Assignment 4: analysing a book and an article

Colour words

Colour brings life to the world is around us, but it is subjective and there is one guiding rule. How many colour you can speak at the first time, red, yellow, blue, green, brown, purple, black, white and gray. What’s first comes to your mind when you thinking about colour? What is your favourite colour? What is colour of your car or your dog? Maybe it is the colour of house you are living.

Designer is cross the colour to experiencing their project and choice bits of general advice: be yourself (mostly). Like music, language and food differ from one to colour that is closely related to our daily lives. Every day we can get some information from the colour, like which colour sky is sunshine. We react daily to countless colour-coded messages, have learning from early childhood which colour signal stop or wait. The colour is effect our thinking so the designer need from the offered framework of information from which one can make an informed and appropriate colour choice when designing cross-culturally.

‘Global graphics: Colour can arm you with the right questions to ask. For each country included, the customary significance of colour is detailed and social context, historical information, and aesthetic background are provided.’

As we all knows the sky and sea is blue, the ice is white, the soil is yellow or black and the forest is green. So we can know where is wet or dry, where is cold or hot and where is land or sea when we watch the photo of the earth. For the international colour logo: Coca-Cola red, Kodak yellow, and IBM blue are recognizable everywhere. Here pay attention to the local colour. What colour are used the traditional crafts and houses painted. The colour you need may not be among these, but designers should understand the colour vernacular familiar and trying to reach.

Every single colour in different countries have differ meaning. I think the red is a good example because it is always draws attention to itself. It is meaning war or some terrible things; it is representative warm and hot; it is also can understand happy and so on.

Red word is comes from the old English read. In Sanskrit, the world rudhanic means red or blood. Red in English is associated with the colour of blood, certain flowers and ripe fruits. Fire is also strong connected, as is the sun and sky at sunset. People also said the healthy light-skinned person ‘ruddy’. In the mid-19^th century, red was used to describe revolutionary movements. That is why the most of the colour in the China’s flag red. The colour is tells us the country is from the revolutionary movements. There is a very famous word from the fist China head ‘A single spark can start a prairie fire’. In the west the good red is red letter day- important or significant occasion; red carpet treatment – make some feel special, treat them as if they are a celebrity; red sky in the morning, sailor’s warning, red sky at night, sailor’s delight – pay attention to paint the town red – celebrate, go out partying and so on. But in China red have more means. Red is the basic respect for our culture and colour, it reflects the Chinese people in the spiritual and material pursuits. It symbolizes good luck, happy, and if we contribute to a better marriage, another person called "Matchmaker", festive days to hang red lanterns, red couplets, red lucky character; men and married women to marry will stick to red "happy" word, the lively, boom called the "fire"; describe the bustling, lively place called "Red"; it a symbol of revolution and progress, such as the Communist regime called the first "red power", the first armed called "Red Army", the political demand for progress, business on the hard study called "red and expert", etc.; It also symbolizes a smooth, successful, such as the human condition are well known as the "popular", "smash hit", to be superior trust and like called "Reds" assigned to the profits of a partnership called "dividends", giving bonuses called "bribe" and so on; It also symbolizes beauty, beautiful, like a woman strong makeup for the "red makeup" or "red uniform", the Gaudy woman called "red sleeve, "the face of a woman glamorous as the" roots "and so on.

Colour meaningful in United States and Canada

After I read this book I think if we want to know what colour is the country’s people like. Mostly we can find the answer from the country’s flag design choose the colour. That is quite interesting things.

The different colours in USA and Canada have the meaningful in the secular that is important for the commercial. The colour’s context is everything. If you think that is a wrong idea. While go the shopping centre can you find the pink birthday card for the boy; can you find the red exit sing; can you find the blue fire sing and so on. So colour is a very important role in our life and society. Here have some introduce the colour meaningful in USA and Canada.

1. Red: ‘Meant as a warning or an invitation (and often both).’ Red is a high attention, loud colour and promises excitement. So it is always powerful symbol of vibrancy and life, but it is also mean death and danger. For the women’s dress the red clothes are more easily to attention other’s eyes. The red sport car is also functions in same ways. For the food the Americans more like the red apple. But red is mean special and hot it is use on the other food. In Canada scarlet are the flag colour and the uniform of the royal Canadian Mounted Police.

2. Yellow: The visibility alone trumps good design that is the most visible colour from a distance. Yellow also can seem cheap. Yellow use the cautionary signal in USA. But most of them considered yellow is the happy colour that colour seem to tall us welcome warmth and ripe grains. And most of the American cities the taxis are belong to yellow.

3. Blue: A popular colour use in the companies and organizations. In generally the blue have the true blue, dark blue and while blue. The true looks not exciting so feel a bit cold and stiff but blue indicates quality, value, durability, strength and authority. Dark blue is the officialdoms’ uniform, mailboxes and symbols colour in the U.S. You can find wear the while blue denim everywhere at everyday that is suit for all ages and sexes.

4. Green: ‘Newly a symbol of environmentalism, green has always been linked with forests, crops, and plentiful harvests and in marketing or packaging signals things that are “all nature”.’ But in Americans and Canadians blue is also the money’s colour. In food it is meaning freshness, health, and mint flavour.

5. Black: The first idea in our mind is the death. Black linked the bad news like: morbidity, the void, evil, sin and negation.

6. White: In Americans it means clean, pure, perfect, sanitary and elegant. On the other ways it is also can means cold, empty, boring, antiseptic, unfinished and ghostly. The white always use the paper, clean sheets, a blank canvas, a new painted room-tell us new, fresh and ready to go.

Reference:

L. K. Peterson, Global graphics: color. 2000 by Rockport Publisher