The colour of our office space - the impact of colour on our psychology and productivity

I have written extensively on the subject of light and colour elsewhere.  However I wanted to share some thoughts here on colour and its impact on our psychology and productivity.

Light signals from the retina is analysed by retinal ganglion cells, which compare the stimulation of neighbouring cones, and calculate whether the light reaching a patch of cones is more blue, yellow, red or green. These signals travel to the brain where they are divided into several pathways - throughout the cortex. For example, visual signals from the photo-receptors pass to retinal ganglion cells, which code colour information, and then to the lateral geniculate nucleus in the thalamus (hypothalamus, which governs our endocrine system and hormones, and much of our activity) and onwards to the primary visual cortex. The primary visual cortex preserves the spatial relationships of images on the retina. Colour processing, perception building and interpretation is a complex mind function.

It’s also been shown that what defines whether a colour is stimulating or soothing is not the colour but rather its intensity. A strong bright colour will stimulate while a colour with low saturation may help soothe. Research has also shown that each colour affects a different part of us. The four psychological primaries are: red, blue, yellow and green. And they affect the body (red), the mind (blue), the emotions, the ego, and self-confidence (yellow) with balance between the mind, the body, and emotions (green).

And so back to your office….

• If you and your colleague are doing mind-work all day consider painting your office blue; however introduce some yellow or orange where possible.

• For and office of designers wanting to promote creativity, use yellow to stimulate ego and spirit; This may also help increase the level of optimism.

• Productivity of physical work might be improved by red.  It’s said that red might contribute to physical strength and stimulus.

• If you’re in an environment where having a strong sense of balance is most important, green might just be the colour. As well it’s balanced, calming and reassuring.

Colour, like a musical note doesn't actually evoke much of an emotional response until it’s combined with other colours.

What Others See.

Jack Dikian

July 2011

Here is a quick look at what others (besides us humans) who share our world see.

1. Horses have an amazing range of vision - that is, except for what is right in front of them. They literally can’t spot whatever is between their eyes and therefore directly ahead due to their binocular vision.

2. Many birds can see differently. Pigeons, for example, can see literally millions of different hues and are thought to be among the best at colour detection ability of any animal on earth.

3. Cats and dogs do not have strong vision. They rely on scent and sound primarily as their sensory detection. Cats in particular have weak vision. They are colour blind, and cats more so than dogs.

4. Snakes have two sets of eyes. One set is the normal eyes that you see, and they detect colour quite well. But they also have vision pits that detect heat and “see” living creatures like an infrared detector.

5. Insects: to the human eye the flower looks solid yellow but insects can aim for the bullseye in the centre

6. Bee: the familiar mop top Dandelion is transformed for the bees