A colourful assembly
Dear all
Last week we continued our theme of House colours through the lens of St. Patrick’s Day and the colour green. On Monday it was the turn of orange, yellow and blue – the colours of Hampden, North, East and West Houses – so four in one, with a very specific point about their use at the end.
Yellow is the colour between green and orange on the spectrum of light. According to some surveys, it’s the colour most associated by people in the Western world with amusement, gentleness, happiness and spontaneity, although it can sometimes be linked to envy, jealousy and cowardice; in the Far East it is seen as the colour of royalty, nobility and respect; while in some countries in the Middle East it is associated with sickness on the one hand but also wisdom on the other.
In the same Western surveys, Orange is associated with amusement, extroversion, fire, energy, and danger, while in Asia it has long been an important colour in Hinduism and Buddhism.
If you were asked which colour – orange or yellow – is brighter or more visible, most people would probably pick yellow, not least because it’s the colour most associated with the sun. It’s the reason why hi-viz jackets are yellow, as well as school buses and taxis in America.
But there’s one context in which orange is brighter and that’s when it appears alongside blue. (By the way, and in the interest of balance, blue is associated with harmony, confidence, intelligence and calm, as well as coldness and sadness. It’s also what most people in the Western world choose if they’re asked what their favourite colour is.)
Orange and blue, as well as being dominant colours individually, are complementary colours, which means they sit opposite each other on the colour wheel, with the highest level of contrast between them. When they are put together, they create a powerful, highly visible effect.
Given that the colour blue makes up a lot of our world – around 71% of the earth’s surface is water and, when it’s not obscured by clouds, the sky is of course, also blue – this is why most things connected to safety that can be found on water or in the sky, are orange.
Lifeboats are orange; astronauts wear orange suits during take-off and landing (given that for many years they would land in the sea) and even the Black Box flight recorder that is so important for investigating crashes or near-misses isn’t black at all. It’s orange because it will be easier to find if a plane crashes into the water.
Over the last few weeks, we’ve considered five colours linked to six of our ten House colours – Purple, Green, Orange, Yellow and Blue – which leaves Weald (Burgundy), Thorndon (Silver), South (Red) and Hartswood (Aquamarine/Teal) to cover at some point next term!
Have a lovely weekend
Best wishes
Michael Bond
