Photo credit: Emma Solley
10. The colour blue brings calm and sparks creativity
The colour of deep seas, wide skies and turquoise coves, blue is eternally associated with marine environments. But could this evocative coastal tone affect wellbeing?
From Hokusai’s Great Wave to Picasso’s ‘Blue period’ (from 1900 to 1904, he painted exclusively in shades of blue), it’s a colour that has long inspired artists. Russian abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky once said, “The deeper the blue becomes, the more strongly it calls man towards the infinite, awakening in him a desire for the pure.” And the idea of the colour blue as an artistic stimulus is supported by science, with a 2009studyfinding that blue brings a measurable chromatic creativity boost.
Blue has also been linked with feelings of calm and serenity. Incredibly, after installing blue lights at train stations, Japanrecordedan 84% decrease in the number of suicides. It seems blue can make us feel more at ease, too – with shoppersfoundto spend more time – and more money – in stores with blue interiors. It’s this same relaxing effect that often leads designers to choose the colour blue to decorate potentially stress-inducing offices.
