Global Color Symbolism

Does color symbolism in different cultures matter?

Color symbolism in different cultures

Colors in China

Colors in Korea

Color in Africa

Red in Russia and China

The color red in American culture/education

Native American color symbolism

 

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Does color symbolism in other cultures matter?

Question:
Color People, I'm confused. I've seen people looking at color and writing about it. Many are diligently investigating color - it's supposed meanings - associations - bla bla bla - in various cultures, in different corners of the globe...etc. But to what end? Where does the investigation lead to? If I took the word Red (or perhaps the word 'water'...any word) and looked at it in a dozen...a 100 different languages, I'd come up with the just as many different results. Red...in English, in French, in German, in Hopi, in Binary, in Octal, in any language, in any form. So (?) here I sit with mounds of paper ... Red in 100 languages. Even Red as spoken by some bleeding cave man that said "gRrEDdh" or some other gutteral grunting word. A bunch of guys on one dirt mound mumbled for a thousand years and poof...the French language popped up. (It's phonetically beautiful isn't it?) Another bunch of guys on another dirt heap yacked away and came up with English...and another recently started chatting in binary. All of the systems work fairly well. (All of them even include the word Red...how lovely.) And now I've compiled them all... But to what end? If I created 5 new cultures or found 7 new civilizations for you to investigate...and you compiled all of their color associations and 'meanings' what would that add to your work? Would it bring you closer to some goal? Any thoughts about all this effort? What is really being sought here? Anything? Mac

Leeanne:
Mac, I can't speak for the other "color people" but for myself, if one understands a culture, then one can communicate better with it. I am an American, art director who is completing an MBA. I will use this component of my research, in conjunction with other research, to help create better advertising to the consumer in India.

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Color symbolism in different cultures

Question:
I am doing an International Bacclaureate extended essay on the meaning of colors in different cultures around the world. Any information on the symbolism and/origins of color symbolism would be greatly appreciated. Carina Anderson

Jose Luis Caivano:
Look for articles and books written by John Hutchings, who is an specialist in the subject. You can find some of them in the three Proceedings of the International Color Association, published in Buenos Aires (1989), Budapest (1993) and Tokyo (1997). See also the color bibliography http://www.fadu.uba.ar/sitios/sicyt/color/bib.htm

Tonie:
Try reading The Primary Colors by A. Theroux.

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Colors in China

To the Chinese, color means a lot. Red, the most popular is an auspicious color. It help to keep evil away. Yellow connotes royalty, properity and luck. Green is bad. When Chinese says a person is wearing a green hat, it means that his wife is having an affair. Black is bad too. It connects with eviland death. So is white. White is pure but in certain circumstances, white connects with death as well.Hope this if of help to you. I am from Malaysia.

Colleen Platt:
The chinese mourning color is white. Also, chinese usually wear red wedding dresses

LKPete:
I have read mostly that white is the traditional color for mourning in Chinese culture, although in some southeast Asian countries black has become the funerary color. Blue, as noted in another reply, is often also a color for funerals. In Korea in the 19th century, the Emperor decreed that everyone in the country should wear white for a long stretch of weeks after the death of anyone in the royal family, but, since the family was so large and somebody from it was always keeling over, the peasantry got so used to wearing white that it lost all funerary implications and they white became everyday wear, and they took to wearing dark blue for mourning the death of someone they actually knew and felt bad about having died.

Cherry:
I do a research on colours in Chinese culture, and mourning colour in Chinese culture is vary, some of the colours have opposing connotation, e.g. blue denoted to mourning also denotes to hope, spring. Purple can denote mourning but also can denote a positive meanings. white can mean death, but also refer to purity. If you want to know the basic colour meaning in chinese culture try to read Eberhard's book " dictionary of chinese symbolism" also a book by sarah rosbach, i think the title is "living colour"

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Colors in Korea

JIyoun
From the old time,Korean was called white-clad. Korean wears in white as soon as born and died.These white cloths express the buddish idea 'come empty,return empty'and the white color means assimilation with nature.

Choi.N.S
Korean people admire white color. They believed that the sun is a God and the Korean is a son of the God and they wear the white colored cloths standing out the glory of the sun with pride. This became a tradition for Korean.The white color in Korea means purity,innocence,morality.

 

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Color in Africa

Kristy :
What is the effect of color to people in Africa.

