Meaning of Colors: Purple

Keeping with my research on colors, I am now looking at the different meanings and emotions evoked by each color. I am looking at Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Purple, Orange, and Pink. There is a separate blog post for each color. The reason that I need to research this more is because I have never really noticed the emotional side of colors, I know the stereotypical view of certain colors, but not any real understanding about it, which if I can learn, will help enhance my designs by using every aspect of my design to show my message to my audience.

Purple

Meanings of the Color Purple

Purple has always been a more supernatural color as perceived by most cultures simply because its rarity in nature and the natural world. The color purple has a powerful history; the origins of the symbolism of purple are more significant and interesting than any other color. 

It may be hard to imagine, but our ancestors were not nearly so connected to the rest of the world as we are today, therefore most people never saw a purple fruit, flower, bird, fish or any living thing in nature because it is so rare, which adds to its supernatural aura. The first purple dye was dated back to 1900 B.C. and it took about 12,000 shellfish just to extract 1.5 grams of pure dye, which is barely enough to dye a single garment. This is why the only people to wear purple were emperors or privileged individuals. Though throughout the years purple become more popular and less rare, it is still widely seen across the world as the color of nobility and luxury.

After looking at purples present and past associations, it is believed to symbolize magic, mystery, spirituality, the sub-conscious, creativity, dignity, royalty - and it symbolizes these more than any other color. Different shades of purple can also convey different things, such as:

• Light Purple: light-hearted, floral, romantic
• Dark Shades: Intellectual and dignified
• Negative Meanings: Decadence, conceit, and pomposity and mourning

      Global Meanings of Purple

• People seem to either love it, or hate it
• Mediterranean people reserve purple for emperors and popes. Japanese christened it "Imperial Purple"
• U.K., Italy, Thailand, Brazil all view purple as the color of mourning
• Unlike other popular colors, purple isn't found on many flags, its only on two flags

      Unique Meanings of Purple in Other Cultures

• "Purple Heart" is the American award for bravery
• In Western Cultures, purple is the symbolic color for the gay community
• Many popular children's television characters are purple (Barney, Tinky Winky, Teletubby)
• In Italy, most performing artists would refuse to go onto stage if they have to wear anything purple

Designing with Purple

This color is created by combining hot red and cool blue. There are actually three distinctions of purple: Red-Purple, Purple, and Blue-Purple. Red-Purples are more warm colors, whereas Blue-Purples are much cooler, and Purple is simply nuetral.

NOTE:

Information and graphics on this page are taken from Color Matters, Basic Color Theory at http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/basic-color-theory.