeared requesting that you take part in the test. The colour of the text and border of this box was randomly selected to be either blue or red, corresponding to the colour of the text and border of the anagram test to which it linked. They then gathered data on the click-through rate for both colours, and the relative success rate.

They got roughly the same follow-through rate for both colours – 8478 for red and 8550 for blue – so the colour of the pop-up did not seem to have an effect on how attractive a prospect it was to take part in the quiz.

They also found that the readers scored an average of 63 per cent in the quiz, irrespective of whether the text and boarder colours were red or blue.

See http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18071-colour-psychology-quiz-the-results.html

the power of red

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An interesting article in New Scientist has explored the influence of colour on the choices we make; how we act and think. The article – http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327232.400-winners-wear-red-how-colour-twists-your-mind.html?full=true – quotes research published in Psychologial Science that revealed that the colour of clothing worn by competitors in a taekwondo contest affects the decisions even by experienced referees. In short, competitors wearing red were awarded 13% more points than those dressed in blue

 taekwondo

This builds on previous research published in Nature in 2005 – http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v435/n7040/full/435293a.html – that showed that between 55% and 62% of bouts in Olympic combat contests were won by competitors wearing red when in fact red and blue should have won 50% each if colour had no effect. Robert Barton, from Durham University (UK) has argued that the colour red could influence the mind of the referee but could also affect the mental state and performance of the competitor.

Interestingly, 38 of the last 63 top division soccer titles in England have been won by teams in red (Manchester, United, Arsenal, Liverpool) and goalkeepers feel more confident about saving a penalty from a player in a white shirt than in a red one. Both of these facts were taken from papers published in Journal of Sports Sciences.

sustainable colour design

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registration for CIC

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Today is the last day you can register for the Color Imaging Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico to qualify for the early-bird registration fee. This annual event is one of the foremost conferences in Colour Imaging and provides useful networking opportunities. The conference web site is http://www.imaging.org/IST/conferences/cic/

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two cultures?

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This week I was honoured to be the invited speaker at the 5th National Conference of the Italian Colour Group. I decided to address the meeting about two of my research projects that to some extent attempt to bridge the gap between art and science.

In 1959 CP Snow – a Cambridge University academic – delivered a famous lecture entitled The Two Cultures that led to heated and widespread debate. Snow argued that the lack of communication between the sciences and the humanities was a problem that inhibited solution to the world’s major problems.

I believe that Snow’s argument is still valid today. Interestingly I bought The Times to read on the plane to Palermo – where the colour conference was being hosted – and to my surprise that very day’s edition had a substantial article about The Two Cultures – http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6862299.ece

The Times writes that Snow said “There is something wrong with a civilisation, he said, where knowledge is so compartmentalised that people can count as highly educated and yet be wholly ignorant of huge swaths of what other highly educated people know. How could scientists not read Shakespeare? How could literary people never have heard of the second law of thermodynamics?”

In terms of colour, I believe there was more cross-over between the sciences and the humanities in the 18th and 19th centuries than there is now. I am not convinced that the problem that Snow articulated has gone away. Perhaps the divergence between the two fields is an inevitable result of specialisation? Possibly, but I don’t think so. I think there is room (indeed, a requirement) for specialists. However, we also need to find a way for people working in colour to in the arts and humanities and in the sciences to communicate more effectively to each other. Because, we have much to learn from each other.

In my experience some scientists do not want to communicate outside of their narrow discipline. Others, would like to but seem unable to do so without recourse to specialist language (e.g. mathematics). In the arts, if anything the willingness to communicate “across the gap” is even less. 

One organisation that has worked hard for many decades to encourage debate across the science-art divide is the AIC (the International Color Association”. You can find their website here – http://www.aic-colour.org/

I know from the nice stats that wordpress provide that a lot of people read my blog. But not many people leave any comments 🙁

It would be rather wonderful if – having read this – you left your view at the bottom. Is there a gap? Is it a good or a bad thing? How can we bridge it?

ps. I am not holding my breath waiting for the responses 🙂

silver still the most popular car colour

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Pittsburgh-based PPG Industries Inc. said silver has been the number one colour for nine straight years, accounting for 25 per cent of vehicle paint choices in the U.S., 35 per cent in Europe and 34 per cent in the Asia-Pacific region.

In the U.S., silver rose from 20 per cent of the market a year ago. White finished second at 18 per cent and black was third with 16 per cent. Red was a distant fourth at 12 per cent. See http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gi9WBgK8rDlLWiq1EGAWASLjOwPA

However, it would be interesting to see a more detailed analysis by car type and model. I used to have a Mazda MX5. It was bright red. Although the dark grey MX5 looks nice, for the MX5 you really have to have red in my opinion. It’s iconic.

Having said that, I just searched for MX5 on Google images. It produced, on page 1, 10 silver cars, 5 red cars, and 2 blue cars. So the power of the iconic little red sports car could be weakening and silver could be reigning supreme.

My longing – like that of many others of my age – for a little red sports car probably goes back to The Graduate and Benjamin Braddock’s red Alfa Spider (see picture below).

Thegraduate

red-blue flicker causes epilepsy

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In 1997, more than seven hundred children in Japan suffered an epileptic attack while watching an episode of Pokemon cartoon. This was later diagnosed as a case of photosensitive epilepsy (a kind of epilepsy caused by visual stimulus) triggered by a specific segment of the cartoon containing a colourful flickering stimulus. However, despite the ubiquitous presence of colourful displays and materials, very little is known about the relationship between colour-combinations (chromaticity) and photosensitivity. A new study has recently been published that suggests that certain colour combinations, for example, red-blue flickering stimuli, cause larger cortical excitation than other colour combinations such red-green or blue-green stimuli – http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/press-releases/pressrelease.php?releaseID=749

solid ink printers in UK

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As an alternative to laser or inkjet technology, Xerox offers solid-ink technology printers. A solid-ink printer uses solid sticks or blocks of ink instead of toner or inkjet cartridges. Xerox claims that solid-ink printers offer better colour consistency, are less expensive per sheet of printing and are more environmentaly friendly, producing less waste than lasers and inkjets – http://www.office.xerox.com/solid-ink/enus.html. The technology uses solid inks that are melted and sprayed onto the page as droplets, in a manner not dissimilar from inkjet printing. But because the inks are solid at room temperature, they can be supplied in blocks that are simply dropped into the printer, rather than being contained in a cartridge.

Now solid-ink technology is available in the UK with the launch of three Xerox ColorQube printers. However, they are out of the reach of the home user, costing around £13K each.