The Colour Affects System

 

Most of us are aware of the superficial effects of the right color, shade or tone on our appearance. The effects of color, however, go much deeper than wearing the ‘right colors.’ In fact, color powerfully influences our moods and behaviors. This includes, of course, colors in any design. Nonetheless, most people believe that the influence of color is far too subjective to predict, and that choosing harmonious colors is a matter of trial and error, of experience, or simply of having a ‘good eye’ for colors.

 

The Colour Affects System turns these beliefs on their head.

 

The Colour Affects System was developed by color psychologist Angela Wright, whose color psychology theory (tested empirically since 1985) identifies links between patterns of color and patterns of human behavior. She recently paired this theory with research in color physics by the Colour & Imaging Institute at the University of Derby, U.K. This research discovered a mathematical correlation between colors, which, in turn, demonstrates that objective color harmony is a reality.

 

As a result, she both discovered and confirmed that:

•  We respond to a color palette presented to us as a whole, rather than to individual colors in the palette.

• We all react to colors in the same way, regardless of age, gender or cultural background.

•  The psychological effects of a palette – the mood it will create and the behavior it will promote –  can be accurately predicted!

 

The result is color palettes that may be thoughtfully used to communicate your desired messages in the often overlooked, but universally understood language of color.

 

This, in summary, is an explanation of the Colour Affects system: (used with permission from www.colour-affects.co.uk)

 

The concept that color affects mood and influences behavior has long been recognized, but little understood. In additions to the beliefs mentioned above, another misconception about color is that, because it is physically processed through the eyes, it is a purely visual phenomenon. However, color is light and light is the source of life. As Faber Birren, the eminent American colorist, observed in 1950:

 

"Its role in all forms of life is too evident to be either denied or ignored."

 

Color is light, and spectral hues are its components. Scientifically, color is the principal cue to composition - i.e. the first thing we register when assessing anything - and a powerful communication tool. It is, therefore, arguably the most critical element of design.

 

Throughout millions of years of evolution, innately understanding the language of color has helped humanity to survive - to recognize poisonous foods, threatening predators and danger signals of all kinds. In modern times this primitive instinct is often quite unconscious, but this does not diminish its power. When light strikes the eye, it is converted to electrical impulses that pass to the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that governs our hormones and endocrine system. Thus color sets up complex physiological reactions, which in turn evoke a psychological response.

 

Every living creature on earth responds to the messages implicit in the play of light and color. In Europe, when the world about us turns grey we recognize the onset of winter and instinctively draw in; large amounts of green in any landscape indicate plenty of water and therefore little danger of famine, so we are reassured; we recognize that a creature colored black and yellow is unlikely to be friendly.

 

It is important to recognize that color symbolism, deriving as it does from our conscious associations, is a conditioned response - an entirely different process from color psychology. Color psychology is what happens on an unconscious level. It is essential to take account of cultural conditioning, and often the two coincide - but if they do not, the unconscious response will prevail.

 

Although the science of psychology is relatively young - little more than one hundred years old - the study of color is as old as time. In the twentieth century, great strides were made in our understanding of human behavior, and latterly the links with patterns of color have become clear, largely through the work of Angela Wright when developing the Color Affects System for the application of color psychology. Until this breakthrough, the importance of specific tones was not recognized.

 

It is not enough to refer to 'blue' or 'red'; these terms are relatively meaningless in the context of close study. The precise variation of each color and the harmonic relationships are of paramount importance. Why, for example, do two versions of the same spectral hue - say, royal blue and powder blue - have such different effects? Why do people respond differently to the same color? Crucially for the design industry, are there colors that have universal appeal? Ms Wright's work went a long way towards answering these questions and form the basis of the system. (The answer to the last question is no - but there are universally attractive color combinations).

 

The Colour Affects system works on two levels - the psychological properties of each of the basic hues - red, blue, etc. - and the difference that tonal variations, and combinations of specific shades, tones and tints will make in achieving visual harmony and the desired psychological effect.

 

The essence of successful use of color derives, not from the choice of any particular hue, but from tonal relationships, and that is universal. No matter how attractive a particular color may be (the world's favorite color, time and again in research, is blue), if the tone of it relates inaccurately either to the other tones present or to the basic message one is trying to convey, its negative perceptions will emerge, so it must be adjusted. There is no such thing as a good color or a bad color - red, for example, can be perceived as stimulating and exciting, or as stressful and demanding - there are only appropriate and inappropriate color schemes. Disharmony negates. Color works in a similar way to music and, as jazz pianist Thelonius Monk said, "There are no wrong notes".

 

Aristotle, in linking colors to the four elements - earth, air, fire and water - also observed the primary importance of blue and yellow. These two colors represent polarity, the sky and the sun, night and day, introvert and extrovert, cool and warm, contraction and expansion. Newton's discovery of the spectrum appeared to replace Aristotle's theory, which had formed the basis of all color work for two thousand years, but in fact it was an extension of it.

 

When we realize that all people can also be classified broadly into four categories, application of color psychology becomes more manageable and more accurate. Galen defined the four types in terms of bodily fluids - Melancholic, Sanguine, Choleric and Phlegmatic. In the twentieth century, Jung defined us in terms of predominant function - Thought, Feeling, Intuition and Sensation. The essential polarities of life are also a major feature in Jung's psychology and the great Swiss doctor, together with other twentieth century neurologists and psychologists, defined us as being fundamentally extrovert or introvert, being externally or internally motivated.

 

The breakthrough in color psychology came when the links were recognized between all the sixteen million shades, tones and tints available to us in a color computer - classified into four categories - and the four personality types. Extroverts respond more strongly to color in general and longer wavelengths in particular, whilst introverts prefer cooler, blander tones.

 

There are four tonal families of color - cool based and warm based, deriving from blue and yellow respectively, within which further classification comes from intensity. Each group contains variations of all spectral hues, so it is not necessary to draw from more than one group for any color scheme. In fact, doing so will negate it. When all the colors used in any design project belong to the same group, they combine to create a relationship, which protects the positive perceptions of each individual hue.

 

Therefore it is essential to establish which color group, or psychological color family, best represents the desired objectives of the design. Every color - without exception - has potentially positive or negative properties inherent in it. Which of those are communicated depends entirely on how it is used.