Colour, shape and emotions

In branding and indeed in all design, colour and shape are central to both the recognition of an identity as well as cultural connotations and emotional stimulation.  Facebook is blue; Yahoo has purple; Lush's pared down monochrome packaging - all have a colour scheme at the centre of their identity, which arguably speak for the function of the companies.

Olafur Eliasson's Turner Colour Experiments is a gallery installation, currently showing at Tate Modern.  The pieces featured are large colour wheels, the hues of which are taken directly from the work of JM Turner who Eliafsson has noted as being a major influence on his work.  Speaking to the Tate's website, Eliasson (2014) says   "I find it interesting that Turner seemed to seek whatever truth there is in visual representation in careful observation of external phenomena and the way we perceive light and colour….I was therefore eager to detach light and colour from their iconic status in his works in order to support what I see as his obsession with these atmospheric effects."

Fig.1 Olafur Eliasson in his studio, 2014 by Olafur Eliasson studio

Eliasson wanted to present Turner's colour palettes in a way that could be processed by the viewer in a way that offered both a link to the painter's work and a removal from it.  "It seemed like a natural step to begin an experimental study by abstracting this palette and filtering it into a new, utopian colour scheme…I think abstraction may be welcoming.  It offers potential to re-evaluate our senses of self, our senses of being present." With regards to the circular shape of the compositions, Eliasson says this "allows the viewer to take in artwork in a decentralised, meandering way.  The fading colours in each sequence deter the viewer's eye from resting on a single line or spot.  Instead, the eye must negotiate its way around the work, which creates a sense of personal narrative."

Fig 2. Colour experiment no 60 by Olafur Eliasson, 2014

Fig. 3 Colour experiment no 61 by Olafur Eliasson

This particular quote gave me an idea of doing a media test, creating some identity without any text or worded information.  By only presenting colours, could the work make a person give more thought to their own emotional response?  Branding is often so subversive and manipulative that we are unaware of the influence over our decisions or why we make them, but everyone can estimate their own basic emotional response to a colour palette.

Eliasson's take on shape led me to looking in to the psychology behind shape and how they can be used to visually portray emotion, as I have in the past about the theories relating angles to certain emotions.  Wassily Kandinsky was vocal about his theories regarding colour, shape and line, particularly in his works Pont et Ligne Sur Plane ("Point and Line to Plane") and "About Painting".  Kandinsky believed that certain shapes suited certain colours best due to the complimentary emotions they stirred up through what he called "spiritual vibrations" (he was so super keen on this that IT IS PRINTED IN CAPITALS in "About Painting ||"- true story).  Kandinsky was also of the belief that a certain colour called to mind sensations related to the physical connotations of something that shared the colour.  "For example," he writes, "red may cause a sensation analogous to that caused by flame, because red is the colour of flame.  A warm red will prove exciting, another shade of red will cause pain or disgust through association with running blood.  In these cases colour awakens a corresponding physical sensation, which undoubtedly works upon the soul."  This may not be quite the literal meaning we take on colour today (Kandinsky was a synesthete, which meant that colour took on other sensory associations sometimes in a projected physical sense) but it is interesting to consider the wide connotations of colours, even across cultures and individuals.

"Form alone, even though totally abstract and geometrical, has a power of inner suggestion.  A triangle…has a spiritual value of its own.  In connection with other forms, this value may be somewhat modified, but remains in quality the same." (Hall, 1982)  And in the same vein, from a later passage of the same essay, Kandinsky touches upon the importance of the relation between colour and shape "On the whole, keen colours are well suited by sharp forms (e.g. a yellow triangle), and soft, deep colours by round forms (e.g. a blue circle)...the superficial impression of a varied colour might be the starting point of a whole chain of related sensations."   It is also noted that the combination of a certain colour with a certain shape will change the context and meaning of both colour and shape:"The mutual influence of colour and shape now becomes clear.  A yellow triangle, a blue circle, a green square, or a green triangle, a yellow circle, a blue square - all these are different and have different spiritual values."

The website Uncle Eddie's theory corner was helpful in summarising Kandinsky's beliefs in what shape goes with what colour; Fitzgerald (2007) writes on his blog that "a dull shape like a circle deserves a dull colour like blue.  An intermediate interest like a square deserves an intermediate colour like red.  A dynamic, interesting shape like a triangle deserves an energetic, luminous, psychotic colour like yellow."

Fig.4  - Kandisnky believed certain angles should also have colours

Fig.5 - Kandinsky's colour scheme for curved angles

"Yellow, if steadily gazed at in any geometrical form, has a disturbing influence, and reveals in the colour and insistent, aggressive character."  Notice the above has assigned yellow to a sharper angle than blue.

Looking at Eliasson and Kandinsky's works has given a slightly different perspective on colour, so it will be interesting to see if it has any effect on subsequent work.  I have added the project described earlier in this post to my (ever increasing) to-list so I plan to try out the colour blocking packaging idea soon.  I think in the same vein it will also be useful to look at anti-branding for this exercise, as I have recently done some prelim investigations into it and found some really nice identity work that is almost dependent on colour blocking alone.  With regards to theories and opinions on colour, I think it is a good idea to look at it from a more psychological angle that is rooted in science, as there many studies that look at colour theory in a scientific research project.

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References

Eliasson, Olafur, 2014.  Reality is ephemeral - Turner colour experiments [online article] Available at:
http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/reality-ephemeral
[Accessed 12th October 2014]

Hall, G.K, 1982. Kandinsky: Complete Writings on Art.  Boston: Da Capo Press

Images

Fig 1 - Eliasson, Olafur (studios), 2014.  Olafur Eliasson in his studio  [online image] Available at:
http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/reality-ephemeral
[Accessed 12th October 2014]

Fig. 2 - Eliasson, Olafur. 2014. Colour experiment no. 60 [online image] Available at:
http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/reality-ephemeral
[Accessed 12th October 2014]

Fig. 3 - Eliasson, Olafur. 2014. Colour experiment no. 61 [online image] Available at:
http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/reality-ephemeral
[Accessed 12th October 2014]

Fig 4 - Kandinsky, Wassily, unknown.  Unknown [online image] Available at:
http://uncleeddiestheorycorner.blogspot.co.uk/2007/04/kandinskys-color-theories.html
[Accessed 19th October 2014]

Fig 5 - Kandinsky, Wassily, unknown.  Unknown [online image] Available at:
http://uncleeddiestheorycorner.blogspot.co.uk/2007/04/kandinskys-color-theories.html
[Accessed 19th October 2014]