Day 5 – How do you see Colour?
Today is Day 5 of the Perfectly Reasonable Countdown! Margo loves colour so she has 5 fun facts about colour for you!
People see colour before anything else. Try reading these:
Green Yellow Red Orange Purple Blue
Your brain wants to read the colour before the word!
Colour Stats:
Blue is the most popular favourite colour.
Yellow is the most visible colour – hence yellow taxis, yellow fire trucks and school buses.
77% of flags have red in them.
People eat with their eyes.
In experiments where food is coloured, people will perceive the flavour they associate with the colour.
Blue – berry flavour
Yellow-Green – lemon lime
Butter has to be pale yellow
Can you imagine brown cheesies?
Blue is an appetite suppressant possibly since blue food is a rare occurrence except for blueberries and blue-purple potatoes. And blue M&Ms!
Pills used to be all white and round until the 60’s and 70s when capsules were invented. Coloured pills have the same effect on people – green pills for nausea and red pills for heartburn won’t work.
Colours have certain strong associations for people.
Red – love, danger, power, international colour for stop.
Blue – peace, cleanliness, nature sky and water, but not food!
Green – ecology, luck, mint, fertility
Yellow – happy, caution
Orange – dynamic energy
Pink for girls and blue for boys – although it used to be the opposite at the turn of the century. Red was considered a stronger color and so pink was for boys!
Colour is important for branding when companies are deciding on their logos and product packaging. People will consider whether the product will do what you expect from its appearance (a red sleep aid – say what?), will connect to it emotionally (yellow makes people happy, orange gives them energy), and the colour will distinguish the company from others (red and yellow for McDonalds).
There you have it – fun facts about colour. You’ll be thinking about colour next time you’re served blue potato chips on a plane 😀 Thanks Margo! Join me tomorrow – 4 very special people will share their volunteering experience!
