Look What Color Can Do!

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A while ago, an Israeli paint company called Tambour  [I'm a private person, so there's no problem my using corporate names…] , came out with what I felt was a really great campaign (by Adler-Chomsky). On giant billboards along Israel’s highways, they used colors instead of letters. (I’ve got a full belly about the billboards issue, but I’ll attack that some other time.) Somehow, the “code” was very easy to decipher, for reasons I hope you’ll understand by yourselves in a moment.

Here’s one (or rather two, which complement each other) to start with:

Now, that was obvious, right?

So here’s another:

Feel like trying it out for yourself?
OK…
How would you color-code :
- the word “GRASS” in “The grass is greener on the other side of the hill” ?
- the word “EGGS” in   “To make an omelet you have to break a few eggs“ ?

Try getting to it on your own before you scroll down.

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You’re here… Great!
So these are my answers.
Tell me if you think they’re correct, & would be easy to understand (in context, of course).
[ BTW, you can't comment here, only on my contact me page. Sorry...  ]

 

 

 

 

And now to a slightly “educational” discussion: (it you’re not interested, just roll down to “On a personal note“. I won’t be offended…  )

Color plays a central role in visual messages.

Some colors have become fixed as a company’s logo –
IKEA’s blue-yellow, VISA’s blue-white-gold, KFC’s red-white-red.
Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn all use shades of true blue on a white background. Can you guess why?
Both Google (Chrome etc.) and Microsoft (Windows, MSN etc.) use the same Red-Green-Yellow-Blue color code… I wonder why… Your guess is as good as mine, here. Could they be trying to make it difficult for us to differentiate between them, and create loyalty to one brand over the other, for some reason?

Colors can convey a multitude of feelings – love & hate, passion, calm, anger; almost anything. Pink and red would naturally be our choice for signifying love (research shows that red is classically associated with passion); yellow is the color of the sun, implying light, warmth and joy; light-blue has a cool, calming effect, like water. Would you buy a cleaning-agent, such as soap, shampoo etc., if it were marketed in a grey-brown container? And white, of course, is the color of purity and innocence. Or is it? White can sometimes be identified with cold, harsh environments, like hospitals, and in some eastern traditions it’s the color of mourning.
Yup, that’s another side to understanding color: its implications are often traditional, connected to local geography and history. Events, culture, society – may create connections between colors and political-, social-, ideological or sports- affiliations; and that, in turn, may awaken an emotional response to these colors, even if we’re not conscious of these connections.
Remember “Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree”?
How about the red ribbons for the fight against AIDES
or the gay community’s multi-colored flag?
Think of the ferocious feelings colors ignite when it comes to sports. Tempers run high, even leading to brutality, when fans encounter a group displaying the rival-team’s colors.
Or take flags, for instance. What emotions do the colors of YOUR flag elicit in you?
This is as good a place as any to note that different countries assign different significance to the colors, even when they’re the same ones!
The classic red-white-&-blue is a favorite, but the colors’ origins vary. For instance, in the US flag the white symbolizes purity, the red – valor, and the blue – perseverance and justice. While in the French flag, the same colors represent the three classes which made up the burgeoning state – white for the clergy, red for the nobility and blue for the bourgeois.
Our (Israeli) flag’s blue & white came from our Tallit (the Jewish prayer-shawl), while the Argentine flag took its light-blue & white from the sky and clouds…
Ergo, in some contexts, it’s not the one color (although it may play a part), but the color combination that says it all.

In writing this post, I’ve come across so many issues connected to color! You’d never believe it, if you’ve never really thought about it (let alone – researched )! In time, I’ll probably write about it again, going into aspects of color choice in interior decoration, for instance.

On a personal note:
As you’ve probably noticed, this blog appears in Hebrew, as well as English. I myself live in Israel, and the idea for the post emerged from the Tambour campaign, which was in Hebrew, of course. But in translating I had to make quite a few changes in content, in order to allow non-Israelis into the ideas and the fun in this post. Almost all the examples had to be changed: A non-Israeli would not recognize the phrases and proverbs used in the Tambour campaign, nor the companies and their signature colors. I did my best, and can only hope it was enough… [ If you want  to respond, please do so on my contact me page. You still can't comment here. Sorry...  ] 

That’s all for now. Not too deep or anything; just some thoughts, aesthetics, and a bit of good fun – which is enough, don’t you think?

So till next time -

 Best wishes, and 
                      Keep looking for the beauty and light that are everywhere!

                                                  - Smadar

 P.S.
The weekend is here, so why not enjoy the sun, and invite some friends over for a

 

 

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