A recent small colour survey I conducted turned up some interesting results on colour attitudes and preferences.

Blue and red featured as commonly chosen favourite colours. Interestingly both are of course two ‘primary’ colours with different effects. Red relates to the physical self and as I spoke about in the previous blog article, relates to qualities of strength, stamina, courage etc. Whereas blue is the colour of the mind – our intellect and its qualities relate to thought, logic and trust. Colour psychology might interpret these two colour choices as representing two different personality types – one that is an active ‘doer’ (red) and one that is a planner and ‘thinker’ (blue).

Although purple was more often cited as a least favourite colour, yellow was the colour that was most mentioned as the colour people feel they ‘don’t suit’ and I have found this quite a common attitude among clients I have worked with. Here in the UK of course we don’t benefit from too much of the sunshine stuff and I think in some way that fact is mirrored perhaps by the lingering attitude of ‘GBR’ – Great British Reticence? Our inherent inhibited traits mean we’re not usually given to drawing attention to ourselves and displays of overt behaviour and there’s no doubt about it – yellow is the sunny, confident, ‘here I am’ ego colour!

Now although blue and red appear to be our more favoured colours, curiously it still seems that black is most highly favoured as a colour in which to dress ourselves. Around 57% of participants in the survey feel that it is ‘easy to wear’ colour and 43% claim to have at least up to 5 items of black clothing/accessories in their wardrobe! But why when we have so much other choice of colour available? Popular opinion holds the view that black can be seen as glamorous, sophisticated, efficient and serious, maybe ‘cool’ even. What I’m interested to know is this, is it because fashion/trends perpetuate the perceived benefits and allure of black? Or are we less confident about experimenting with other colours that suit us?

Previous blog articles you might be interested in……

Red Alert!

Purple Power

The message behind black

According to reports in one daily newspaper on Budget day the Labour party front benches ‘were awash with ties in epsicopal mauve’ and more recently our prime minister and his wife have been photographed wearing the colour purple. What can this mean?

Normally we associate the Labour party with the colour red which is physically stimulating but there are times when other qualities need to come to the fore when planning for a possible future victory.

Considered a ‘regal’ colour purple is a symbol of authority and rank. Before more modern dyeing and colouring processes the colour purple was difficult to obtain and therefore usually only worn by royalty, the higher echelons of the church and the very wealthy.

Although purple may not be considered a colour  for ‘partying’, none the less a prospective governing or official group could do worse than adopt purple as a colour; it expresses aspects of the ‘higher mind’. The purposeful and authentic qualities of purple that Gordon Brown and his team are favouring would seem to show that they share a sense of truth, quality and authority.

Other variations of purple might be described as violet, lilac, lavender, mauve and heather. Currently still a strong high street colour, the lighter or softer variations may make us appear more approachable and wearing or surrounding yourself with purple would help you to find inspiration and develop your imagination. Team purple with a complementing version of yellow and you have a visually inspiring, winning, confident and powerful combination!

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Last week I had the opportunity to visit a recently completed project that I worked on last summer. Applewood is a respite care facility built in the community in Tadworth, Surrey by Surrey County Council for children and young people with disabilities aged 5-18 years. Accompanying me was Susannah Mathieson, National Account Services Manager for Dulux who was interested to see how I had used colour on this project.

When working with colour psychology the key to selecting a palette of colours is to identify the ‘colour personality’ of the environment. What is it used for – who will be using the space and how? A family of colours is then selected accordingly that best captures, expresses and supports the required qualities of the environment. The brief from Pat Williams, manager of Applewood was to create a bright, lively, fun and ‘funky’ living accommodation that would inspire the young guests who will be able to stay at the facility for between 2 and 6 nights

To convey these qualities and the feel that Applewood wanted to create I specified colours that had warm, clear and bright characteristics. The ‘personality’ of this family of fresh spring colours captures perfectly the qualities of youth, vitality, energy, creativity, activity, motivation and fun! It also identifies particularly well with professions, institutions or businesses linked with children and ‘youth’.

I then looked at the individual colours to select the ones which would best support an activity or create an ambience within each particular room. For example in the recreation rooms where the youngsters would be perhaps socialising and conducting activities I specified yellow to encourage optimism and confidence. Other colours I specified for the Applewood palette were green, turquoise, purple, orange and blue. Each of these colours selected contribute to an upbeat and engaging environment both for the young people staying at Applwood and for the staff working there.

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