Spring has arrived in Northern California with its beautiful shades of green! As the color of the season, green soothes and uplifts our spirits as an eternal symbol of renewal and growth.
Green is Nature’s glorious backdrop to an explosion of flowers and thriving crops.
It’s also the color of good fortune and riches. Just think of the lucky four-leaf clover, American dollar bill, and the most precious gemstone of all, the emerald.
Green is a fascinating topic for all of its meanings and applications. And so, I’m especially excited to share my color insights on green in my latest blog!
Historical References to the Color Green
Throughout our cultural history, green was often used to symbolize vitality and good social status. Shakespeare talks about youth being our “salad days,” when we are at our freshest. During the Middle Ages, only bankers, merchants and the gentry were allowed to wear green. And, in the story “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, the well-to-do City of Oz was resplendent in green, and was referred to as “The Emerald City.”
The Cultural Meaning of Green Today
Green’s cultural references to renewal and growth are stronger than ever. Today, we refer to initiatives that help keep revitalizing our planet as the Green Movement. In fact, the universal symbol for recycling is green.
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Green also directs us to take action. Just think of green traffic lights, green buttons that turn on our gadgets. Even the phrase “green-lighting” means a project has been approved to move ahead.
In the US, the color green symbolizes money. That’s why logos of many financial companies are often green. And, it’s why our dollar bills are called “greenbacks.”
How Green Affects Our Mood and Environment
Soft, muted greens are known for creating an atmosphere of peace and tranquility. Surrounding yourself with leafy green plants can improve mood, enhance cognitive performance, and even boost your creative thinking!
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Even gazing at a photo of beautiful greenery can help slow your breathing and relax!
Using green in environments
In recent years, several paint companies have chosen shades of green as their Color of the Year.
Benjamin Moore identifies their choice, Aegean Teal as “intriguing, balanced and deeply soothing.”
Aegean Teal Breezeway Evergreen Fog
(Green-blue + Gray )
Behr says their Breezeway hue expresses “peace and tranquility for forward movement.”
Breezway
(Green-blue + Gray + White Green + Gray)
Sherwin Williams describes their Evergreen Fog as symbolizing “growth, rebirth and joy.”
Evergreen Fog
(Green-blue + Gray + White Green + Gray)
Here’s a room where you can see how this color harmony creates a similarly soothing effect in an interior design.
But for all of its familiarity and positive associations, green also carries some particularly potent negative associations. Suggest that someone choose green for a wardrobe or home color, and you may be surprised at how quickly and strongly they resist.
And why wouldn’t they? When someone is not well, one might say they look a little green around the gills. When food goes bad, it turns an unappetizing shade green. Green is the color we associate with things that are moldy, slimy and generally putrid. And when you wear the wrong green – or put it close to you – it can make you look sick, too.
That’s why it’s so important to be know how to modulate and balance color to suit the environment and/or person you’re choosing it for.
How to Wear the Color Green
If you’d like to incorporate this year’s big trend toward green in your wardrobe, a deep shade or light tint of blue-leaning sage green would be a good place to start. Not only are these colors easy to wear for a broad variety of people, they, like the other greens we’ve discussed, have a calm, soothing effect.
If you’re looking to put a little more “spring” in your step, and you have the personal coloring to balance bold hues, you can try popping one of these bright yellow-leaning greens. Like the first buds of spring, they’re sure to get noticed!
Electric yellow greens are not universally appealing. But the truth is, there are no bad colors, only discordant combinations. When you get insight into how and why colors harmonize it’s easy to create powerful, pleasing appealing combinations.
Going from Color Instinct to ColorInsight™.
Some people have an idea or a sense of color. They feel like they “know” what works together, but they can’t explain why.
Others know they have no idea.
Wherever you are on the color-knowledge spectrum, ColorINSIGHT™ training classes will give you the understanding, the framework, and the tools you need to understand color, work with color and express yourself in color with confidence. Personally and/or professionally.
You’ll have the confidence to express your creativity and live a beautifully colorful life!
Our classes offer critical information for fashion consultants, interior and architectural designers, artists, and marketers. And provide fascinating insights into the world of color for anyone who simply wants to know more!
Together, our classes will take you from having color intuition to true understanding – color insight.
The ColorINSIGHT™ curriculum is comprised of three increasingly technical courses.
ColorKINETICS™
This hands-on introductory class will give you a solid understanding of color basics. You’ll learn:
• What causes color to occur
• How to train your brain to see colors more accurately.
• How to use color tools that help you keep track of the colors you see.
• How to identify base pigment, and what colors were added to create the hue you see.
• A system where you can easily see and identify colors and their relationships
4-session (8 hours) workshop for image consultants, personal shoppers, hairstylists, interior designers, and color enthusiasts.
Sign up for ColorKINETICS™ now!
ColorQUICK™
The ColorQUICK™ workshop, created especially for personal color designers, takes you from understanding colors to being able to confidently use them.
The ColorQUICK™ personal color assessment tool puts personal color theory at your fingertips.
You will be able to easily determine and discuss your client’s natural color harmony, value and contrast pattern, color temperature and intensity level. With this information, you can educate your client about their best color choices for clothing and home decor.
Whether you are consulting with clients on a wardrobe or interior design, the ColorQUICK™ tool is invaluable to help you make appropriate color recommendations; and an easy way for your client to see the big picture.
As part of the the ColorQUICK™ training, you’ll receive sample Client Profiles with the rights to reproduce for your own clients.
4-session (8 hours) workshop for image consultants, personal shoppers, hairstylists, interior designers, and color enthusiasts.
The ColorKINETICS™ workshop is a pre-requisite for this class.
Sign up for ColorQUICK™ now!
ColorPROFILE™
Especially designed for future Personal Color Consultants, this small-group intensive provides the hands-on training necessary to use the ColorINSIGHT™ ColorPROFILE™ system to do personal color analysis and deliver a custom shopping fan to your clients.
Based on the Munsell approach to color categorization, the ColorPROFILE system has 500 custom paddles made with fabric swatches. These paddles are in individual hues arranged in color-related categories. ColorPROFILE is a comprehensive way to deliver a custom color palette to your clients.
Students will have an opportunity to deepen the knowledge they have gained in the ColorKINETICS™ and ColorQUICK™ classes by studying color relationships, analyzing personal coloring, and creating personal color palettes with live models.
We’ll delve into color theory at a deeper level, including a discussion of Seasonal Color Theory and color sub-types.
While the ColorPROFILE™ system can be used to create seasonal color palettes, it is not limited to that use.
The ColorPROFILE™ workshop is guaranteed to take you from color intuition to color INSIGHT.
This class will prepare students for taking the color certification test for Colour Designers International.
4 one-day sessions.
ColorKINETICS™ and ColorQUICK™ are pre-requisites to take the Personal Color Analysis Training with the ColorPROFILE™ System.
Sign up for ColorPROFILE™ now!
ColorKinetics color workshop instructor Mary Lou Manlove
Mary Lou Manlove received her color and image training from first-generation industry authorities, Carla Mathis and Sharon Chrisman. She became a certified Color Designers International professional in 2001 and has since been recognized as an industry leader in her own right.
For a personal consultation with Mary Lou, call ColorINSIGHT at 650 400 2230 or email marylou@colorinsight.biz