“CHROMATIC JOY IS THE DELIGHT WE TAKE IN COLOUR CONSCIOUSLY OR SUBCONSCIOUSLY.”

designs of the 1980s. In Australia and New Zealand, the pared-back, bright white spaces of minimalist design make way for comforting and joyful colour, creating emotionally nourishing environments. We see the deliberate infusion of colour evolving to promote and sustain a sense of wellness within the built environment. White is not the absence of colour - a shaft of sunlight contains all the colours of the spectrum. Combined, we see white light. The ‘White Light’ palette of carefully curated whites ideally complements any combination of the colours of Chromatic Joy, providing balance and harmony in equal measure.

You may be familiar with the sensation of returning to Australia or New Zealand from the Northern Hemisphere and being struck by a light of shimmering clarity and brightness. In this change of light there is an enhanced awareness of colour. There is no pure white colour in nature. The White Light whites are all tinted with a mix of pigments adjusted to give either a cool, warm or neutral effect; inorganic pigments provide coverage and soften the colour, while the more transparent organic pigments provide luminosity and a multicoloured dimension to the surface.

We could not imagine a world without colour. Colour is not the inherent property of light or physical objects; it is our individual, subjective interpretation of wavelengths of light that determine the colours we see. Colour is an integral element of our world and plays a vital role in our well-being. The relationship between how we think about colour and how we physically react to colour is a new science. Neuroaesthetics is a fascinating new field of scientific study, which aims to investigate the “perception, production, and response to art, as well as interactions with objects and scenes that evoke an intense feeling, often of delight.” It is our subtle responses to colour that make us human.

At last year’s Salone del Mobile, Google partnered with John Hopkins University’s Arts + Mind Lab to put the theory of neuroaesthetics to the test. ‘A Space for Being’ was a multi-room experience; visitors were fitted with a band that measured their physiological responses as they moved through three spaces, ‘Essential’, ‘Vital’ and ‘Transformative’. One of the interesting findings was a disconnect between how a visitor claimed to feel in a certain room versus what the data revealed they were feeling. Ivy Ross, VP of Product Design at Google, who led the project said “We’ve been optimising our environments too much for our cognitive mind in recent years, and we need to ignite our senses and bring more awareness to what feels good rather than what we think.” Perhaps we need more joy, more playfulness in our spaces. Ingrid Fetell Lee’s Ted Talk, ‘The Aesthetics of Joy’ is a persuasive argument for the use of colour in the built environment.

Chromatic is any colour in which one particular wavelength or hue predominates. For example, blue and green are chromatic colours. White, grey and black are achromatic colours that have no dominant hue (all wavelengths are present in equal amounts within these colours).

Joy is the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation. Chromatic Joy is the delight we take in colour consciously or subconsciously.

Rachel Lacy Chief Coloursmith Taubmans PPG Australia

MID CENTURY WHITE CJ25

WARM GREY WHITE CJ31

INHERENT CJ30

INHERENT HALF CJ29

ITHICA CJ20

COOL GREY CJ24

HIGH TIDE CJ02

CLOUDS FLYING CJ01

DISLCAIMER:

WATCHFUL HEART

CJ09

BUMP OF CLAY

EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT

SHADOWS DEEP

CJ11

MAKER

CJ15

CJ12

RIOT OF SUNLIGHT

CJ10 DISLCAIMER:

TORC OF GOLD

CJ16

CJ18

GLOWING BARS

CJ19

MID CENTURY WHITE

DISLCAIMER: Colours shown are as close as possible to actual paint colours. Recommend purchasing a Taubmans sample pot for colour accuracy.

CLOUDS FLYING

HIGH TIDE

DISLCAIMER: Colours shown are as close as possible to actual paint colours. Recommend purchasing a Taubmans sample pot for colour accuracy.

UNBIDDEN

EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT

DISLCAIMER: Colours shown are as close as possible to actual paint colours. Recommend purchasing a Taubmans sample pot for colour accuracy.