All Color Matters

A very lyrical text which you may be tempted to leave on your coffee table for others to page through. Colors: Symbols, History, Correlations gives each color (except orange) its due by reviewing color cliche's while explaining their symbolic, cultural and scientific origins. With beautiful dream-like tri-color photos, this book’s intent is definitely not directed toward the education of theory or design business practices. It is more of a linguistic survey which tries to make sense out of the many multi-cultural western traditions and their psychological influences on practical and impractical color choices through time. By unraveling common myths and anecdotes, Boccardi gives us the opportunity to understand how they have all become integrated in our daily musings. Colors: Symbols, History, Correlations By Luciana Boccardi 

Not nearly as rare or as arduous to produce as imperial purple, red’s early history was fraught with just as many challenges. With the passing of many centuries and conquests, it took a long time before a source was discovered that had the desired vibrancy and fade resistance we’ve since grown accustom to. The first reds used by ancient civilizations were taken directly from the soil. The earth’s crust during the Pangaea period had a red cast due to the high concentrations of iron oxide (red ocher) and manganese. During the Upper Palaeolithic period (15,000 BC) cave paintings found in Lascaux France reinforce the theory that the color was taken from local soil. The Egyptians were masters at creating a range of colors for their tombs, statues, papyrus and domestic objects. To make red pigments, they used realga (ruby sulphur) and/or red ocher. A common plant like that of madder was most often used for garment dying. Up until the 19th century England also made use of madder as an in...

There are many color dualities—and orange is no exception. Used as both a noun and adjective, no English word exists to serve as a true rhyme for orange. It is the only color of the spectrum whose name was taken from a fruit, the well-known orange ( citrus sinensis ). Coming from a evergreen tree, oranges are among the most grown fruit in the world, and because the tree is ever bearing, the color orange became associated with fruitfulness. Having passed through many languages, the word initially got its start from the Dravidian root for ‘fragrant’. It was then interpreted in Sanskrit, and then made its way among Persian , Armenian ,  Arabic, Latin, Italian, Old French dialects before making its first appearance in English in the 14th century. Before 1542 “yellow-red” ( geoluhread) was the word used to describe the color before the fruit and color were synonymous. The etiology for the first place named Orange may be estranged from the word, but is no less symbolic in meani...