Essay on yellow paper and its’ uses for advertising and academic use

The great mystery of colour has mesmerised humanity since time immemorial. For every second of the day we are enveloped by a seemingly infinite range of hues which oscillate through morning, noon and night. This incessant interaction with colour has manifested itself in some of the finest examples of artistic expression, such as Wordsworth’s ‘Daffodils’ and Van Gough’s ‘Sunflowers.’ From the cave paintings of pre-history to the conspicuous advertising hoardings of the modern era; all of the great civilisations have been infatuated by colour.

In recent years both academics and functionaries within the commercial domain have become increasingly interested in how human beings are influenced by colours. Much advancement has been made in the fields of colour psychology and colour marketing. It would certainly appear that colour has a profound effect upon the human psyche. As Diane Ackerman has noted ‘Colour doesn’t occur in the world but in the mind.’

Colour and Perception

According to the Oxford Dictionary colour is defined as ‘the sensation produced on the eye by rays of light when resolved as by a prism, selective reflection, etc., into different wavelengths.’ It was Sir Isaac Newton who discovered this phenomenon by focusing a ray of white light upon a prism and creating a spectrum. His findings are illustrated in his 1704 work entitled ‘The Opticks.’ Each colour has a unique frequency and wavelength, and all comprise the segment of the electromagnetic spectrum which is visible to the human eye.

Specific objects both reflect and absorb particular wavelengths of radiation. The reason that plants appear to be ‘green’ is because they absorb all colours in the electromagnetic spectrum with the exception of green. The green light is reflected by the plant and can consequently be detected by the human eye. All ‘coloured’ objects surrounding us are in fact …

Tags: advertising, colour perception, couler, human psyche, wavelengths, yellow, yellow paper

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