Spaces of Colour: Feeling blue or are you red faced?

We're all Geographers and stereotypically we're all very good at colouring in, but do you think about what colours you're using?

Our senses play an important role in our everyday experience, providing us with information about the world. Colour as sensed through sight, is just one way of looking at our experiences of everyday life.

“The idea of colour may initially seem a highly simple one, however it can be explored in various different ways due to the different meanings it conjures up” (Lamb and Bourriau, 1995)




Through the colour of red, we transformed the lecture theatre into an otherworld that hopefully conjured up different feelings... Intimacy? Passion? Rage? Anger? Or did you feel threatened? This experience was then contrasted with bathing our learning space in blue, complemented by Miles Davis, demonstrating the associations of colour with other senses.


Our relationship and associations with colour may be explained by semiotic theory, perception theory and classical conditioning. Explanations of these are all available on your handout (hope it's helpful!).


Feeling Blue..?
Colours have different effects on us emotionally, they are
consciously used to create different environments. Colour therapy uses the seven colours of the spectrum to balance the body’s energy centres (Chakras) and also helps to stimulate the body’s own healing process. In relation to geography the most immediate and felt geography is that of the body. It is the site of experience and expression:


“We live in worlds of pain or of pleasure” (Davidson and Milligan, 2004)


Artists and Colour
Perceptual Colour and Pictorial Colour. Perceptual is often sub-conscious associations whereas Pictorial is deliberately used to create a mood or feeling e.g. Van Goghs Night Cafe.


Colour Cross Culturally
Universal colour associations may be those associated with the elements e.g red= fire= heat. Or those associted with companies and branding e.g. Coca Cola= Red.


Regional or National differences in colour persist e.g. White in western countries being associated with marriage and purity whereas red is the Hindu counterpart.


"The connection of meaning and colour seems obvious, natural nearly; on the other hand it seems idiosyncratic, unpredictable and anarchic” (Kress and Leeuwen, 2002 p343)

Keep those Colouring Pencils sharpened!
Laura, Sascha, Sophie and Miranda.