In addition to the Color chapter in Lupton & Phillips Graphic Design, read the following articles. It may look like a lot of reading, but all but the last two readings listed are 1-2 pages:
- Color Matters: Why Color Matters
- Color Matters: Color and Usability Matters
- Color Matters: Taking the Color of Medications Seriously
- Color Matters: Color Matters for What You Wear
- Color Matters: The Meaning of Color for Gender
- Color Matters: Who Owns Hues?
- Gail Johnson’s “Pepsi Blue” article in Adbusters (Winter 1998)
- Chapter 7 from William Horton’s The Icon Book: Visual Symbols for Computer Systems and Documentation (1994)
- Introduction to Cailin Boyle’s Color Harmony for the Web: A Guide for Creating Great Color Schemes On-Line (2001)
ENG 350: Visible Rhetoric (Fall 2010) 
Here’s a reading on color I’d like you to add to your reading list for 9/28 (in addition to Chapter 3 in PL):
The Most Powerful Colors in the World: http://www.colourlovers.com/business/blog/2010/09/15/the-most-powerful-colors-in-the-world
its interesting to read how many shades of blue and red have appeared online. The logo is important because it makes the statement of what the company’s about so color is key. I find it hard to believe that in our vast palate the color’s could be running out. There must be more colors out there if we mix them up. Even rarer never before heard colors could be used and then red and blue might not be on top.
I found the article about clothing color the most intriguing. I couldn’t even imagine pink being a masculine color, while blue is a feminine color. Our society has drilled into my head that pink is girly and blue is boyish. I’ve never liked the color pink on guys or girls, but that has not stopped me from placing gender on colors. In my mind colors are a little one-sided. Girls look good in any color, but there are some colors I think guys shouldn’t wear unless it’s a special kind of shirt. Purple, pink, and yellow are the colors I associate as solely feminine. I don’t know who decided that these colors were feminine and other colors were masculine, but each culture apparently feels differently about color.
It was also interesting to learn about the tradition of colors. White being used for marriage in America is associated with death for Asia. Black is known for being a strong and emotion-filled color. Colors make us feel different ways because of how vision translates in our brains. This is a huge part of visible rhetoric. Even beyond the meanings of words and images is their color and what that color evokes in us. Some examples are found in propaganda during war times. Patriotic colors in advertisements make us feel like we need to support our country. Softer or earthy colors bring out sympathy, sadness, or a feeling of connection with the Earth and the community. Bold colors draw our eyes immediately and can anger or shock us. In the right setting and with the right viewer, colors can manipulate our emotions and cause us to take action.
This is another resource on color: Color: The Next Limited Resource: http://sixrevisions.com/web_design/color-the-next-limited-resource/
Ah, color! First I have to say that I am still perturbed by the idea of color falling under copyright. While I appreciate the work that goes into logo and identity, my anticommunism attitude still thinks this goes to far. If we are at this stage, how much further *can* it go. I’m thinking of Lessig’s Free Culture and how the copyrighting of culture has gone too far, resulting in a stranglehold on creativity. If T-Moblie hates your painting that uses “its” magenta to criticize the impact of telecommunications, at some point will it give them precedent to try to make you cease and desist? We’re not there now, but I can’t help but have concern that we could wind up mired in that sort of repressive nonsense.
As far as color and Western culture goes, the readings made me think about my own subculture. In the Central IL region (in Peoria, Bloomington, and many surrounding towns) in the 1980s there was a group of teens and young adults known as Cornchips. I have no idea where that pejorative came from, but eventually many of us embraced it. We were a mix of punk, goth, and rivethead kids. Most of us wore a lot of black in the era when pastels dominated fashion. Perhaps I should explain to younger people, that wearing black in the 1980s would result in a lot of people mockingly asking, “where’s the funeral?”
I can’t speak for the whole of the Cornchip culture, but this choice is something I’d talked with many others about. It was often a pragmatic choice, resulting in one load of laundry and the ease of getting dressed without wasting time on visual presentation. (Though oddly, we used a ton of hairspray and time on crazy hair.) Most felt like they’d been thrown away by the larger specter of American culture. We were misfits because of our (Reagan era) political beliefs. There was resistance to consumerism (most of us bought thrift store clothes), fringe religious beliefs (many were pagan), or we were LGBT or people supportive of the LGBT community.
The irony was that though many seemed obsessed with not conforming to most of the ideals in American culture, the mass of us wearing black ended up being its own conformist trap. One thing that was interesting though, is wearing black erased the idea of color and gender. Gender bending was a central part of that culture too. (My husband wore more makeup than I did in the 80s). It’s interesting to think back on that time and see that we resisted those outmoded ideas too, even if it was not a conscious decision for every Cornchip.
Another thing I thought about is how my husband and I tossed out most of the traditions associated with weddings. I wore a black skirt and top over a long, bright blue, brocade jacket. (I also wore Doc Martins instead of slippers or high heels.)
I’d read up on the tradition of the white gown at weddings and was surprised to learn that it came about in the 1900s. At that time a woman would choose and extra fancy gown, because it had to be hand made and most had only a few dresses. The wedding gown was also likely to be the fanciest gown a would would own–and wear after the wedding. White cloth was hard to come by and it was a status symbol to have a white dress, a way to show that you were wealthy enough to afford a dress made of a cloth that was impractical.
I was also aware of the connection many make with “pure” or “virginal” white. No way was I going to play into the tradition of the white gown. My grab from that day is very dressy and I’ve not had a chance to wear it again, but I feel like I could for the right occasion. I guess you could say it was my way of returning to the original tradition.
We may have subconscious reactions to colors, but we can always question a resist those reactions.
Boo! There’s no way to edit these posts. Please excuse my many typos. It’s hard to proofread in the smaller post interface. I wore the blue jacket *over* the black. I think most of the other typos are easy for readers to correct in their heads.