Colours play a fundamental role in our visual perception and our experience of the environment. They accompany us in various visible ways and are always linked with and influenced by light in natural and human-designed environments. We encounter Colour everywhere we look, be it in the sky, water, landscapes, trees, plants, fruits, flowers, animals, or human-made objects. Colours have many functions and serve as a means of communication, information, and design material. Colours can communicate symbolic messages, signal camouflage and deterrence, provide orientation, contribute to order and differentiation, indicate special functions, and reflect geographic, ethnic, and cultural attributes. Colours are crucial marketing factors and express style and design trends. They are indicators and expressions of the zeitgeist, which is subject to change, and they have a significant impact on the statement, effect, and acceptance of objects and spaces. (Mahnke, 2007)
Colours are more than just an aesthetic statement; they are part of a life-giving and life-preserving process. Humans orient themselves according to optic signals and learn through visual messages, making Colour an essential aspect of the environment and human interaction with it. Our emotional world is constantly affected by what Colour reveals to us about our environment and what it communicates, even when we do not consciously perceive it.
Communication occurs on both a personal and impersonal level. People exchange information personally, while symbols convey information impersonally. Colour plays a crucial role in visual communication as it conveys symbolic messages and aesthetic-atmospheric information. In architecture, Colour facilitates communication between humans and the spatial environment, enhancing social relationships and human activities. Colour is interactive and connects things with people. The three parameters of seeing, perceiving, and experiencing Colour illustrate the complex relationship between humans and Colour. (Mahnke, 2007)
What is Colour and Ways of Perceiving Colour
When light waves within the visible spectrum interact with matter, Colour is created. A widely accepted definition of Colour is a specific visual sensation produced by visible radiation, also known as “Colour stimulus.” Colour stimulus occurs when an object or particle of dust obstructs the light from a natural or artificial source. The way physical matter absorbs or reflects light rays determines the Colour stimulus produced, as different wavelengths are filtered out from the light’s spectrum, while others reach our eyes as Colour. For example, a blue surface absorbs all the components of the light spectrum except blue, which is reflected. However, an object’s Colourful appearance depends on the type of light it is exposed to, whether it’s natural daylight or various types of artificial light. As such, Colours can change based on the qualities of different types of light.
Seeing Colour
The ability to perceive Colours is a sensory experience that depends on several conditions. Firstly, there must be the presence of light. Secondly, the eye must capture and transmit the Colour stimulus. Finally, the brain must process the Colour stimulus as a visual sensation. The eye is an optical system that directs visible, luminous radiation to the retina. The retina contains two types of receptors: rod and cone cells. Rods differentiate between light and dark and register only light intensity, while cones differentiate between Colours and react to different portions of the light spectrum. According to the Young-Helmholtz theory, three different types of Colour-sensitive cones are sensitive to blue, green, and red light rays respectively. There is also the Hering theory, which assumes there are four receptor types, two antagonistic systems of yellow-blue and red-green.
The retina’s receptors, the rods, and cones transmit the stimulus through nerve fibers into the optic nerve and then into the brain. The stimulus is converted into conscious vision through a complex process of physiological and psychological data processing. The recorded Colour stimulus is transformed into the perception of seeing and perceiving Colour. (Mahnke, 2007)
Perception of Colour
The ability to see Colours is a result of sensory perception. We mainly perceive Colours as a characteristic of the objects that surround us. Along with form, surface quality, smell, and taste, Colour is one of the characteristics that helps us determine, judge, and evaluate an object. Our previous experiences and preconceptions influence our Colour perception. Colour perception is associated with our memories and previous experiences where Colour played a role. At the moment when we perceive a Colour, our psycho-physical structure is also involved. Cultural and social factors such as education and the environment can also affect our Colour perception. A certain Colour impression not only gives us a momentary visual sensation, but also involves our entire experience, memory, and thought processes.
