Say It With Color
on 11.27.05, 04:45pm in windows • comments (2)
After posting about rounded windows, I started to wonder why Windows Live Messenger chose the ‘orange’ everywhere color scheme until I ran across this blog entry.
"Why Orange? Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation."
Interesting. I followed the "click here" that was posted to find out more interesting facts about colors and what they represent, specifically because I was curious about black, since its the most predominant color (besides ‘glass’) used in the Aero theme.
The first link revealed some unsettling news: "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… Combined with red or orange ‚Äì other very powerful colors ‚Äì black gives a very aggressive color scheme." Wheeeee!
Michael Brundage (November 27, 2005 @ 6:11 pm)
Hey Steve, check out “Color: A Natural History of the Palette” by Victoria Finlay. Costco had it awhile back.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812971426/
Brian Teutsch (November 27, 2005 @ 7:18 pm)
For what it’s worth, I had the same thoughts. I happened to ask a designer who was well-versed in Asian cultures about the Black color scheme, and they felt that there would be nothing off-putting about the new color schemes. In fact, their first inclination was that black was a powerful (good) color, not a powerful (bad) color.