LKPete:
In some research I did on this topic, I found much info that said that color on objects is a secondary consideration in many African cultures. Surface texture is far more important. Color having symbolic meaning is not as prevalent as in some other cultures. This is not to say that daily life is colorless, it's just that color's importance and significance can change from clan to clan and region to region. The peoples of southern Africa have a tradition of painting the exterior of their houses in elaborate geometric patterns, usually black and white on a colored background. Zulu beadwork bracelets and anklets (very much like AmerIndian beadwork) were once used to convey messages; each color and colors in combination having some specific meaning, but now are mostly decorative. There is a clan known as the red people because they wore red clothing, but I don't remember their name. In northern Africa, green will almost always signify Islam. This is less true the further south and west you get.

 

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Red in Russia and China

mbrook:
The words for red and beautiful in Russian have the same root "kras". Perhaps that it relevent.

Dzinr
I'm sorry but I am just in the beginning stages of research,... The only thing I have found is that red is used in marriage ceremonies- both in Russian and Oriental cultures. The symbolism of luck. Sorry I can't be of more help to you.

 

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The color red in American culture/education

Question:
I am interested in any references to the use of the color red in American/Western culture. Are there cultural/traditional reasons for Harvard's crimson academic robes? Why venerable books are red leather-bound/ Why the perfect expression of love is the red rose/ why red is so popular a color at Christmas/ why the traditional red apple to on's favorite teacher?Anita Steigerwald

lkpete
US universities have color-coded faculties and disciplines since 1890s. Scarlet/regligion; blue/philosophy; white/arts and letters; green/medicine; purple/law; yellow/science. don't know why, or where crimson fits in, but maybe it's part of this coding scheme.

 

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Where can I find information about Native American color symbolism?

If you're still looking for info on Native American color symbolism, try contacting the Museum of the American Indian in NYC. It's part of the Smithsonian. From my own research, I know that turquoise is very important and felt to be a special color because the stone would change color with age and if rubbed with different substances. This is true in every culture where turquoise is readily found.
 

 

Are there colors that exist only in nature?

Where does the color of a blue jay feather come from?

What is the green flash?

What optical properties make the sky blue?

Color - Frequency / Wavelength - Verification

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A Color Existing Only in Nature

Question:
I was wondering if there are any colors that have never been reproduced artificially (only exist in nature)? What I meant was: is there a color that we can see in nature that has never been reproduced artificially? The reason I am asking is that someone once told me that he had heard of a color that existed in the natural world but has never reproduced. Swoozy

Chris Willard
Swoozy, your question has a faulty premise, namely that it implies there is color in nature. There is no color in nature, for that matter, nothing has color. All things are are molecules that absorb, transmit or reflect certain portions of the electromagnetic "spectrum" (not to be confused with the spectrum that means rainbow). The only reason we perceive energy as color is because we have little computers (eyes) that can process that small range of energy within what we call the spectrum. Thus since all colors can only be according to our eyes, your question basically says: Can I see any colors I can't see. On the other hand if we limit the question to can we find colors in the real world that we perceive (noting we must SEE the difference and not alllow a difference in reality, for example the sun is an obvious example, yet filming the sun in movies gives us the same sensation of glare) as different or unduplicatable from any technologically produced color the answer would be trickier. Do pigments = artificial? Then does florescent paint = artificial? Are conceptions of color nature, and thus not reproducible since no red can match the super saturated red I think of ? Perhaps you can think about this and attempt to clarify your question.

Mac
Swoozy, I suppose this is pushing it a bit, but... One might be hard pressed to 'reproduce artificially' or make 'at all', a total black and total white (if we choose to include them as colors)...and why wouldn't we? Then again, nature might be hard pressed to do it too. How would we make a pure black? Maybe we'd need to define it first? Maybe Black would be a color that gave off absolutely no light? It absorbed everything? every visible energy? oh heck, how about all energies? I suppose we'll need to put the Black color swatch (or whatever we're going to use) into a vat of liquid hydrogen too. Take it down to zero degrees K (Kelvin). That's going to be tough though. We'd need to get it to absolute zero to ensure there was no even as much as a wiggle out of those atoms. Sort of like being in deep space? [But even then, I think there is some stray energy whipping around]. Hmm. And what about that White? A thing that 'reflects' all visible light? Wait. Isn't that a pocket mirror? I wanted Pure White. Titanium White? No....whiter. Much Whiter. This is difficult. Maybe mother-nature isn't going to be able to do this either. Maybe the world just isn't Black & White, but is more shades of Grey. Food for thought. Mac

LKPete
It would be supreme arrogance to assume that we (people, that is) have already "artificially" reproduced every color we've seen. We have probably come darn close, though. I've also seen info about deep water fish that are colors not seen on the surface, or even closer to the surface. Some of these fish can change their colors by what they eat. Other posters make excellent points about perception not being entirely (or exactly) universal, and raising the question that if mankind creates a color why does that make it "artificial"? After only a few short steps into this topic you find you've slipped into very deep philosophical and other waters. Good fishing.

