This week we had a three-day colour conference at the University of Leeds. You can see details of it here. This follows on from our successful event in 2019. COVID meant that it took 4 years to host our second conference but hopefully it won’t take so long for the next one. We had so many excellent speakers but one of these was Dimitris Mylonas (pictured) from Northeastern University London, UK who spoke about Colour Naming in Humanity-Centred Design. Dimitris is one of those people whose work I admire but I don’t get much chance to meet him even though we both live in the UK. I particularly like the use of on-line experiments in his research.
Last night I was chilling after the event finished and browsing youtube and I came across this interesting youtube video about the origins of English colour words. It is definitely worth a watch. It includes the idea that some ancient cultures didn’t have a word for blue and that they couldn’t see blue. Although I think it is true that they didn’t have a name for blue I am less convinced that they couldn’t see blue. As evidence for this people often cite Homer’s description of the sea as being wine dark in both the Iliad and Odyssey. If only I had seen this video the day before it would have reminded me to ask Dimitris what he thinks about this. I am sure he would have had something to say.
I’m off to Texas on Monday for Texas Design Week. I will be taking part in two panel discussions – one in Dallas and one in Houston – invited by Harlequin (part of the Sanderson Design Group) with whom I have been collaborating for a colour of years now. Last year I did something similar in Atlanta for Atlanta Design Week so I know what to expect. And we have done have half a dozen or more such panels in the UK over the last 24 months. I will be sharing the platform with designers of course and my role is to bring some findings from the world of colour science to the table. The mix of science and design in the discussions is always a lot of fun.
My relationship with Harlequin started when I was asked to write a white paper about colour and its effect on people at home and in the workplace. You can download that white paper here if you are interested.
Talking about colour in our lighting lab
In the white paper Soojin Lee and I identified two different ways in which colour (and light) can affect us. We referred to them as emotional and physical.
The emotional effect is often caused by associations; we associate certain colours with certain ideas or memories. We might find a blue room relaxing, for example. There is some commonality between people (because we all live in the same world) but at the same time there are differences between individuals. This is the same reason why, for example, blue is a colour liked by lots of people, but that we can find individuals who don’t like blue. I am one of those.
The physical effect is more to do with the direct effect of colour and light on our physiology. For example, we need exposure to lots of light in the morning and we need to avoid such exposure at night, to keep our circadian system in a healthy state and to enjoy good quality sleep. There is evidence that blue light, in particular, is alerting and can keep us awake. Because we all have the same physiology there tend to be fewer individual differences in these effects.
Sometimes these two effects are contradictory and can even occur at the same time. It’s why a blue bedroom (blue-painted wall, blue curtains or blue bed linen) can be relaxing whilst at the same time exposure exposure to bright blue light can be alerting.
So is blue alerting or relaxing? It depends. It doesn’t actually make any sense to ask the question in that abstract way. We should ask whether blue lighting or blue paint, for example, is relaxing – and then we can have a meaningful response.
I am not a fan of colour trends. What I mean by that is that I think sometimes there is an urge to generate new colour schemes twice a year which feels a little forced to me. And it is one of the reasons why we over consumer. This is particularly the case with clothes where – in the UK in particular – we buy clothes far too often. Our consumption of textiles is generally not sustainable.
But that said, I am not saying that there is no such thing as colour trends. Certain colours – and colour combinations – become desirable at certain times and I don’t think the whole thing is artificially generated. I just think the changes are not as rapid as the colour forecasting industry would have us believe.
But I am old enough to remember the 70s and I remember well the desirability of brown and olive green bathroom suites, for example. Nobody would use these colours as the basis of their interior design colour schemes today — would they?
Well, today I read that brown is replacing dark blue as a favoured colour for interiors when a moody dramatic look is the aim. The article in Livingetc suggests that the use of brown – a more muted colour – is more natural in its feel and that sales of brown-hued paint are rising. There are some interesting examples of the use of brown in the online article.
We have a free webinar tomorrow (Thurs 23 Feb at 2pm UK time) about colour and AI. Anat Lechner will present about this topic. Here is the abstract below:
We’re at a new age where artificial intelligence is becoming the most influential technology, a technology that once arrived, is poised to morph all aspects of our lives, irreversibly.
Artificial Intelligence rapidly moves into the mainstream, demonstrating greater production efficiencies, marketing precision and at times, creative design output than what humans generate. As cross-industry disruption escalates, designing products, brands and environments is being challenged. Traditionally, design decisions relied heavily on personal preference, past experience, anecdotal or company data, or costly market research, but advancements in big-data and AI call for the integration of new capabilities into the design process to better inform, inspire and validate design decisions
This seminar will review the emergent cross-industry AI-driven disruption, providing examples of creative cognitive technology applications in product, brand, urban and experience designs. We will then center on data-driven color design decision processes, discussing new colour data insights and tools to enhance and solidify companies’ creative capabilities, data assets, design practices, and talent bench-strength.
