How color theory plays unconsciously with your mind
Color unites the world of science and art together. It has been present in our human existence for as long as we can remember.
The first thing that comes to our mind when thinking about color, is how color theory is used in the marketing and art industries. As far as we know, color is a fundamental tool for branding and an essential foundation for businesses. The colors will affect consumers’ psychology.
Companies invest a considerable amount of their time into branding and creating a logo. Simply because that will be the first client’s impression, the client will make up his mind about the company in less than a second. Branding has to go through colors because that is what humans first perceive.
The history of Color: Beginning of colors
Studies were done on how color affected human emotions during ancient Egyptian times. To describe the word color, the Egyptians referred to it as “Iwn,” which also meant “nature” and ”disposition .”They concluded that colors are connected to one’s character and identity. Later on, color theories were adopted by the Romans, Greeks, and even in ancient China to understand how human emotions could be affected. Still, it was only in 1810 that Johanne Wolfgang Von Goethe wrote his book ‘’ The theory of colors’’.
He explains how colors function and interacts with our moods. Nevertheless, his book was not taken seriously by scientists. Eventually, scientists and therapists came to accept that color psychology could be a legitimate factor in our behaviors with further advanced studies. Nowadays, color is a predominant factor in every field. They are used in business, marketing, photography, and advertising.
How it was introduced to art
Prehistorians used the color red in cave paintings 40 000 years ago. With time and experience, new pigments were created, allowing artists to use colors in all different ways. However, in the 7th century, while studying light reflection, Isaac Newton developed the first spectrum of color and the first wheel of color.
It allowed us to have a broader understanding of colors.
In this digital world, colors keep playing an important role. Whether it would be for your content or pictures, you could make use of it. Learning how they work could help us understand how they work.
Color theory is not only an objective truth but also practical guidance for using colors.
The interpretation of each color differs from one culture to another, but here are the most common ones :
When it comes down to visual digital representation, three components to keep in mind:
- The Hue: a color selection; it is a pure color with no tint.
- Saturation: refers to intensity, allows us to adjust the vibrance
- Luminosity: Arrange the brightness or darkness
The three most common pallets used by photographers :
- Analogous : 3 more hues evenly created from a middle color
- Monochromatic: a single color with different saturation and luminosity
- Complimentary: a key color with the opposite one of the wheel makes a contrast
How it is used in movies
We can take the example of the documentary Chernobyl. The director played with colors to trigger a specific emotion and establish a color palette in the first scenes.
Blue was used to describe safety, while the color green was used to indicate there was danger. These details are only noticeable when you pay close attention.
The director used all this smoothly and consciously, without the viewer noticing it.
When we pay attention, we observe that :
The viewers acknowledge a threat but can’t pinpoint what triggered this feeling.
As they say, “The one who masters color theory uses it without even the viewer noticing”
Thanks to all this understanding, we comprehend more why colors shouldn’t be neglected in our daily life. Colors are an essential foundation, whether it is for our pictures or brand.
