Day 93: Colour Psychology

The next book on this side of journey of me is "The Beginner's Guide to Colour Psychology" by Angela Wright.

Wright states that she has had an interest in psychology & color for a very long time. In college she got her degree in psychology. She also trained in California for color analysis...I believe it was with Suzanne Caygill - who tell Wright that she will not ever be able to "do" color if she doesn't know where the color names come from. The example Wright gives is when she wanted to know the name of a flower. Her teacher didn't recognize the flower by Wright's description & asked her to bring a sample in. The flower was a cornflower. Wright realized that she often described eyes as "cornflower blue" without ever knowing what a cornflower looked like...it was a turning point for Wright.

Wright does a great job of giving the history of color & what certain ideas and/or emotions go with a certain color. As with Caygill, Wright groups people into 4 personality/color types. She also uses the names of the seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.

Along with the 4 seasons, Wright adds shapes & elements as well: circles & water for Spring, elongated S & air for Summer, a square & fire for Autumn and a triangle & earth for Winter. She gives a few examples of the different colors for each season, but not an inclusive list. Wright states that there are so many colors for each season (& each subset within the season) that it is a journey that each person must make themselves...a journey to learn their personality, their season, their secondary personality, their subset and their colors.

Caygill has a few subsets for her seasons, but Wright does a great job of not only giving a long list of subsets for each season, but also showing how the subsets are influenced by a strong secondary personality. She also has a written description of the personality for each season & a test. I didn't like the test. It frustrated me because I only wanted to choose bits & pieces from each choice.

An example would be the perfect room. Wright has a paragraph describing 4 perfect rooms...I only wanted the light from one room, the comfy couch & fireplace from another room, and the simpleness or sparseness of a third room. I didn't one anything from the 4th room.

Wright also provides great before & afters of people who in the first picture are dressed based on their primary season. In the second picture the people are dressed with their secondary season being added in. She also gives some examples of what does & doesn't work in the two pictures. I must admit, the changes in some pictures were very mild, but in others were quite obvious.

Finally, Wright touches on how this knowledge can help you in your home, your work & in marketing.

Overall: An easier to understand book than Caygill's, but also not enough questions to my answers. I felt like just as Wright was getting to the heart of them matter she would fall back on "it is a journey that each person must make." That might be true, but sometimes I just want the answers! I would still recommend the book. It is worth reading for the insights of how personality & color go hand in hand together.