Anat Lechner, PhD, is a Professor of Business at the Stern School of Business, New York University where she focuses on disruptive innovation and strategic change. She is also the co-founder of Huedata Inc., the Color Intelligence Company that provides colour data and analytics to designers, strategists and researchers to aid product, brand and environment design decisions. A former Researcher at McKinsey & Co. Dr. Lechner has advised global Fortune 100 firms in the Financial Services, Pharmaceuticals, Chemicals, Energy, Food, Technology, design and Retail industries. She has numerous appearances in NYT, WSJ, Forbes, BBC, Time and other premier global media outlets. Anat holds an MBA and a PhD in Organization Management from Rutgers University, NJ.
Colours have meanings. By that I mean that when we see colour we are reminded of certain things. There is a symbolism which is related to the field of semiotics. This symbolism is, in my opinion, as important – if not more so – than the aesthetics of colour. At least, I think this is often true in design. And it is for this reason that the internet is awash with infographics and blogs that tell us what the meanings are so that we can use them appropriately. This is the sort of thing that we often see:
There is an element of truth in this sort of infographic of course but it’s far too simplistic. Does it explain, for example, why HSBC use red as their brand colour?
Or the use of red in Baxter’s soup packaging?
Of the use of red in packaging of fruit yoghurt?
I don’t think that infographic explains any of these uses of red. Nevertheless, there is design thinking behind the use of colour in each of these cases. However, it is the sort of thinking that requires a deep knowledge of various cultural ideas including traditions and trends. In fact, it is for this reason that I find the use of colour in design (particularly in packaging) fascinating. It’s Boxing Day and my teenage son is still in bed after an all nighter (don’t ask!). So I thought I would tell you what my thinking is about these three examples of the use of red. I apologise in advance that this will be quite a long blog post. So are you sitting comfortably?
Let’s take the use of red by HSBC first. I often see infographics that state that red is a bad choice for a bank.
And if we look at the logos of banks in the UK this certainly seems to hold some truth.
However, what if we look further afield? To Asia, for example.
It turns out that red is an incredibly popular colour for banks in some parts of the world. And this brings us to the first point which is that the meanings that colours have can often depend upon the cultural background of the viewer (or receiver). Whereas I would argue that in the West the colour most associated with good fortune is green, it is undeniable that it is red in many Asian countries, especially in East Asia. It is therefore not surprising that banks often use red for their branding because which bank doesn’t want consumers to be reminded of good luck and fortune when they are thinking of putting some money in the bank or considering some other financial transaction? So, to understand the HSBC colour, we have to understand that although HSBC is a common sight on UK high streets today, the origins of the bank are in Kong Kong and Shanghai. The clue is the name – the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. Interestingly, the shape of the HSBC logo is derived from the cross of St Andrew which turns out to be true of many Hong Kong company flags and logos. You can read more about the history of the HSBC logo here. Understanding that colour meanings in one geographical location might not translate to another location is important to avoid making simple, yet potentially serious, mistakes.
Second, we can turn to the use of red in tins of Baxter’s soup. If we look at the Baxter’s tin of soup the thing that stands out to me first of all is the green of the soup. A number of years ago, when I was developing my thinking around colour meaning whilst working with Seahwa Won who obtained her PhD in this topic and is now an academic in Korea, we developed the term original substance colour to explain the observation that for food packaging in particular, we often see the colour of the actual product being represented in the packaging. So we see orange packaging for orange juice, brown packaging for coffee, etc. This idea is never mentioned in the infographics you can find online. Often, the packaging is transparent so that the colour that you see is the actual colour of the product itself.
In this case the transparent packaging allows the colour of the fruit juice to be seen
In this case, the packaging uses orange; the original substance colour of the product
So with Baxter’s soup we have the original substance colour of the pea soup that dominates and starts the design. So what about the red? Well, there are a few things going on here which is often the case. Often, the colours used in a design work so well together in a number of different ways that you can only admire the ingenuity of the design team. There is the fact that the Baxter’s logo is red. I don’t know how long this has been the case – if anyone knows anything about the history of the Baxter logo please let me know in the comments. But we also have a colour harmony. Opposite hues – red and green, in this case – often work well together aesthetically. But if we have a really bright vivid red and a really bright vivid green next to each other then this can be unsettling. That might not be the intended effect here. It’s very often much nicer to have one of the hues quite bold and then have the other much more muted. This only goes to demonstrate another truism which is that colour harmony is about more than just the relationships between hues.
We have a red-green relationship in both cases but the relationship on the right will be seen as more aesthetically pleasing than the one on the right because of the difference in chroma
Finally, there is the fact that Baxter’s is a Scottish company. I don’t know if the tartan shown on the Baxter’s soup label has any connection with the company but that combination of red and green looks very much like the tartan of the Baxter Clan.
