What is color?

Colors are nothing but what we see with our eyes., a visual perception. But its not just this, colors’ affect our mood, health, emotion and thoughts too. Color has a significant impact on people.  Ever wondered why the interior of a hospital isn’t red? Why was your kinder garden school so colorful? Why the sky is blue? And why the grass is green? We are surrounded by colors and each color has its own significance and individuality.

Let’s start with the color wheel. Color wheel is a diagram that shows how colors relate to each other. It starts with primary colors (red, yellow, blue), which are mixed to create secondary colors (orange, green, purple). Tertiary colors are formed by mixing primary and secondary colors. It helps us understand the relationship between colors.

Colors are divided into 2 parts:

1. Warm colors: these colors are more exciting, bright and cheerful.

E.g.: yellow, red,orange,brown

• Cool colors: these colors are calm and sedative, but can also be depressing at times.

E.g.: blue, green, purple,

Now let’s understand a few qualities of colors:

• Red: Power, passion, violence, excitement, action, boldness, energy, hunger, confidence.
• Orange: Euphoria, enthusiasm, focus, adventure, creativity.
• Yellow: Happiness, power, confidence, positivity, brightening up , strength, freshness.
• Green: Fresh, nature, balance, soothing, growth, comfort, purity.
• Blue: Calmness, peace, trust, truth, reduces stress, serenity, wisdom.
• Purple: Mystery, spirituality, sophistication.
• Pink: Delicate, love, softness, comfort, romance, nurturing, care, sensitivity, sweetness.
• White: Peace, purity, transparency, calmness, quite, innocence, comfort, serene.
• Black: Sadness and grief, intimidation, seriousness, authority, sophistication.
• Brown: Simplicity, stability, warmth, comfort,grounding.

Warm and cool colours are future devided into types:

Light warm, dark warm, light cool and dark cool.

Their qualities are:

 light warm colours are: joy, love, kindness.

Dark warm: power, wealth, confidence.

Light cold: fresh, calm, peace.

Dark cold:  mystery, depression, melancholy.

This is how colors have their own qualities, next well will see how they affect places and importance of colors in architecture.