Color evokes emotional, physical responses

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Apr 16, 2000 by Capital-Journal

"When we are happy, we tell the world

we're 'in the pink.' If we are sad,

we're 'feeling blue.' "

--- ANTONIO F. TORRICE, author of "In My Room, Designing For and With Children."

The Capital-Journal

Color, its spectrum and properties, is all about science. But its meaning in our lives has become more than scientific --- it is emotional, too, according to Antonio F. Torrice, ASID, who wrote the book, "In My Room, Designing For and With Children."

That is why some people find red reassuring, while others are discomforted. Sick people are calmed by blue, he says, while well people often are chilled by it.

"Obviously, we realize color's impact, otherwise we wouldn't describe our feelings, well, so colorfully," Torrice writes.

"When we are happy, we tell the world we're 'in the pink.' If we are sad, we're 'feeling blue.' If jealously creeps into our emotions, we are 'green with envy.' Or if we are feeling cowardly, we admit to being 'yellow-bellied.' "

Torrice, who co-authored the book with Ro Logrippo, writes there is no less a need for a child to experience the world as colorfully as he or she deems fit.

Torrice describes in his book the following correlation of color to body functions:

- Red: Concerns itself with the base of the spine and, consequently, motor skill activities. A color that raises blood pressure and increases respiration, red gets the metabolism going --- the arms, legs and any gross motor activity using the limbs. This is the last color children experience when they leave

the womb, and the first color they identify in this world.

- Orange: Corresponds to circulation and nervous systems. Orange has a tremendous tonic effect.

- Yellow: Responds to the chest, heart and lungs. The functions affected by yellow appear to be related to respiration and cardiopulmonary activity. Children with asthma and other breathing problems react most favorably to yellow.

- Green: Relates to the throat and vocal cords. This affects developing speech skills. Children learning a second language will tend to choose green, as will children with speech impediments. Mother Nature's most predominant color is considered the most restful to the eye. Throughout history, it also has been associated with vigorous growth.

- Blue: Correlates to eyes, ears and nose, which involve seeing, hearing and smelling. Sight- and hearing-impaired children are inclined to favor blue. A cool color, blue has a calming effect on the heart rate and respiratory system.

- Violet: Corresponds to the top of the head and cerebral activity. A color supporting nonverbal activity, in children, it may signify a young mind deep in thought, concerned or even afraid about something that is confusing.

- Earth tones: All ground colors ---gray, beige, brown and animal tones --- do what they purport to do. They ground you. They don't elevate blood pressure or slow it down. They essentially make you sedentary.

- Black: As the absence of all light, black is therefore the absence of all color. It is darkness at its maximum level. If a child favors black as a room color, the reason could be the avoidance of some stimulus.

- White: As the presence of all light, white is therefore the presence of all color. If a child can't decide what color to put in a room, then use white because it supplies the full spectrum as reflected light.

Torrice adds a note to parents not to assume that because a child chooses a certain color, the child is alerting adults to a corresponding body area that is damaged. The choice simply may relate to an area developing in its own natural way, he writes.

--- From "In My Room, Designing For and With Children," by Antonio F. Torrice, ASID, and Ro Logrippo