Experiencing Colour
Experiencing Colours involves becoming more aware of them and is always accompanied by associated meanings, with both conscious and subconscious factors playing a role. Each objective Colour stimulus that we perceive from the external world corresponds with a subjective response from our internal world. As people’s experiences and responses to Colour are diverse, it is impossible to generalize Colour experience, Colour effect, or the human response to Colour. We must acknowledge that we experience Colour subjectively and react individually, while also recognizing that our personal Colour experiences, responses, and evaluations always contain an element of the “collective” stored in our genetic memory. The interplay of physiological and psychological events, as well as the physical process of seeing Colour and data processing in our brains, explain the effect of Colour on people. Scientific evidence shows that Colour influences cortical activation (brainwaves), functions of the autonomic nervous system, and hormonal activity. Colour also evokes emotional and aesthetic associations. The energetic effect of Colour affects our entire organism, influencing physical procedures, psyche, feelings, thought processes, and emotions. Colours stimulate not only the sense of sight but also other sensory organs through holistic associations and parallel sensations within our sensory organization. Finally, the intensity of Colour stimuli and the context in which they are perceived play a significant role. (Mahnke, 2007)
Physiological Aspects
The central nervous system, which is made up of the brain and spinal cord, controls behavior in people. The “formation reticular” in the brain stem serves as a control center for all incoming input, screening each impulse before it reaches the central nervous system’s higher centers. The reticular system, which is linked to several kinds of stimulation, can be activated by the stimulating properties of Colour. Reticulated development helps regulate consciousness and concentration by influencing the general standby state of the nervous system. The development of reticular can be triggered by both internal and external events that may heighten attention or outward behaviors.
Under- and overstimulation are two opposite poles that represent the amount of perceived information. The number of visual stimuli, such as Colours, patterns, contrasts, etc., can lead to either understimulation or overstimulation. An environment with extreme monotony and sensory deficiency can result in understimulation, while an overwhelming surplus of stimuli can cause overstimulation. Physical or psychological effects of overstimulation include tense muscles, elevated blood pressure, altered respiration or pulse rates, and so on. Studies have shown that understimulation can lead to restlessness, irritability, difficulties in concentrating, and perception disorders. For instance, Rikard Küller from the University of Lund, Sweden, conducted studies on how different Colours painted in a room can affect psychophysiological responses. It is often assumed that neutral Colours such as white, gray, and black do not have significant effects, but even these achromatic Colours can trigger psychophysiological effects. (Mahnke, 2007)
Several experiments were conducted to study the effect of patterns on stimulation, considering factors like size, Colour, contrast, and intensity. Berlyne and McDonnell found that when patterns were diverse, unharmonious, and chaotic, they led to a higher degree of stimulation. This means that when a pattern contains an oversupply of information, it can cause overstimulation in the perception of intensely Colourful and graphic designs.
Psychological Aspects
Psychology is the scientific study of human behavior and conscious and unconscious mental processes, including feelings, thoughts, dreams, and all other human experiences. Given that its effects are dependent on both conscious and unconscious processes, Colour has a big impact on psychology. Colour is another sense that has the power to shape behavior. Psychologists study how Colour influences people’s ideas and behaviors, whereas physicists see Colour as electromagnetic radiation wavelengths. Colour is a sensory stimulant and human response. The study of Colour psychology looks at people’s experiences with Colour and its characteristics. What Colour psychology encompasses is:
- People’s experience of Colour
- The emotional effect of Colour
- The synesthetic effect of Colour
- The symbolism of Colour and its associative effects.
Applied Colour psychology involves utilizing the insights gained from Colour psychology to design environments. It draws from various fields, such as physiology, psychology, psychosomatics, neuropsychology, visual ergonomics, and the psychology of architecture. While a physicist may view red as an external stimulus with a wavelength of 628-720 nm, a psychologist sees it as an internal process that may or may not be dependent on a physical event. The term “independent” refers to the ability to imagine a Colour without any external stimulus. This means that Colour not only relies on external stimuli but also our imagination. The impressions of Colour that we experience in the external world are sensory-spiritual, triggering memory and recognition processes. For example, a green Colour stimulus may evoke thoughts of nature or a particular experience. These thoughts continue to work and can even lead to memories that have nothing to do with the original “green stimulus.” (Mahnke, 2007)
Colours contain both cognitive and emotional elements, as do other sensory experiences like smell and sound. It’s common to have an emotional response to music or a particular aroma. All perceptions generate reactions and Colour perception impacts emotions, thoughts, willpower, and memory. Colour psychologist Faber Birren noted that a person’s body, mind, and soul form a unified microcosm, and Colour permeates all of these dimensions.
Emotional Perception of Colour
References:
Mahnke, F. H., 2007. Colour- Communication In Architectural Space. 4th Edition ed. Berlin: Birkhauser.
Figure 1 Sectional View of Retina (Mahnke, 2007) 2
Figure 2 Emotional Responses to Different Colour Schemes (Mahnke, 2007) 5
