What if Colours Were Nameless
What If Colours Were Nameless?
November 26, 2018
Red, blue, yellow, orange, green, and purple are universally understood colours whose names have become ingrained in our everyday language. But what if colours were nameless and in order to describe them we needed to speak to their affect? What if you had to name a colour? How would you begin? Commonly descriptive colour names such as rusty red, pine green, sunny yellow, or light blue, are names which are agreeably intelligible but perhaps not engaging. Meanwhile more elaborate colour names, such as the colloquial Tiffany Blue, can add a layer of intrigue and also become inseparable from the colour itself. Today, the naming of colour has moved away from common descriptives to new ambiguous colour names that are creating interest and favourable response in consumers. Studying these results, companies that name paint and product colours use unconventional names to try to increase curiosity, awaken emotion, provoke choices and ultimately inspire purchases (e.g. Crayola’s new crayon colour Bluetiful, OPI’s popular nail polish Lincoln Park After Dark, or Farrow & Ball paint colour Elephant’s Breath). The process of naming colours is complex and the results are unexpected because these titles can yield a variety of responses from their cultural environments.
Within the history of naming colours, a hierarchical order exists. Throughout many cultures, basic colour names began in a fixed order beginning with black, white, red, green, yellow and blue. A culture would not have a name for red before black or white for example, by reacting to light and dark first and foremost. Reaction to certain parts of the spectrum would then follow and so would the names for these colours. The colour Orange which was first recorded in English in 1512, however, comes from the word naranga, a fruit, not the other way around. Since then colour names which include a descriptive word have become familiar and frequently used in the English language such as forest green, lemon yellow, carnation pink, and charcoal grey. Practiced in the art of naming colours, Crayola crayons began with a black marking crayon in 1900 and by 1903 was producing an 8 colour box of crayons that included black, brown, red, orange, yellow, blue, violet and green. It has been recorded that Crayola has had over 755 names for over 331 colours. There are certain colours being renamed after popular culture; like Iron Man Blue which is the same as Blue depending what box of crayons it is in and who it is marketed to. While other colours are being renamed for political reasons like India Red and common colours like Violet have remained the same. “In 1917, the first crayons were imported into Japan… and there were different crayons for green and blue, [previously there were not separate words for these colours in Japan] and children started to adopt these names.” The widespread use of Crayola crayons has had its influence on the language of colour with certain names becoming commonplace or even changing how other languages name their colours; Aatish Bhatia coined the term “Crayola-fication” in reference to this phenomenon.
While there is a mutual understanding of what a common colour like violet is and the kind of response it can create, what happens when a colour name is not so obvious? Colour names can create a fairly clear image in your mind by using common descriptive names such as; light blue, bright red, baby pink, pine green and snow white. While ambiguous names such as; Falu, Amaranth, Absolute Zero, Cosmic Latte or Big Foot Feet can create a diversity of images. In “Shades of Meaning: the Effect of Color and Flavor Names on Consumer Choice”, Elizabeth G. Miller and Barbara E. Kahn write “consumers will react favorably to unusual color and flavor names because they expect marketing messages to convey useful information.” If a name is ambiguous consumers will try to search for the reason why and assume that there must be one, thus creating interest and additional response. Expanding on Paul Grice’s (1975) theory of “conversational implicature” where one assumes that conversation is cooperative and meanings are implied by words, Miller and Kahn propose that consumers will react favourably to unusual colour names because they expect marketing messages to convey useful information.
In the paint industry the naming of colour is a billion dollar business and taken quite seriously. Professionals are brought together to evoke moods, make connections, create associations and inspire purchases. “Color experts are bringing up color associations we all have to things in the world, which then trigger a mood, such as happy, calm, or erotic,” says colour researcher Leslie Harrington. Names can be persuasive because they can evoke emotional responses which derive from visual memories, experiences, places we have been, associations to emotions and events in our lives. According to colour marketing managers Dee Schlotter and Misty Yeomans of PPG Pittsburgh Paints, there is definitely logic to the process of naming colours. "It should evoke the color in your mind… elicit emotional responses or memories… if nothing else, we try to give the color personality.” Misty says the ideas for paint colors are based on "whatever the color sparks in our mind."
In order to further study the naming of colours, I began a daily studio practice of recording what I felt were the colours of the day. The criteria was to search my mind, mood, energy, surroundings, etc. for the “colour of the morning” before I began my day and the “colour of the evening” before I went to sleep. In some cases the name was the first clear thought and I would create a colour to exemplify it. In other instances the colour would come first and the name would follow to describe it. Once the colour was decided I would mix acrylic paints until it was just right, then apply it to paper with a brush. I would not look at the colour again or its name until the end of the month as I did not want the results of previous colours to effect the naming of another. I did not want to be made aware of any patterns that may have been developing. The intention of my month-long study was to explore the process involved in choosing the name of a colour and to analyze the results, both of the names and the palettes that had emerged after the month had passed. Some of the questions I would ask myself include; If today has had minimum events, actions or thoughts this far, how can it manifest itself as a colour? What makes today special? What seems out of the ordinary? Are there patterns that existed today? What was learned today? Is the weather influencing my day? What of the physical world is affecting my decision?
