Birren, F. (1984) Color & Human Response: Aspects of Light and Color Bearing on the Reactions of Living Things and the Welfare of Human Beings. Wiley.
“There are in his body the veins called Hita, which are as small as a hair divided a thousandfold, full of white, blue, yellow, green and red.” This is another text from Birren, and looks at colour from a more religious point of view. Although not all that helpful towards my research, learning about the ancient Greeks was integuing. He also firmly believed in the therapeutic effects of bright colors on the mentally troubled. I ended up researching Faber Birren's life, as I found his fascination with colour.... kind of fascinating!
Birren, F. (1979) Color Psychology and Color Therapy: a factual study of the influence of color on Human life. Kessinger Publishing Co.
This text was more appropriate for my topic. Birren looked at the historical, biological and psychological aspects of the influence of colour on humans. Faber Birren was an American writer and industrial colour consultant from the early 1900s, and wrote around 25 texts on colour in his lifetime. Particular points of interests were the symbolic importance of colour, the section on Charles Darwin, the psychological effects of colour and how the metabolism is affected by colour and light. “We know that the color of the skin is regarded by the men of all races as a highly important element in their beauty.” Charles Darwin.
Mack, G (2001) Colours. Birkhäuser Basel.
As I tried to broaden my research, I discovered this book by Gerhard Mack exploring colour design within a “broad horizon of technologically advanced architecture and documents its applications according to different aesthetic approaches. The range of works examined extends from facades to interiors and furniture, and on to the whole spectrum of product design”. It was definitely beneficial in that it was the most obviously relevant to design compared to my other chosen texts. The text looked more at the commercial side of colour psychology.
Nicola Morgan (2003) Mondays are Red. Delacorte Books for Young Readers.
This assignment made me remember a book I'd read a few years ago, Mondays are Red. It is a novel about a young boy who awakens from a meningitis-induced coma to find he has contracted an illness called synesthesia in which ones senses blur into one another. I looked into synesthesia a little more after re-reading this book, and discovered that there have been over 60 reported kinds of synesthesia but only a fraction of these have been scientifically researched. Other relevant texts to this one include "The man who tasted shapes" and "Wednesday is Indigo Blue".
Steatfeild, D. (2007) Brainwash – The Secret History of Mind Control. Hodder Paperback.
I found this book to be very interesting, it was thoroughly researched and explored the methods al qaeda used to recruit young men into being suicide bombers using brainwashing methods and drug influence. Steatfeild's novel also looked at the old interrogation techniques used in war situations. It was useful to see the negative outcomes and dangers of mind manipulation, however, it wasn't really relevant to my topic.
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I see that you will be focusing on the psychology of colour Suzie. I was actualluy writing something about that in relation to branding on my blog. That might be an area you could look into: discussing how certain colours used consistently by well established brands can affect the way people interpret a product.
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