[DJC]
[design '97]

Shades of life: The color consultant and the built environment

By BETTY MERKEN
Betty Merken Studios

Color. It's probably the last thing you want to think about. But it's the first thing your client sees, and may be the first thing he imagines about his new environment.

This poses a unique dilemma to architects, facilities planners and even to interior designers, because no simple formula for using color exists. To make matters worse, color education is almost ignored in many architectural and design curriculums.

The complex considerations which go into specifying architectural color can make the most seasoned design professional feel weary and at a loss for direction. Quite often the professional response to this weariness and confusion is a selection of "safe" white, off-white, beige, or gray. Others, not wanting to succumb to these anemic colorations, may overdo it. In trying to bring more color into our lives they instead end up creating environments which are emotionally irritating.

Color, form, space and light are the principal interactive ingredients of the architectural environment, but color is the one element that most affects the others. It is more than a cosmetic tool. It sets the background for our experience of a space. The placement of color reinforces our reading of a building's design by articulating certain elements and organizing them for the viewer.

Most people in the industrialized world conduct their lives indoors, enclosed by man-made environments. Design professionals must pay greater attention to human psychological and physiological responses to these artificial surroundings.

People are sensitive to color. The human eye can actually distinguish approximately two and a half million different colors. The right hues can whet the appetite, soothe the spirit and stimulate the mind. But the wrong colors or the wrong combination of colors can have a very negative effect. Even a slight variation can nauseate, create aggression or cause drowsiness.

One might ask, "How can we satisfy people's emotional needs and support their daily endeavors when all people are different -- and surely their psychological and physiological reactions to an environment differ greatly?"

The answer to this question actually lies in an enormous body of factual information and scientific research which is almost never put into practice. These facts should be in the repertoire of every designer, architect, and facilities planner. We call this the information gap, and a highly trained color consultant can help to close it. A color consultant who works from a background of knowledge, research and experience provides a link between the architectural space and the users of that space.

The field of the professional color consultant is a relatively new one, and all too often is associated with fashion or image consulting and with color forecasting.

Faber Birren was the first professional color consultant. He was an American, whose extensive research and color specifications helped to dramatically reduce the enormous accident rate among millions of industrial workers after the start of World War II.

Considered the father of applied color psychology, he studied how colors affect human behavior and the results of his experiments have formed the major body of research in this area. Birren was able to reduce the number of industrial accidents from 46 accidents per 1,000 to six per 1,000 solely on his use of color design in the workplace.

Color forecasting, on the other hand, has to do with trends, and it affects products such as fashion, fabrics, carpets, etc. In architectural color, we must satisfy human needs, and it is therefore dangerous to follow trends.

Take "high tech," for example. In this esthetic, heavy emphasis is placed on the use of grays, white and black. The whole effect can be very impersonal, but the human effects are much more specific.

White walls reflect 80 percent of light and black about 5 percent. The brightness contrast ratio is 16:1 -- an outrageous ratio demanding constant eye adjustments to extreme brightness and constant shifts in accommodation. The hard work can tire eyes quickly, causing headaches, tension, nausea and other disturbances.

Research supports the need for chromatic variety and contrast to break up the weariness of a bland environment, which can add to feelings of anonymity and isolation. Color can have a powerful, healing effect in our lives if we use it to imitate the natural world, bringing in a balance of well-modulated colors from the spectrum.

Using color strategically

There is nothing cheaper than paint. It is also the cheapest way to transform existing spaces which are not currently functional.

There are many ways to use color in space, based on how colors contrast with or enhance one another, how color temperatures are juxtaposed and how well our eyes are willing to accept visual tricks. In industrial areas colors can be used to give a sense of place, either to break up a large space into smaller units, or to identify position on an assembly line. Color coding to designate different storage and work areas can be more effective than words.

Strong use of color helps to define entry ways, pathways and seating areas, with color delineating the individual forms and providing a sense of direction as we move through space.

Color can provide visual limits, cutting vast spaces into manageable segments and echoing traffic and work patterns.

High stress environments need a calming atmosphere, which is easily achieved through color. When workers must use their eyes a great deal, it helps to use low-reflective colors. Flat absorptive colors can ease the strain of working at computer terminals all day. Appropriate colors are important in protecting eyesight, creating surroundings that are conducive to work and study, and in promoting physical and mental health.

Office workers spend half their waking hours on the job, and satisfaction with the environment is closely associated with job performance. When an employer creates a beautiful working environment it communicates that she cares about her staff. Drab offices are counterproductive. Off-white, buff and gray surroundings offer little inspiration. Employers must reflect an image of caring for their employees and this involves providing environments that will raise spirits, not suppress them.

Health care facilities and retirement homes, especially, can benefit from good color design. The key here is to create user-friendly physical structures that are practical and spiritually uplifting. Bland environments cause sensory deprivation and can be detrimental to healing. The human brain needs constant change and moderate stimulation to maintain a sense of well being.

Good color design supports the function of a building and the tasks being carried out in it. It does not under stimulate or over stimulate and it does not create negative emotional and physiological effects.

    Three good rules of thumb for the designer to follow are:

  • Don't overload the environment.

  • Satisfy the function of the environment.

  • Design with visual ergonomics in mind.

The role of the color consultant

A good color consultant will always think about the users of a space and specify color with visual ergonomics and human needs in mind. When selecting color for the workplace, schools, correctional facilities, retirement centers, factories and hospitals, aesthetics are very important, but color decisions must also be based on knowledge of how color affects human beings in order for that color design to serve human needs.

    To begin with, every architectural space must be analyzed in terms of its own particular situation, function, and needs. With each project, I ask myself two basic questions:

  • What are the major design goals for this environment?

  • How do I meet these goals?

Specifying architectural color requires the creation of a special palette to anchor the structure and to assist the viewer in perceiving the space. There is no formula for exciting and correct color harmonies in the architectural environment. Years of experience working with color allows the consultant to approach the job intuitively, working with all parts of the spectrum and its variations.

Colors are mixed, studied and changed to find the right grouping or palette. Custom colors can be created from environmental and spatial clues at each site -- especially for exterior colors. This creative facility works in tandem with knowledge and a research-based approach to color design.

The consideration of human needs, visual ergonomics and the appropriate use of color in the environment should result in environments in which color functions optimally -- truly supporting and enhancing the quality of our lives.

Betty Merken is a color consultant for architecture and is also an artist. She teaches seminars on color to design professionals nationally, and locally through the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Seattle chapter.

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