Saraimana
On a marine-life documentary I once saw, I came across the strangest color I have ever seen on a fish. It could have been the deepness of the ocean that made the fish's scales look so strange, but I doubt it. i doubt it because of the way I can discribe the color. It was not gray, but it was mirror colored. You can only imagine what this is like, but I have never seen this color before this documentary and I have not seen the color sense.

Robin
I'm not an expert, but I think I understand the point of the question. I often see in flowers colors that are more vivid that the brightest silks. For example, the blue of a lobelia flower is more intense than any blue dye or pigment I've seen. I have never seen the blue of a lobelia flower anywhere but on a lobelia flower. Structural color is an even better example - a peacock feather has 3 shades of blue that no pigment can reproduce, because the color comes from the microscopic structure of the feather. That's not to say that science couldn't reproduce it someday, but they haven't yet. Beyond that, there are probably colors that we are capable of percieving that exist nowhere in the world, neither natural nor man-made. For example, very saturated blues and turquioses are hard to find in matter, so we never see them.

Phare-Camp
I once saw a meteor explode when it met the atmosphere. The shade of blue produced by the explosion was one I have never seen before or since.

 

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Where does the color of a blue joy feather come from?

I am trying to find another reference to statement I found about a blue jay feather are not a blue pigment, but the color is caused by structural color. I also wanted comformation on the blue found in a human's iris. The statement is there are no blue pigment in a blued person iris. The blue is the result of structural color. Please explain.

Willard:All color is caused by certain molecular structures reflecting certain wavelengths of electromagnetic energy. Nothing in the world is colored. Your questions seem a bit different: the iris is bluer when it has less iridium in it. A bird's feather like a peacocks often is seen to be colorful because of interference colors, colors arising from parallel ridges in the structure that bounce light back in certain ways to us. Hazel Rossotti's book Colour: Why the World Isn't Grey gives a great overview of your question 'structure-------->color' in regard to nature.

 

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What is the green flash seen at sunset along the beach?

brent roden
Have you seen it and along what beach? What time of the year? There are a few speculated causes. They revolve around the spectrum of the rainbow and that you move, relative to the sun's light, in a position of seeing the light prismically seperated to green. Red, green a blue are the primary colors of light. When you see the green flash, it is the reflection of that green band of light wave length off the atmosphere.
A.T.Young

Randy Crawford
Stare at something red for a while and when you avert your stare, you see aqua. The same applies for the sun Stae at sometnhing as intensely orange as the sun is before it dips below the horizon and you get a green blip as it disappears.

 

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What optical properties make the sky blue?

Question:
What optical properties make the sky blue?

Bertrand Fabre
G'day! It's got something to do with bending of light. Remember the album by Pink Floyd with that glass prism? Well white light entered the prism and a full colour spectrum came out. Blue doesn't need much bending. The oranges and red need more bending from white light. When the sun sets, the sky goes orange, red and even purple. Interesting thoughts anyway. Goodluck

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Color - Frequency / Wavelength - Verification

Question:
Please verify the frequency and wavelength of colors.

cwillard
This seems pretty obvious...good sources are the Hurvich book, Ratliff, or the Williamson/Cummins books. Hurvich lists the wavelengths associated with colors as (in nm's) 475 blue 500 green 580 yellow 700 red but we must remember these are narrow band regions which I assume you must be speaking of here to rule out metamerism. violet would be from 400-450 nm according to the w/c book. But I'm guessing you know all this....I wonder what you are digging at here. I'm not sure I have the conversions handy, although I might be able to dig them out. I can give you the formula for the vacuum if you need it. : } but again I'm guessing you are sort of beating around the bush toward a more specific question, and I'm very curious as to what that is!!!

