The Psychology of Colour

How colors act on feelings and reason

We know many more feelings than colours. That is why each colour can produce many different, often contradictory effects. The same red can be erotic or brutal, inappropriate or noble. The same green can seem healthy, poisonous or calming. A yellow can be radiant or hurtful… All colours have different meanings. Its effect is determined by its context, and people who work with colours should be well acquainted with these contexts and effects.

This book explores the relationship that colours have with our feelings and shows that they are not combined by accident, as their associations are not mere questions of taste, but universal experiences that are deeply rooted in our language and our thinking. Organized in thirteen chapters corresponding to as many different colours, the volume provides a great quantity and variety of information about colours: from popular sayings and wisdom, to their use in product design, the different tests based on colours, healing with them, the manipulation of people, or names and surnames related to colours.

The diversity of this approach makes Eva Heller’s work an essential tool for artists, therapists, graphic and industrial designers, interior designers, architects, fashion designers, advertisers and all those who work with colours as a fundamental tool. A book that has already become a classic.