So, the Boston Globe reports, the hot tone of choice is Royal, Hip Purple. Pleasing to the eye; easy on the self-esteem.
"If you see a whole paper of red, it looks pretty frightening," said Sharon Carlson, a health and physical education teacher at John F. Kennedy Middle School in Northampton. "Purple stands out, but it doesn't look as scary as red."
That's the cue pen makers and office supply superstores say they have gotten from teachers as the $15 billion back-to-school retail season kicks off. They say focus groups and conversations with teachers have led them to conclude that a growing number of the nation's educators are switching to purple, a color they perceive as "friendlier" than red.
There's just one small problem: the march of history. Within a generation or two, purple will be The New Red. What will teachers do then?
Oh colors, how my perspective of you has changed since I read that one Oliver Sacks tale.
ReplyDeleteTruthfully, the only reason that red ever seemed threatening to me was because of paper graded with red ink. Deep, blood reds, don't really scare or startle.
All a matter of perception eh? Unless of course, you see an expos about it. Heh.
It's an interesting thought expieriment to plug someone in a VR sim and swap the nature of colors--the sky being pink, tress being black etc. What would that person's personal philosophy be? What would happen if they were exposed to the "real world?"