Mac
Chris, Thanks. Me beat around the bush?! Depends on the color of bush. :-) So you say (that 'they' say): 475nm=blue 500= green 580= yellow 700= red nanny meet hers? I grabbed another book and it said: 450nm=blue 530 =green 600 =yellow er, or 589.3nm? or or or 725 =red And another book and another book.... As many books as there are colors in the rainbow? My physiology books say one thing, engineering texts another, color calibration another; I suppose NIST has yet another. Maybe people are measuring color wavelengths on a rocket ship to Andromeda and suffer from Doppler shift? :-)

cwillard
Reminds me I recently saw the movie "Andromeda Strain" for the first time again in years. It was interesting. But to the point...you are a pro at this so I will use your technique of questioning... If I showed you 1,000 reds and asked you to pick the reddest one, would that match the red someone else picked? Probably not. Thus, I think this accounts for the differing attributions of narrow band wavelengths to color. My educated hypothesis is these purest primaries (if we may call them that since we know the spectrum is arbitrarily broken into discreet color segments -- just as with Newton who revised his originally perceived 11 colors of the rainbow down to 7) are the result of a best fit with the technology they are used for. Thus the reddest red in television will provide the largest gamut of mixed colors where in paint you may have a different one. But to pursue this on a more physiological level, studies have shone afterimage colors differ slightly when subjects are asked to match them against standards....some are a bit more saturated, some less so, some skewing the color slightly...and I would infer from this that the exact color percieved probably also differs in the same slight manner. This of course might find a narrower range when the primaries red, green. blue are judged only by maximum retinal response but how do we consider more complex mixes.

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Color in Hospitals and Other Special Care Environments

Color in Children's Healthcare Environments

Is coloured light good in hospitals?

About White

Color for Alzheimers Patients

The best colors for a Shelter

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Color in Children's Healthcare Environments

Question:
I am an Interior Designer with an Architecture firm. We do a great deal of work for a Children's Hospital and are continually struggling with the use of color in the facility. We do not want to "date" the facility. The hospital wants everything to be fun and bright, but then raise concerns over certain colors such as yellow(jaundice). This raises more questions. Does yellow still cast a jaundice appearance on a patient if other colors are used with? Do other colors, if emphasized or used alone, cast color on the patient that could inhibit proper examination? Can proper lighting reduce this problem? What is the affect of color on healing children in particular? Is there an argument for using complimentary, split complimentary, triad, monotone chromatic or analogous schemes in this setting? Do you have any resources to suggest or any answers to give? Cameron

Reb
I'm not going to give a page of "how to" with health care interiors because visuals are a must. Criteria cannot be described adequately in this forum without writing a whole book. However, I am delighted that someone that works for an architectural firm has recognized that importance of color in health care.

For an architect or designer, CORRECT and purposeful color design of any health care facility is of utmost importance. I cannot stress this enough! Color in health care must consider diagnosis of patients, easing of fear and stress, and also help staff do their job. It is way beyond throwing bright colors around to make everything look "cheerful". Children's hospitals in particular require very specific design criteria and included lighting controls as well in certain areas. All of the things you mention matter a great deal and must be handled by a trained professional.
 

Willard
I've seen pediatric rooms of all colors and based on my experience green walls or red walls or yellow walls do not affect the color fo the patient or inhibit proper examination -- provided, and this is the key, that the lighting in the room is bright enough. I've also noticed that pictures, photos, posters and a variety of colors are great for kids, they keep them focused on discovery rather than on that ugly and painful needle the doctor is preparing.

Colors as hues do not have any correlation to healing.

But, which sort of room would you rather spend time in, a mundane white or beige one, or one with lots of things to amuse the eyes. Why else do people in the hospital for lengthy stays cover the walls with balloons, cards, and pictures -- they want stimulation and memories, the artifacts of being loved. Perhaps this promotes healing more than a color or group of colors ever could.

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Is coloured light good in hospitals?

Question:
I am about to do a project based in a Hospital waiting room and was going to have a strip of colored light with images on, around the room.This would be an artwork to decrease boredom by creating interest and to possibly reduce stress. Any info on appropriate colours or types of natural light bulbs to go behind the acetate colours would be useful. I thought I could do a study first to see what colours patients would prefer looking at (ie have two colours on 2 different light box's and get patients to choose favourite) Any other ideas how I could do the test or gather info on preferences. Natasha.
 

Reb
Artwork incorporating lights for a hospital waiting room sounds fabulous. Artwork using various kinds of lights (Such as neon or light sculptures) is excellent as long as it stays in the waiting rooms, transition areas, or cafeterias. For the best lights to use behind the acetate or gels, consult a stage lighting designer or interior designer that specializes in lighting. Since this is art, focus on the artistic aspects of it rather than trying to make something in "appropriate colors or types of natural light bulbs". Don't worry about trying to make colors that patients will prefer, a study isn't necessary. When artwork in a hospital is interesting, positive, friendly, and engaging, patients and visitors are calmed and stress is decreased.

