What Do Colours Say About You?

The truth about colours, there is no escaping them. Often we view colours to incorporate them with feelings or simply just a preference.

Imagine a jail cell painted pink, bet it wouldn’t seem so intimidating anymore.

Or a daycare painted black, it’s unlikely you would trust those people to watch your kids.

Why do you think interrogation rooms are grey…?

Now these are very obvious examples, but there are more subtle colour examples that influence your emotions and feelings that you may not even notice.

Let’s say you’re out buying some paint for your living room. Even a coat of simple white paint can have subtleties that can affect someones mood when entering that room. Often people who want to spark a certain emotion in their guests will do some research with colour.

The Restaurant Effect…

Let’s take restaurants for example, you would never decorate your restaurant using blue, pink or purple. When colours that are not found in nature are found in the food or surrounding areas, diners tend to loose their appetite. However, red, brown and green colours seemed to stimulate the appetite and drive more business.

The crazy thing is the diners may not even know that this is happening. When the eye catches a colour it will immediately send a subliminal message to the brain, inflicting a message that will provoke a feeling to its recipient.

Subliminal Messaging… With Colour!

All colours have a meaning, some are obvious some are not. Ever walk into a room and suddenly feel a wave of emotion? Maybe you should have a look at the colours on the walls and on the furniture. There are colours for all stimulants in the brain…red for love, blue for focus, green for health, yellow for joy.

Something to think about…

So the next time you walk into your friends house or a restaurant, think about what kind of message are they portraying… it might say a lot about your friends and their attitudes.

ROD L. ROWBOTHAM, OAA, MRAIC

CEO, President, Principal Architect