OUGD601 Research: Colour Theory: The Meanings of Colours

  Red

Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love.

Red is a very emotionally intense color. It enhances human metabolism, increases respiration rate, and raises blood pressure. It has very high visibility, which is why stop signs, stoplights, and fire equipment are usually painted red. In heraldry, red is used to indicate courage. It is a color found in many national flags.

Red brings text and images to the foreground. Use it as an accent color to stimulate people to make quick decisions; it is a perfect color for 'Buy Now' or 'Click Here' buttons on Internet banners and websites. In advertising, red is often used to evoke erotic feelings (red lips, red nails, red-light districts, 'Lady in Red', etc). Red is widely used to indicate danger (high voltage signs, traffic lights). This color is also commonly associated with energy, so you can use it when promoting energy drinks, games, cars, items related to sports and high physical activity.

Light red represents joy, sexuality, passion, sensitivity, and love.
Pink signifies romance, love, and friendship. It denotes feminine qualities and passiveness.
Dark red is associated with vigor, willpower, rage, anger, leadership, courage, longing, malice, and wrath.
Brown suggests stability and denotes masculine qualities.
Reddish-brown is associated with harvest and fall.

  Orange

Orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It is associated with joy, sunshine, and the tropics. Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation.

To the human eye, orange is a very hot color, so it gives the sensation of heat. Nevertheless, orange is not as aggressive as red. Orange increases oxygen supply to the brain, produces an invigorating effect, and stimulates mental activity. It is highly accepted among young people. As a citrus color, orange is associated with healthy food and stimulates appetite. Orange is the color of fall and harvest. In heraldry, orange is symbolic of strength and endurance.

Orange has very high visibility, so you can use it to catch attention and highlight the most important elements of your design. Orange is very effective for promoting food products and toys.

Dark orange can mean deceit and distrust.
Red-orange corresponds to desire, sexual passion, pleasure, domination, aggression, and thirst for action.
Gold evokes the feeling of prestige. The meaning of gold is illumination, wisdom, and wealth. Gold often symbolizes high quality.

  Yellow

Yellow is the color of sunshine. It's associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy.

Yellow produces a warming effect, arouses cheerfulness, stimulates mental activity, and generates muscle energy. Yellow is often associated with food. Bright, pure yellow is an attention getter, which is the reason taxicabs are painted this color. When overused, yellow may have a disturbing effect; it is known that babies cry more in yellow rooms. Yellow is seen before other colors when placed against black; this combination is often used to issue a warning. In heraldry, yellow indicates honor and loyalty. Later the meaning of yellow was connected with cowardice.

Use yellow to evoke pleasant, cheerful feelings. You can choose yellow to promote children's products and items related to leisure. Yellow is very effective for attracting attention, so use it to highlight the most important elements of your design. Men usually perceive yellow as a very lighthearted, 'childish' color, so it is not recommended to use yellow when selling prestigious, expensive products to men – nobody will buy a yellow business suit or a yellow Mercedes. Yellow is an unstable and spontaneous color, so avoid using yellow if you want to suggest stability and safety. Light yellow tends to disappear into white, so it usually needs a dark color to highlight it. Shades of yellow are visually unappealing because they loose cheerfulness and become dingy.

Dull (dingy) yellow represents caution, decay, sickness, and jealousy.
Light yellow is associated with intellect, freshness, and joy.

  Green

Green is the color of nature. It symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety. Dark green is also commonly associated with money.

Green has great healing power. It is the most restful color for the human eye; it can improve vision. Green suggests stability and endurance. Sometimes green denotes lack of experience; for example, a 'greenhorn' is a novice. In heraldry, green indicates growth and hope. Green, as opposed to red, means safety; it is the color of free passage in road traffic.

Use green to indicate safety when advertising drugs and medical products. Green is directly related to nature, so you can use it to promote 'green' products. Dull, darker green is commonly associated with money, the financial world, banking, and Wall Street.

Dark green is associated with ambition, greed, and jealousy.
Yellow-green can indicate sickness, cowardice, discord, and jealousy.
Aqua is associated with emotional healing and protection.
Olive green is the traditional color of peace.

  Blue

Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.

Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness. In heraldry, blue is used to symbolize piety and sincerity.

You can use blue to promote products and services related to cleanliness (water purification filters, cleaning liquids, vodka), air and sky (airlines, airports, air conditioners), water and sea (sea voyages, mineral water). As opposed to emotionally warm colors like red, orange, and yellow; blue is linked to consciousness and intellect. Use blue to suggest precision when promoting high-tech products.

Blue is a masculine color; according to studies, it is highly accepted among males. Dark blue is associated with depth, expertise, and stability; it is a preferred color for corporate America.

Avoid using blue when promoting food and cooking, because blue suppresses appetite. When used together with warm colors like yellow or red, blue can create high-impact, vibrant designs; for example, blue-yellow-red is a perfect color scheme for a superhero.

Light blue is associated with health, healing, tranquility, understanding, and softness.
Dark blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness.

  Purple

Purple combines the stability of blue and the energy of red. Purple is associated with royalty. It symbolizes power, nobility, luxury, and ambition. It conveys wealth and extravagance. Purple is associated with wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, mystery, and magic.

According to surveys, almost 75 percent of pre-adolescent children prefer purple to all other colors. Purple is a very rare color in nature; some people consider it to be artificial.

Light purple is a good choice for a feminine design. You can use bright purple when promoting children's products.

Light purple evokes romantic and nostalgic feelings.
Dark purple evokes gloom and sad feelings. It can cause frustration.

  White

White is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity. It is considered to be the color of perfection.

White means safety, purity, and cleanliness. As opposed to black, white usually has a positive connotation. White can represent a successful beginning. In heraldry, white depicts faith and purity.

