Communicating With Color
This week's CMS 170 topic was of particular interest to me, both personally and professionally. On a personal level, some of my earliest childhood memories are informed by color - which is why I believe it has been possible for me to remember things as far back as age 2 1/2, when I remember walking through a rental flat with my parents and noticing a kelly green toy box in one of the bedrooms we strolled through. I can describe the exact color of the box as well as its position in the room in relation to the bed and window.
Forest green is also related to an early childhood experience. It's the color of the car I was in when my mother pulled out of the garage and into the alley, suddenly realizing she'd left something important behind on the kitchen table. She left me in the car as she ran in to grab it, and I climbed out of the back seat, and into the front - stepping on, and releasing the parking brake, which sent the car drifting backward toward the street.
In the third grade, we were asked by our teacher to fill out a list of "favorites"...favorite food (cauliflower), favorite animal (armadillo), favorite beverage (milk), favorite color M&M (the light brown color they no longer make), favorite color (brown). I was sent to the school counselor's office, and my parents were called. Is it against the rules to love milk while your classmates are all love Orange Crush? Certainly not. My teacher and the school psychologist did think it was very odd that most of my "favorites" were either white or brown in color. Who loves the color BROWN for goodness sake? All the other kids loved red, blue, purple, pink... There was no need for alarm, I started life as a serious and independent thinker - no big deal.
In taking Jill Morton's online Global Color Survey, I was not at all surprised to find that my responses differed greatly in a number of categories from those collected from online responses of people all over the world. I was also not surprised that they were pretty spot-on in many categories as well!
No one who knows me would be surprised to discover that Charcoal Grey has been my very favorite color for around 25 years now. The Dark Grey color of the survey comes closest to the one I prefer:
Interestingly enough, this is also the color I selected as the one that denotes "Power."
My least favorite color is mauve. Oh my goodness I hate mauve.We don't even have enough time to discuss all of the reasons I hate mauve. Look at this terrible color!
Most people selected a yellowish color as their least favorite, but I actually kind of like that color.
Another oddity was the color I selected for "good tasting":
Red was a popular result in this category, which I guess I understand...but I really really love green vegetables, and the dark yellow-green reminded me of veggies.
My responses to categories like "pure", "expensive", and "high-tech" were in-line with the most popular responses, but my data brain still wants to know more about the demographics of those responding to this survey. Are they skewed by geographic location (I'm not thinking those in less developed areas have much access to computers/internet, and if they do, I'm supposing they are not likely to be taking color surveys!) What is the average age of the respondents? Did they live through the 1980's? Can they recall how AWFUL the mauve phenomenon truly was?!!?
For the record, here are my results, with the omission of my favorite color, which has already been discussed:
And I know that my "happy" response was influenced by these delightfully goofy guys that showed up on my juice glasses and matching pitcher sometime during the late 70's:
Now I'm cracking up because in searching for that image, I realize how queasy and even intoxicated these fruity guys look - but when I was a kid, I found them delightful!
On a more serious note, this week's color topic was interesting to me on a professional level as well. I work with direct mail fundraising and marketing, so I am no stranger to many of the topics that our guest speaker, Angelica Vasquez addressed in her presentation. The PMS colors she mentioned are extremely important in my industry, and I have often struggled to remain patient when commercial printers deliver a printed product that is clearly not the PMS color my clients require to maintain cohesive branding. The information Angelica shared regarding how difficult colors can be to get "just right" was very helpful!
Equally important to me was the topic of designing for visibility and readability that was outlined in page 124 of White Space is Not Your Enemy. In my professional experience, organizations would be wise to brush up on these principles prior to choosing logos, team or campaign colors, and color pallets for their printed materials. Particularly for materials that need to be viewed from a distance (lawn signs, billboards, banners) it's all about the POP - without it, organizations waste money and risk losing interest in their message as well as damaging their professional reputations. Often times, printed materials are an individual's FIRST introduction to an organization - it pays to get things right, from the beginning!
Allison Y: Hi Jenna! I love your blogs, always so thoughtful and well put! I loved that you talked about what the colors meant in early childhood. Once I read that, all I could think about was my parents lovely light blue sofa with little light pink tea roses printed all over is, and the giant fusica crayon line that, yours truly marked across the back of it! Whoops! Clearly I was the middle child, always a trouble maker. The green car cracked me up, how frightening?! I thought about the time I took the garbage out when I was a kid, helping mom and I opened that big green can and BOOM! out jumps the biggest racoon you ever did see. Scared me half to death. Maybe I will start to associate green with unlucky now haha!
ReplyDeleteCauliflower and brown?! Quick call the doctor. Way to always march to your own beat girl!!!
I do wonder how much research and thought is put into color and branding with some companies and organizations. Color evokes emotion from all consumers whether we realize it or not. For example, I watch a lot of football during the season and I absolutely cannot stand the Sea Hawks and it started because I thought their florescent colors were obnoxious. My dislike for the team has grown from there and I blame it on the colors. I never thought about it before, but I do wonder how many times this has happens in other situations more subconsciously.
Omigosh, Jenna, reading your blog made me laugh out loud! Your parents were called to the counselor's office because you chose brown as your favorite color? That's hilarious. You do have a good memory, and the memories you shared were easy to visualize. Are you sure they don't make those light brown M&Ms anymore? I'm almost certain I spotted some in one of those "fun size" bags of treats. Who knows? My memory most definitely is not as good as yours. The juice glass images cracked me up, too. They do look as though they've consumed a few too many libations to the gods. So, what have you got against Mauve? Mauve speaks highly of you. Seriously, it is one of those colors that people either love or hate; few are on the fence.
ReplyDeleteI agree that color and color combinations are vitally important! Thank goodness your clients have you to advocate for them, color-wise. Once again, I must tell you how much I enjoy reading your writing. Dawn