Blog 2007

Global Color Matters - Yellow

Color-coded ribbons show our support for a wide range of causes. For example, the yellow ribbon demonstrates support for troops in the U.S. It's also used for suicide prevention, adoptive parents, bladder cancer, spina bifida, and amber alerts.

However, in other parts of the world, a yellow ribbon can pack different meanings. In Singapore, it's used to promote giving ex-convicts a second chance in society. In Australia, the yellow ribbon shows support for saving trees (the Save Albert Park project).

On the dark side of yellow, Jews were required to wear yellow badges during the Nazi occupation in Europe in 1938 and much earlier by King Henry of England in 1217. In May of 2006, the Iran Parliament proposed that Jews living in the Islamic Republic attach a yellow strip of cloth to their clothing (and that Christians would wear red badges and Zoroastrians would wear blue ones).

Just for the record, yellow is the only colorant (pigment or dye) that can't be darkened by the addition of black. It turns a sickly shade of yellow-green.

Posted:October 30, 2006
 

Primal Instincts - The Colors Made Me Do It!

Although I've written extensively about "Why Color Matters" there is a universal experience of color as a thing of joy. Bah, humbug, you might say, but there's something about color that speaks to all of us. Colorful objects - whether found in nature or in human-made objects - create joyous experiences for everyone, regardless of race, religion, or politics.

Yes, I'm convinced that we have primal instincts to color. And now, after an incident in Missouri, there's real evidence that color can even make you dance - if you're a child or an uninhibited adult.

The mandala before ... The toddler dances ... The mandala after

As reported in the news, a little boy spotted a pretty design of colored sand on the floor and did a little tap dance all over it.

Unfortunately, he was oblivious to the fact that it was a "mandala," a meticulous design work in progress, (created by Buddhist monks) at Union Station, Kansas City. The monks were more than halfway done with the design and had left when the little boy showed up and destroyed it.

As unintentional as it was, maybe the child created new meaning for the colorful grains of sand that were carefully placed to symbolize peace and happiness in the world. A monk added that the colored sand will be placed in the Missouri River and added ,"The belief is that it will carry the blessings all over the planet, from the Missouri River to the Mississippi to the gulf and to all the oceans of the world." Source