The Communicative Functions of Colour

Colours are very powerful and can reduce or raise stress levels,’ believes Lilian Verner-Bonds, author of Colour Healing (pg.229). 

 When approaching the tools and techniques put into practice regarding colour, we distinguish two types of affordance in colour, two sources for making meaning with colour.  First there is association, or provenance – the question of ‘where the colour comes from’, ‘where we have seen it before’.(van Leeuwen, pg.232-233).  This is evident in advertising or the entertainment media.  The second type of affordance is that of the ‘distinctive features’ of colour.  Here we want to show some aspects of the affordances of the materiality of colour, and hence make a connection, not with the ‘grammar’, but with phonetics and phonology (van Leeuwen, pg. 233).

Some of the Key Features of Color could by applied to Green’s approach to literacy as below:

Operational

Value- The scale of value is the grey scale, the scale from maximally light (white) to maximally dark (black).

Saturation- This is the scale from the most intensely saturated or ‘pure’ manifestations of a colour to its softest, most ‘pale’ or ‘pastel’, or dull and dark manifestations, and, ultimately, to complete desaturation, to black and white.

Cultural

Purity- this is the scale that runs from maximum ‘purity’ to maximum ‘hybridity’, and it has been at the heart of colour theory as it developed over the last few centuries.  Colours with commonly used single names, such as brown and green, would be considered pure.  The names of other colours, like cyan, are mainly used by specialists, and non-specialists would refer to them by means of a composite name, for instance, blue-green.

Modulation- this is the scale that runs from fully modulated colour (for example, from a blue that is richly textured with different tints and shades, as in paintings by Cezanne) to flat colour, (as in comic strips, or paintings by Matisse).

Critical

Differentiation- is the scale that runs from monochrome to the use of a maximally varied palette, and its very diversity or exuberance is one of its key semiotic affordances, as is the restraint involved in its opposite, lack of differentiation.

Hue- this is the scale from blue to red.  In a distinctive feature theory of colour it becomes only one of the factors constituting the complex and composite meanings of colour, and maybe not even the most important one.

(van Leeuwen, pgs.233-235)

I am so interested in this topic as it is a major part of my professional career in fashion.  Color can influence the ambiance and consumer behavior of a retail store.  For example blue is a color that is attractive to the majority of people, including both genders and all age groups, so it is a good choice for many retailers. Adding some red or blue to the color scheme will add energy to the blue.  Yellow is a happy and playful color but it can create anxiety.  Red should be used in small doses in retail businesses. It can cause aggression and anger if used in large amounts so it’s wise to use it as an accent color to add energy, passion and excitement.

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References:

Kress, Gunther & van Leeuwen, Theo (2006). Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. New York: Routledge.