Why I love color

I recently saw a video and read a post about color perception and language specifically through studies comparing how “Westerners” compare colors and members of the Himba Tribe. And I loved it in that super-geeky-oh-my-god-ice-cream-truck-for-my-soul-whee! way. That you shouldn’t feel for BBC documentaries.

But I realized, moreover, this was nothing new. That I had in fact secretly loved color (and been a member of colourlovers) for years. I’m more than ready to come out about my abject adoration for color now. And these 3 reasons sum up why.

  1. It affects your mood.
    The colors of the room, your clothes, the sky. It’s all subconsciously identified and categorized. The ones you like over time are an accumulation of your long-term experiences and thought processes. What you see in a day can change your short-term comfort-levels ever so slightly. Whether you notice it or not.

  2. We all see it differently.
    The Himba tribe can easily distinguish between slightly warmer and cooler greens. Men will classify a color blue that women will call purple. Some people are just genetically color-blind. Study and compare the color palettes of the various fine art masters. When you paint, you can make grey by mixing together black and white or by mixing together alizarin crimson red, sienna brown, and pthalo blue-green. Cool colors. Warm colors. Dark colors. Light colors. RGB. CMYK. HSB. Lab. Or maybe all we need is just that ever-familiar bright rainbow color wheel from kindergarten. 

  3. Everyone gets it.
    People think I like color because I am a visual designer. I tell people my obsession with color began with the intersection of art and psychology. But really I don’t remember when it started. We all kind of understand it to some level even if we don’t talk about it. You don’t need to have immense education or know English or even be older than a year to get it. Maybe for me, it began in my first memory of being in the backyard with my grandma learning colors in Mandarin… And realizing that plant leaves in a different language can be blue.