Color: Red

 

“Red is obviously such a stimulating color, and it has so many connotations.” –P. J. Harvey

I had written a post a few days ago titled Color and Psychology , how color can affect our moods, and how each color is bipolar. This post is about the color red!

I love the color red. Its intense, passionate, and vibrante. Its sort of like the extrovert in the crowd. It simply stands out demanding attention. When I’ve given a lecture about color and its psychology, I’ve always asked the students what was the first word that comes to mind when you think red. Like most of you, they think of words like “passion”, “sex”, “love”, or even “anger”, “hate”, “jealousy”, and so on. Red draws attention. It demands you stop what you’re doing and to pay attention to it. It also excites people, and stimulates a faster heartbeat. It also increases some peoples appetite.

Red is a symbol of purity and integrity in India, a color of celebration and good luck in China, and mourning in South Africa. Depending on the country you were raised in depends on what you feel towards a particular color.

Red typically symbolizes passion, anger, blood, sex, love, excitement, romance, bravery, power, masculinity, war, arrogance, ambition, leadership and danger. Its a very intense color that can affect us physically. It is said that red increases enthusiasm, stimulates energy and can increase the heart beat, blood pressure, respiration and pulse rate. It also encourages action and confidence.