How Does Color Affect You?

Recently, I painted two rooms in our home a pale green. One was the room where I do most of my work and I wanted an environment that was calm, yet inspired creativity. It was also a good background for my nature photos. This choice of color was intuitive and I couldn’t really explain why it was a good choice for me. Laniann’s page, Reaction to Color helped me to understand.

She says that color has a magical way of producing emotional responses in us. Because of that, color in design – for home, office, clothing, etc. – has become a big business. Colors inherently produce certain universal responses. I would guess that a color’s prevalence in nature has something to do with that. For example, the color blue is THE favorite of a majority of people, probably due to the fact that blue water and blue skies are so calming. Our reaction to certain colors, though, can also be shaped by unique, external events. If a person who was very special to you wore a certain color, you might have a preference for that color because of the memories it evokes. On the other hand, a color may be associated with a painful event and it might provoke revulsion in you.

Laniann provides some interesting results from studies on color, for example, babies cry more in a yellow room and people eat less on a blue plate. I think I need to get some blue plates! She also highlights some videos about color theory that explain the color wheel and how you can choose colors for decorating that complement or harmonize with each other. All in all, this is a very colorful lens!

Do you have a strong emotional response to a certain color?