For a regular hospital waiting room, abstract images are usually better than naturalistic ones because they supposedly will hold the attention longer. For a children's hospital, abstract is ok, but stay away from fantasy images of flying pink elephants or clowns. Many young children are afraid of such images.

As to your comment about colored lights being bad in a hospital, yes, it's true. Patient rooms should have natural light. But when you are talking about artwork for a waiting room, as long as the colored lights are local and don't make the whole waiting room glow orange, it is fine. Create beautiful artwork that glows softly seems like a great way to ease boredom and suffering in a waiting room.
Good luck with the project! ~Reb

Willard
Balloons, cards, flowers anything to break up the monotony of single colored walls. Personally I'd rather look at cards sent by friends than any band of colored light -- especially if i were hospitalized for any amount of time. As for light I bet natural light is probably better at helping elevate one's spirits than any colored or indoor lighting.!

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About White

In the US, very few contemporary hospitals have an all white decor any more. Besides being passe, the lack of visual stimulation that comes with over exposure to panoramic whiteness can be highly stressful, albeit in only the most subliminal ways. It does indeed create a morose mood among those who are already suffering from the stresses of illness and hospitalization. The Chinese and Koreans were right on target picking white as the death color. Black, combined with blues, burgundies, and some of your yellower mustards (the color, not the condiment), can be quite soothing. Think of it as a womb coloring. But it must be used with care, because of societally induced associations rather than psychological ones. For instance, decorating an elderly patient's bed posts with black ribbons would be a real no-no. But black with the appropriate earthtones is, in fact, calming. Some more vibrant colors elsewhere will keep a patient's attention alert and stimulated. China red accents on a black background can be quite sophisticated, but that's more for those who are stepping out rather than checking in. Bucky Rea
 

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Color for Alzheimers Patients

Question:
Is there any research on color of living spaces for the elderly (and/or specifically for alzheimer's patients?) EMDoyle

Willard
Yes, a few people in Sweden, headed by Lars Sivik, Goteborg, have done work in this area. Their work focuses more on how color helps those suffering with Alzheimers to remember key items and people. You could follow up with an email about interiors to him. Feel free to contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you want an email (which I hopefully have somewhere.)

from Color Matters:
See " A Room Comes Alive With Color and Sounds" New York Times
Click here.

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The best colors for a shelter

Question:
I'm in charge of designing a shelter and want to know what the best colors would be? Joan

Mac:J
oan, The colors you are searching for to paint your shelter might factor into things (unless the occupants are blind?). I'm sure you are also considering the other elements in the design of the shelter that will influence the occupants [like geometries, layout, lighting, sound, etc.]. It's an 'integrated whole'.

Whether you're building/designing a shelter or the Trump tower...if you really want to do it right, you should be able to look at a -Model- of the room or building environment you have designed and be able to state how each element within that design affects the occupants who are placed into it. I'm not sure how many interior designers and architects are really able to do such an analysis. Do the interior designers and architects you know provide you with such analyses?

Can they tell you how the lighting will affect the room occupants? How the color will affect them? The shape of the room, the furniture and interior elements? Can they tell you how the room elements complement and contrast one another...or how they join into an integrated whole? Can they tell you specifically why the room creates a composite mood, emotion, and type of atmosphere? Can they tell you what the basis of their assessment is (the psychological basis of their analysis? ...not just 'experience' or gut feel). Some people have excellent color sense. Some have even more than just good color sense (but often they don't know 'why' a color or environmental attribute does what it does...they just know it 'does it'.)

* * * It's possible to assess an environment - completely. Whether it is an office, a home, a baseball stadium, a shelter or a Vegas casino lobby. It's possible to evaluate it's psychological and physiological impact on an individual. Top notch interior designers and architects seem to have some knowledge in these areas, but in my experience, few have extensive (psychological) training. Why? Because it's a field that is relatively unadvanced. The Birren's and other color experts in the world have done much. But there is a great deal that has never been rigorously investigated. Color psychology is still in it's infancy (IMHO). Consequently, when you read the postings here, when you discuss color with others, when you read books on color, etc. you may find there are many conflicting, unclear, ambiguous comments, definitions, and concepts. The failure to move, to bring color theory and color psychology together, into an integrated, clear, concise whole leads others (often) to disregard it, to classify it in with things like astrology, or often to just discount it as a whole. And that is unfortunate. When the field of color pscyhology matures, the way in which environments are designed will change significantly. I suspect the results will occasionally be dazzling and we all will benefit from it. Good luck on your shelter design. Regards, Mac

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