subject: Color - Does It Really Affect Your Mood? Part Two: Orange And Yellow [print this page] Every color has inherent meaning and evokes a certain feeling when we see it, right? The research shows this is only partially correct. Yes, colors do evoke certain feelings within us but each color does not actually possess a meaning. All meanings assigned to colors are learned, and change from culture to culture. For example, according to Kenneth and Cherrie Fehrman in their book Color, The Secret Influence, blue humor in America denotes comedy that is risqu. Yet in Spain the same type of comedy is called green humor. In Japan its called pink humor and yellow humor in Hong Kong.
In fact, our entire world is colorless. Color is a complete illusion! Yes, everything we see, touch, wear and eat has absolutely no color of its own. We only see color due to light. Each different color has a different wavelength, which causes us to see everything in different colors.
But what meanings do we associate with color today? We take most of our color cues from our families, school, television, print media and from our friends. Overall though, these color signals all repeat the same color myths and biases we have been taught since birth. We derive most of our meanings for color from nature.
A warm color, due to its association with fire, orange is considered cheerful by most people. Even orange blossoms while not orange themselves, still hold meaning. The French used to adorn their bridges with orange blossoms to symbolize the hope of fruitfulness. As it darkens, orange offers a sense of comfort. Picture a warm piece of pumpkin pie as the whipped cream slowly melts down over the sides, in the warm, orange glow of firelight.
Even as orange goes to warm brown it continues to soothe and comfort. Think of a deliciously decadent piece of rich chocolate cake with creamy, chocolaty, warm-brown frosting. As your mouth begins to water, do you feel a sense of comfort?
Yet, ironically if orange becomes too bright or garish it can easily go from soothing to high energy and then to high anxiety. That coupled with orange also stimulates appetite, explains its frequent use in fast food restaurants.
Yellow too is considered to be a cheerful color due to its close color relationship with the sun. Yet, yellow is another color that has mixed meanings. Despite the perception of yellow as a happy color, it is the least favorite color chosen by people. On the positive side, it is the yellow flowers that bloom first in the spring: crocus, daffodils and forsythia. The Chinese historically have regarded yellow as a very important color. During the 10th century, yellow was adopted as the imperial color in China.
On the down side, yellow can also mean sickness, particularly jaundice. It is the color of the flag used to indicate that a ship at sea is in quarantine due to an epidemic of illness. In nature, yellow is a warning, usually of poison. The deciding factor in the direction that yellow will take is the amount of green or red mixed with the yellow. Yellows with more green have associations with sickness. Warmer yellows with more red move toward yellow-orange. Having more red mixed into the yellow usually results in a more positive connotation.
