Whoever thought along these lines? But the title intrigued Ankita (my student friend) and me, and it set the premise for our discussion. Deliberating color preferences, Ankita related to research’s conclusions that stated that 3–12-year-old girls have a greater fascination for pink. She described how this was reflected in her own room, which was designed when she was 8 years old. She loves this theory because she can connect her experience to it. In addition, Ankita told me that people in different countries have color preferences.

She noticed that people prefer colors that are shown in their country’s flag. Korea and Japan, for example, prominently have white in their flags, whereas the USA and Germany don’t. Thus, Koreans and Japanese prefer white more, since it has more meaning to them. The Chinese probably prefer red for the same reason. While studying art history, I remember Picasso having a blue art phase (of gloom because of the suicide of his friend, Casagemas) and a rose art phase (of joy) in his art journey. However, I had never imagined the deeper psychological and even marketing roots of colors! I gravitate towards violet, emerald-green, and sea-green colors. But I never thought that had anything to do with how I see myself. The discussion was stimulated by this paper: How you see yourself influences your color preference. Effects of self-construal on evaluations of color combinations, by Jeon et al. (2020) in the course Colors and Compositions.

Another paper, Dark is Durable, Light is User-Friendly by Hagtvedt Henrik (2019), intrigued us. Visual design elements such as color don’t just provide aesthetic appeal; they also convey information that consumers rely on when making unrelated product attribute judgments. With multiple experiments, it was conclusively exemplified that people assess darker-colored products as having higher durability but less on a user-friendly scale than lighter-colored ones.

This outcome was found to be associated with the influence of color lightness on perceived weight, with the impact of color lightness on user-friendliness assessments, but not on durability assessments, being eliminated only when the role of weight is unclear or when cognitive load is induced. Nonetheless, consumers tend to make more adaptations in their durability assessments after physically handling a product with a darker color.

I have observed my color palette transition from monochromatic colors, sometimes even just black (when in school), to the current vibrant one. Not only does it indicate a shift in my attitude (because now I never use the color black), but also the influence of the education system on us. I consider the monochromatic colors to be the linear method of the education system and the liberal space provided by FLAME University, which has influenced my vibrant palette for the past two decades. I always tell students to paint what they like on day one in class and to take off from there, and I notice students in their undergraduate years drawn towards red and black. This ascertains my belief that education pedagogy subconsciously impacts our cognition. After introducing students to the infinite range of tints and shades of every hue, they rediscover the joy of dabbling with a larger palette. I’m sure Ankita and many of my students will vouch for this!

Authors: Ankita Anand, undergraduate student, FLAME University, and Prof. Suniti Vadalkar, Faculty of Design, Art and Performance, FLAME University.