purple, violet, purpurrot, viola, púrpura
Purple is most often associated with royalty and nobility. In medieval European days blue dyes were rare and expensive, therefore purple was really only worn by those who could afford the dye. Today in western culture purple is still associated with royalty and wisdom where in Thailand, for example, it is the color of mourning. It symbolizes nobility, spirituality, wealth, ceremony, and enlightenment. It holds a special, almost sacred placed in nature, in it’s rare delicate form in lavender, orchids, and lilacs. While it provides us also with a sense of calm and cool, much like blue, it also shares blue’s characteristic to have the ability too make us feel moody when exposed to too much of this hue. Cleopatra’s favorite color, we also see the Purple Hat Ladies wearing the hue with much sophistication and regal-ness, yet meanwhile purple is often associated with flamboyancy, arrogance, and over indulging. Purple, a somewhat controversial color in how it makes us feel and what it means to us, is also one of the most ’sacred’ in it’s symbolism in churches.
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The universal favorite color of blue is said to improve feelings of calm and to aid intuition. It may help one sleep and provide a sense of time passing more rapidly. Blue, unlike any other color in the spectrum is very consistent in the emotions it conveys in us and how we associate it. In feelings of peace, unity, tranquility, calmness, trust, confidence, loyalty, dependability, wisdom, nobility and cleanliness, blue offers very little in negative reaction to our physical being. However, the only warning possibly being that too much blue may make us feel blue. When Zeus was said to be sad and crying it was believed that the heavens rained blue. So the phrase ‘feeling blue’ was associated with being sad or feeling down. In many cultures blue is signified as bringing peace or keeping bad spirits away. It is non-threatening, confident, stable. It exudes an heir of importance without being sinister and therefore in the corporate world of the power suit it seems well fit. Blue may increase productivity and encourage communication in business settings with it’s ability to calm and provide even flow. In the western world we may find more than 50% of us claim blue as our favorite and around the world it is related to blue skies and blue water, both of which have positive meaning. We continue to find comfort in blue more so than any other hue, therefore making it necessity.
While we use green to describe someone who is inexperienced, jealous or sick (i.e. “You look a little green around the gills”) we also associate green with regeneration, fertility and rebirth. We also find in ancient Egypt green symbolizes immortality and we can find proof of this belief in their worship of Osiris, their god of the after-life. It was said that Osiris died and was resurrected and most typically depicted as having green skin which represented his regeneration. Green enables us to feel connected to nature by a means that no other color can. We feel relaxed mentally and physically. It soothes, warms and cools all at the same time. Gazing upon this hue that is formulated out of blue and yellow we can alleviate feelings of depression and anxiety with it’s calming effects. The positive effects as we mentally calculate how this hue will make us react perhaps can be attributed to the yellow and blue which have created it. Although our brain tells us green is the most natural color I find it somewhat comical that there is no natural source of green food colorings approved by the FDA. So, we find green in an unnatural state. On the positive side of it’s psychology this color symbolizes intelligence, fertility, youth, wealth, good luck and generosity. On the flip side, however, we associate this color with greed, envy, aggression and jealousy. Perhaps we should feel no need to decipher in our minds our feelings of being wealthy or greedy, lucky or envious, as these feelings are in fact influenced by the same emotions to a reaction to same color.
Yellow may be associated to cowardice, caution and aging, but it is more often associated to sunshine, happiness, hope and joy. It’s physiologically the ‘happiest’ color. Pushing any negative representations that might linger out of our minds. For years yellow ribbons were worn as a sign of hope for women as they waited for their men to come home from war and even still it represents courage and peace in India and Japan. It may be the most important color in Chinese culture as it was considered a color worn by members of the imperial families and it symbolized the element earth. The color also provided the name ‘Yellow Emperor’ to Huangdi an emperor who lived by the land, was known to tame wild animals, introduced Martial Arts to China, and was the founder of traditional Chinese Medicine and the Chinese Calendar. A man of many inventions and much respect in Chinese culture, yellow very soon became associated with prosperity and good-faith. When we see yellow there is instant communication to the brain which throttles stimulation of mental processes and the nervous system. Our memory is activated and communication is encouraged. Could it be that being told to eat a banana before an exam has nothing to do with the nutrition, but more of our physical reaction to the color we see? Good food for thought.
It is said the word ‘orange’ was first used to denote this hue during the time of King Henry VIII’s reign in 16th century England. Although we now see it’s association to Hinduism and Buddhism it then symbolized the royal family of the Netherlands, The House of Orange-Nassau. Previously known as geoluhread (meaning yellow-red), orange promoted feelings of good health, energy and safety in it’s representation of warmth and the sun. In this color’s psychology we associate it with happiness, balance, fire and enthusiasm, but on the opposite spectrum we also see arrogance, gaudiness, over-emotion, and danger. In our minds we can feel a sense of hunger as the color gives us a feeling of urgency. And, in this urgency it can now make sense that orange flags us in our Homeland Security, makes us aware of construction, hunters, and even the need to yield before a red light change. While it rhymes with nothing, many have tried, and in top online search results you will only find “Things That (kind of) Rhyme With Orange”. Orange masters uniqueness. It creates more controversy in our thoughts then any other color may with it’s strong negative and positive reactions in a true love-it or hate-it scenario. Yet, as it may confuse our minds as to which emotional reaction we take it still pairs perfectly with the all around answer of a favorite color; that being blue. A fun loving, socialite who is occasionally dramatic but always good-natured, however, when asked will answer orange.
We know red in many different contexts and forms. We recognize it as a primary color, from which all color can be derived. The effect of this hue in culture, our physical self and mental self is much recognizable. Which should be quite obvious if you consider how red, as power color, we most often associate with love and sexuality. Red holds the power to raise blood pressure, and heart rate. It is said that it can encourage feelings of hunger, romance, desire, excitement, anger, ambition, power and war. In 18th Century Bavarian Germany red was the prominent color at weddings. Symbolizing the celebration of love, red was also long before recognized as good luck and symbolized fertility. It remains today during Greek weddings for the bride to wear a red veil, and the recognition of the importance of red in Chinese wedding culture also remains. It will be proven time again, that despite era or trend, red will continue to have power over our emotions. Therefore in implying it’s a ‘power’ color should seem very true. The importance of making a statement, seeking attraction, drawing attention, alerting to danger can all be obtained by a single flash of red. It will forever seize to catch the eye and ignite our body, demanding physically that we feel emotion for it.