So there you have it, you have original substance colour, colour harmony, and the Scottish symbolism of the tartan to remind you that this is a Scottish heritage company all working together. And the pale green background and the dark red text even gives you excellent contrast for legibility. Very beautiful work in my opinion. The point is that something like this
doesn’t even begin to tell you about why these colours are used on the outside of this tin of soup. These infographics are way too simple; not even at undergraduate level to be honest and they are pretty much useless.
Finally we can look at the yoghurt pot. Again, the red is not used because it represents passion, energy, urgency, excitement, vibrancy or danger. It is simple original substance colour again with the red representing strawberries.
Red can mean so many things: original substance colour in many food packages, good luck and fortune in Asian bank logos, emergency and danger in health and safety equipment, stop when it is a traffic light. Yes, it can also mean passion and urgency and vibrancy. But context is everything.
In my teaching at the University of Leeds I often refer to this advertisement for the mini.
What does the red symbolise in this mini commercial?
The combination of red, white and black is aesthetically pleasing. But there are lots of similar combinations that could have been used. But the red is used symbolically. It is the True Blood mini convertible. Feel the wind in your fangs!! Exclusively for vampires. This is excellent colour design because the colours work with the text and the imagery and are consistent with the messages that are intended. The red symbolises blood. And the combination of red, white and black together in this context, with the other cues, indicate vampires!
I hope you found this interesting. It passed a few hours between one Boxing Day meal and the next for me. Leave a comment if you liked it or disagree with my analysis or if you noticed something that I didn’t. If you liked this post, take a look at my earlier holiday post about Christmas colour symbolism if you didn’t see it. Enter your email in the subscription box below to get updates when I post new stuff.
Visit my patreon page for more detailed colour education
For quite a long time I have been working on the relationship between colour and meaning. A lot of very good research has been carried out over the last few decades in this area. Typically, in this research, people are shown a colour and asked to respond what they think about it on a bi-polar scale; for example, is it warm or is it cool. Or, is it modern or is it old-fashioned. This research is very nice but in my opinion we should turn the problem on its head. Rather than asking what we think about a colour we should ask which colours do we associate with warm, which colours do we associate with modern, which colours do we associate with happy. There are several reasons for this. One is because I would like the research to be useful to, for example, designers. Designers don’t typically start with a colour and wonder what that colour represents. Rather, they might start with a brief that includes some concepts, such as modern and financial and think start to explore which colours might represent (or communicate) those words or concepts. It’s great to do this sort of research in the lab. However, I would really like to be able to generate a colour palette for any word or concept and it is clear that we can’t run costly and laborious lab experiments for every word (and for every word in every language actually).
I worked with a major paint company to automatically generate colour palettes for words using large-scale internet scraping following by machine learning. We have a pilot website with results for a few words. It looks like this.
Another way to get lots of data about this topic is using crowd sourcing. We have also been doing this and you can read our latest paper about this in the Journal of the International Colour Association. Details of this paper are shown below:
In this study we were interested in which type of colour information designers want. We carried out surveys and interviews (with senior designers and brand managers) and the results are summarised below:
We used a card-sorting technique in our interviews to ensure that the participants knew what each of our terms meant.
We found that colour meaning was one of the aspects of colour that designers would like to be able to put their finger on; it was more important that colour trend information in fact! We also looked some existing colour tools and found that none of them really offered the most important information that designers and brand managers want to know about colour. What would be really cool would be a tool that provided accurate information about the meanings that colours have in different cultures and perhaps in different contexts.
The full paper will shortly be published in Color Research and Application.
Won S & Westland S, 2018. Requirements capture for colour information for design professionals, Color Research and Application.
The full publication details will be added here when they are available. Meanwhile, you can read it here.
There is currently interest in re-using traditional and cultural designs in modern commercial applications. The bojagi is one of these traditional designs that could be reinvented and hence reinvigorated. But how can a designer create bojagi patterns for use in new digital design?
Working with Meong Jin Shin I developed a software tool that can create a wide range of different bojagi. We identified 8 different classes of traditional bojagi as shown below:
We then created a software tool that would allow a user to create new bojagi which would have the same visual characteristics as one of these 8 traditional classes.
We had some designers in Korea evaluate the tool and they were quite impressed. Although in this study we worked with Bojagi, in fact we were interested in exploring the general method of using digital tools such as this one to allow users to explore traditional designs and to use them in their contemporary design work. The ideas could be easily extended to cover other traditional designs such as tartan. The software could also be added to a package such as Adobe Photoshop as a plug-in.
You can read the full paper that we published here.
Shin MJ & Westland S, 2017. Digitizing traditional cultural designs, The Design Journal, 20 (5), 639-658.