In advertising, white is associated with coolness and cleanliness because it's the color of snow. You can use white to suggest simplicity in high-tech products. White is an appropriate color for charitable organizations; angels are usually imagined wearing white clothes. White is associated with hospitals, doctors, and sterility, so you can use white to suggest safety when promoting medical products. White is often associated with low weight, low-fat food, and dairy products.

  Black

Black is associated with power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery.

Black is a mysterious color associated with fear and the unknown (black holes). It usually has a negative connotation (blacklist, black humor, 'black death'). Black denotes strength and authority; it is considered to be a very formal, elegant, and prestigious color (black tie, black Mercedes). In heraldry, black is the symbol of grief.

Black gives the feeling of perspective and depth, but a black background diminishes readability. A black suit or dress can make you look thinner. When designing for a gallery of art or photography, you can use a black or gray background to make the other colors stand out. Black contrasts well with bright colors. Combined with red or orange – other very powerful colors – black gives a very aggressive color scheme.

OUGD601 Synthesis Plan

To synthesise the practical and the written work, the practical will have to be an advertisement or magazine, as this is something heavily focused on through-out the written work. It would be interesting to make a survey and get some feedback on gender neutral products, magazines and advertisements before creating the practical work, as it will give a rough idea of what the audience and consumers market actually want from a product. The advert should also be in a similar style to one of the visual arts mentioned through-out the essay, or relevant at the time of feminism.

OUGD601 Practical Ideas Critique

Having proposed these ideas to a small group, people generally thought that the idea was a really interesting concept, however thought that making a few advertisements wouldn't be enough. They suggested ways that I could turn it into a campaign, however I am unsure whether this would be successful as there have been multiple campaigns already, such as the raise boys and girls the same campaign, however one campaign isn't going to change companies ideas on advertising. Instead, I think it might be a better idea to try to change the view of the consumers, as product companies and advertising companies will only change their methods when the consumer changes their spending habbits. For this reason, it may be interesting to look into a way of creating a campaign through advertisements, for example a company that sponsors other companies who have created gender neutral advertisements.

OUGD601 Practical Concept

Having looked at advertisements and companies that create products, It has been very difficult to find a company or product that is promoted at both men and women through their advertisements. For this reason, the proposed concept is to advertise and market a product that can be used by both women and men that already exists on the market today.

Below is a list of products that can be used by all genders, however are generally only marketed at one.

- Moisturiser
- Razors
- Deodorant
- Perfume
- Make Up

Most of the products chosen are beauty-related, meaning the project will be consistent as it would be odd to try to promote face cream and then create an advert to try to promote a car - it wouldn't be very consistent, however it also might be interesting to look into if it is possible for even more products.

OUGD601 Research: Feminist Graphic Design

Women in Graphic Design

70% of graphic design students at Central Saint Martins (CSM) are women, compared with 50% in the late 1990s. Yet the number of female graphic designers that currently feature in the curriculum is only 30%.

"Gender issues are being talked about all the time now; we're arguably in a fourth wave of feminism," says Ruth Sykes, lecturer at CSM. "I thought it was a good time to enter that conversation specifically from specifically the graphic design education point of view."

Rachel 'Ray' Marshall satirises the bigoted, chauvinistic, anti-suffrage view that attractive young women were not interested in voting or reforming women's pay.

Rachel 'Ray' Marshall, Common Cause Cover Cartoons, 1910

"Together, Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir designed the road signs for Britain that have been used since 1965," Calvery drew a number of the original symbols, including the famous "Men At Work" sign.

Margaret Calvert, Men At Work, 1965, image courtesy of Ruth Sykes

The 'second-wave feminist women's magazine' was produced in 1973 by Kate Hepburn and Sally Doust, and the pair set out to create 'a new kind of visual language that would indicate it was both a women's magazine and a publication that challenged the status quo'.

Spare Rib, Kate Hepburn & Sally Doust, 1973

Note how Spare Rib's allusion to 'the liberated orgasm' in 1973 has now transformed into the pink vibrator of Ladybird's celebrated 2015 cover.

Ladybeard magazine, issue 1, 2015

Although there are many women who study graphic design, in 1994 the number of graphic designers in the industry was predominately male, something that the UK's Women's Design and Research Unit actively sought to rectify.

'The experimental typeface consist of dingbat style icons reflecting on the endless spectrum of stereotypical language used to label and control women. While there are more women in typography today, it is interesting to note the recent creation of the 'Alphabettes' network, which exists to support and promote women in the fields of lettering, typography and type design.'

WD+RU, Pussy Galore font poster, 1994, image courtesy of Ruth Sykes

This was a really interesting article. Finding out about 'Spare Rib' magazine and 'Pussy Galore' typeface could definitely be helpful with both the practical and written elements of this project.

OUGD601 Research: TomGirl Documentary

Tomgirl is a documentary film about a gender non-conforming seven year old called Jake. The film looks into the life of Jake and the positivity that can come from a family who love and support their young child and accept them for who they really are. 

This is a really interesting concept; to raise boys and girls the same. Gender Neutrality / Non-Binary Gender is something that could be really interesting to bring into adverts, especially as everything these days is gendered, which surely cuts the market that the product would reach in half. More research will have to be done into this if this is an idea that I will develop further.
TOMGIRL from Two Dollars Please on Vimeo.

OUGD601 Ethics Approval Form

As I plan on creating a survey over Christmas to get some first hand research for both the written essay and the practical project, it will be useful to fill out an ethics form now in preparation. Here is the form below, signed by Simon.

"The survey and potential focus group will be voluntary and no intrusive questions will be posed. If the focus group takes place, there will be a consent form for participants to sign, and only those who sign will be taken forward and analysed."