At the core of all of these questions seemed to lie undoubtedly a colour, I would just keep exploring until I was satisfied. I imagined the process to be similar to the “spark” that the colour marketing managers were speaking of. Some names possessed a primary colour, some imperative, some not a full articulation and thus through this process of the individual taxonomy of the colours I had developed, only some could be shared and mutually understood. Following the names of my colours as a novel they tell a story of my mornings, perhaps reflections on the day, or anticipation of the day to come. Morning Grey, Birthday Blue, Autumn Chill Orange, Warm Ceramics, Money Trees, The Plan, Stay Grounded, Hot, Warm Milk, Flesh, Deep Chill, Not Quite Mellow Yellow, Wilted Sprout, Mist, Compliment, Greenway, Tone It Down, Fuzzy Foggy Frosty, Bright Future, Server Down, Elvis's Oatmeal.
It is difficult to determine exactly what a colour, and that colour’s name, will provoke; its implications are complex and rest on a multitude of factors which can include culture, language, history, personal mood and experience. A colour’s name can convey a variety of messages, and elicit a multitude of responses. The beauty of language is that it can create a physical reaction. Language and colour together can create a common and approachable colour such as lime green, or a more ambiguous colour like Elephants Breath. In some instances the name can become more influential, powerful, and emotive than the colour it was inspired by. Sarah Cole of Farrow & Ball paint, a quirky British paint company stated “When choosing names for our paint colors it’s really important to us that they are emotive; they are as much a part of the color as the colors themselves!” A colour and its name can become inseparable, and possess the power to influence language, evoke emotion, change perceptions, persuade choices, and promote consumerism. When language and colour are combined to create a name, its visual associations are endless. With the addition of words to the visual phenomena of colour the response can be positive or negative. Eloquently stated by novelist A.S. Byatt “I think the names of colors are at the edge, between where language fails and where it’s at its most powerful.”
Bibliography
Bhatia, Aatish. “The Crayola-fication of the World: How We Gave Colors Names, and it Messed with Our Brains (part 1).” June 5, 2012. https://www.wired.com/2012/06/the-crayola-fication-of-the-world-how-we-gave-colors-names-and-it-messed-with-our-brains-part-i/ (accessed November 25, 2018).
Boboltz, Sara. “A Brief Yet Complex History of Crayola Crayons.” The Huffington Post. December 6, 2017. https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/crayola-crayon-color-history_n_7345924. (accessed November 18, 2018).
Casaponsa, Aiana. “The Way You See Color Depends on What Language You Speak.” Quartz. April 17, 2018. https://qz.com/1254316/why-do-humans-see-different-colors-it-depends-what-language-you-speak/ (accessed November 15, 2018).
Emswiler, Kate. “The Fascinating Reason You Are Choosing Certain Paint Colors.” Popsugar. May 22, 2017. https://www.popsugar.com/home/How-Do-Paint-Colors-Get-Names-43552404 (accessed November 25, 2018).
Erickson, Glenn W. “Wittgenstein’s Remarks on Color.” Dialogos, 57 (1991):113-136. http://smjegupr.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Wittgenstein--s-remarks-on-colour-por-Glenn-W.-Erickson.pdf (accessed November 21, 2018).
Hensher, Philip. “A.S. Byatt, The Art of Fiction No. 168.” The Paris Review, issue 159 (2001). https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/481/a-s-byatt-the-art-of-fiction-no-168-a-s-byatt ( accessed December 2, 2018).
Hohenadel, Kristin. “What Color is Elephant’s Breath?” Slate. October 9, 2013. https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/10/farrow-ball-the-story-behind-the-paint-world-s-quirkiest-color-names.html (accessed November 25, 2018).
Janeway, Kimberly. “How Paint Colors Get Their Names.” Consumer Reports. April 17, 2017. https://www.consumerreports.org/paints/how-paint-colors-get-their-names/ (accessed November 23, 2018).
Kahn, Barbara E., and Elizabeth G. Miller. “Shades of Meaning: The Effect of Color and Flavor Names on Consumer Choice.” Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol.32 (2005): 86-92. https://doi.org/10.1086/429602.
Loreto, Vittorio, Animesh Mukherjee, and Francesca Tria. “On the Origin of the Hierarchy of Color Names.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (May 2012): 6819-6824. http://www.pnas.org/content/109/18/6819.
Meyer, Robinson. “When a Robot Names a New Color of Paint.” The Atlantic. May 22, 2017. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/05/when-a-robot-names-a-new-color-of-paint/527421/ (accessed November 15, 2018).
Ohio State University. "Color Names: More Universal Than You Might Think." ScienceDaily. October 19, 2006. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061019094031.htm (accessed November 24, 2018).
Winterson, Jeanette. “Jeanette Winterson on the Transforming Power of Art.” The Guardian. February 14, 2015. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/feb/14/jeanette-winterson-transforming-power-art-whitworth (accessed November 15, 2018).
