Information about colour psychology and colour therapy abounds in popular culture. Articles found in mass media as well as a plethora of Internet websites are often devoted to colour and a range of psychological, biological, and behavioral effects. The information available, which varies from scant summaries with catchy titles to lengthy and comprehensive discussions, is often presented in an authoritative manner exhorting the reader to believe a range of claims such as red is physically stimulating and arousing and blue is calming, relaxing and healing. However, empirical evidence or evidence of any nature is only rarely cited and, when it is, it's often in reference to findings that are inappropriately generalized or out-of-date and superseded. This article discusses a range of colour psychology and colour therapy claims found in popular culture and notes the similarities between these claims and the writings of early theorists such as Birren, Goldstein, Gerard and Luscher. While these authors have a valid if somewhat dated place in the literature on colour, there are a number of key reasons to be wary of colour psychology and colour therapy claims made in popular culture. These reasons are discussed in some detail and provide compelling support for applying the caveat emptor principle to colour psychology and colour therapy claims found in nonacademic sources.
A plethora of theories and studies exist that focus on the relationship between colour and esthetic response as well as the construction of colour harmony. However, consensus regarding colour harmony is lacking in the literature leaving designers and architects with colour harmony information that is contradictory and ambiguous. This article examines both early and more recent theories and definitions of colour harmony. The diverse theoretical paradigms and disparate assumptions embedded within these theories are discussed in some depth, and the validity and veracity of predictive colour harmony theories are discussed from a current theoretical perspective. An updated definition of colour harmony is provided along with a conceptual model that represents an attempt to revise colour harmony in line with current theoretical paradigms. This conceptual model acknowledges that the interface between colour and esthetic response is less deterministic and predictable, and more idiographic than previous theories allow. In addition, the conceptual model suggests that colour harmony is contingent on factors that may influence the relationship between colour and esthetic response such as individual and cultural differences as well as perceptual, contextual, and temporal factors.
Visual communications design, which generally relates to design projects with specific communication objectives, includes most forms of graphic and digital design that have a commercial or an educational purpose. The effectiveness of such design projects rests on how well the embedded communications objectives are met from the perspective of the target audience. In advertising as in education, various post-campaign evaluation techniques are used to measure effectiveness. The challenge for designers is to create designs that are aesthetically appropriate and visually engaging for the target audience, but which are also functionally-legible and support the encoding of communication messages so that these are effectively decoded as intended. This is particularly important given that the effectiveness of visual communications is not guaranteed in the visually-cluttered environment of the 21st century. Of the design elements available to the designer of visual communications, colour and contrast play key roles in visual perception, and the strategic use of these can contribute to the effectiveness of visual communications design. Examining the roles that colour and contrast within the context of Gestalt theories of perception provides additional insight into the ways in which these design elements can be harnessed to improve the effectiveness of visual communications design.
Creating a logo design is an important task for a new company wishing to gain entry in a particular industry sector. It requires an initial situation analysis that examines existing logos within the sector, and this information is then used to inform creation of a new logo design. Colour, one of a number of design elements used to create a new logo, is a key element in creating a unique logo and in terms of enabling a logo achieve differentiation in a competitive environment. This article discusses the application of the environmental colour mapping process during the initial situation analysis phase of logo design. The process, which has been applied in urban design studies in Japan, America, France, England, and Norway has recently been augmented with the addition of digital technology. Using a case study approach, the 'environment' for the purpose of this study represented the logo designs of organizations within a specific industry sector. The main outcome from the process (colour data presented in the form of a colour map) was examined for patterns of similarity and dissimilarity and an attempt was made to identify new options for logo colours within the sector based on colour differentiation. This study represents a new application of the environmental colour mapping process and a number of limitations and benefits are discussed.
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