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From The Editor Have you ever thought what life would be like if we saw it without colour and only saw it in shades of black, white and grey? Thanks to our brains, we see the world and everything in it, in colour. Some people see colour different or experience colour differently. Colour has become part of our daily vocabulary and we often use colour to express emotions like being green with envy, seething red with anger, telling a white lie, feeling blue or being given a golden opportunity. Even the marketing world uses colour to grab the attention of the buyers. There has been extensive research on the psychology of colour, which companies use. Blue is used to emote calmness, yellow creativity, and orange to provide you with confidence and success.
The Universal crew hope this edition on colour brightens your day…
The City of Kingston proudly acknowledges the Bunurong People of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of this land, and we pay our respect to their Elders, past and present and emerging as well as any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander community members with us today. Council acknowledges the Bunurong’s continuing relationship to the land and waterways and respects that their connection and spiritual identity is maintained through ancient ceremonies, songlines, dance, art and living culture. Council pays tribute to the invaluable contributions of the Bunurong and other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island elders who have guided and continue to guide the work we do.
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Don’t worry, we haven’t used the psychology of colour in this edition, however we have carefully curated a colourful edition which provides a brief overview of the history of colour, what to do if you’re feeling blue, the meaning behind colour for different cultures, how companies package their food items and many wonderful, bright and colourful graphics.
Acknowledgement of Country
The Universal Team Interested in joining the team, reading previous editions or looking to submit some work?
Please contact Kingston Youth Services on P: 1300 369 436 E: youth.services@kingston.vic.gov.au
Cover Design by Sammar Bassal The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views, values and official position of the City of Kingston or any of its officials, representatives or employees Kingston Youth Services and the Universal team acknowledge the support of the Victorian Government
Contents
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More Is More
Red Origami
The History Of Colours
Words and design by Naketra Mendes
Orange Origami Illustrated by Sammar Bassal
Words, Design and Scanography by Hannah Phemister
Illustrated by Sammar Bassal
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Yellow Origami
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Colours in Cultures
Illustrated by Sammar Bassal
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Interesting Facts About Colour Words by Naketra Mendes Design by Sammar Bassa
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Universal Colour Schemes Compiled by Sammar Bassal
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Green Origami
Illustrated by Sammar Bassal
Words by James Milnes Design by Sammar Bassal
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Blue Origami
Illustrated by Sammar Bassal
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Purple Origami Illustrated by Sammar Bassal
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Feeling Blue
Words, Design and Photography by Danielle Capobianco
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Join The Team! Advertisement
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MORE IS MORE An exploration of the impact of colour and aesthetic Words, Design and Photography by Hannah Phemister
Colour is an essential part of our daily lives, by shaping and impacting how we experience the world. Many colours have significant connotations, which often impact our perceptions of things without us consciously realising. Particularly in many styles of art, colour is essential to conveying the emotion or meaning of a work. As well, colour is an essential tool in advertising and encouraging consumption. An unavoidable and regular accompaniment to consumption is waste. Ninety five percent of plastic packaging is thrown away after a single use worldwide, with a global total of over eight million tonnes of plastic finding its way into the world’s oceans annually. (World Wildlife Fund n.d.). Set in an age of mass consumerism, our society has been conditioned over time to take more and more resources, even when they are not always required. This work responds to this issue, as a means to draw attention to the extreme wastage of foods, as well as draw attention to some misconceptions held regarding plastic and general waste. It tells a story of consumerism and waste, as it glazes over the final details. The beautiful aesthetics of the imagery suck the viewer in, and create a sense of desire, without leaving time to think about the consequences. This is the entire point of this work, as it is intended to create a false sense of security and beauty, with the deeper meanings dawning on the viewer over time. It explores some of the most commonly thrown out foods that become waste, as well as including some things that are worse for the environment than we realise. Milk bottle lids cannot be recycled. Teabags cannot be composted. Chewing gum is basically plastic. This work encourages the viewer to work on creating a mindful approach to consuming, and to avoid allowing more and more things to be wasted. World Wildlife Fund n.d., Australia, It’s Time to End Single-use Plastics! World Wildlife Fund, https://www.wwf.org. au/get-involved/plastics#gs.e0wjk9
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The History of Colour Words and Design by Naketra Mendes Colour is everywhere we look, from the screens on our phones to the clothes that we wear, but there was a time, when human knowledge around colour and the use of colour was limited. This article will be exploring the usage and discovery of colour throughout human evolution.
Prehistorical times
Earliest recording of colour The earliest recording of colour dates back to over 400 000 years ago in prehistoric cave paintings.1 Red ochre is the oldest recorded pigment, created from iron rich soil. This palette later evolved to yellow, brown, black and white each created from the materials accessed in the environment.
1500 BC
First recorded use of hair dye Hair dyeing dates back to 1500 BC. During the Ancient Egyptian times, people used to dye their grey hairs with henna, a natural dye created from the leaves of the henna tree. There is also evidence that hair dye was also used Ancient Greeks and Romans, created by plant extracts as well.2
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First colour wheel by Issac Newton
1700s
Discovery of the colour wheel
Orange
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Ind igo
After discovering the visual spectrum of light, Issac Newton created the very first colour wheel in the 17th Century. Leading up to this point, the knowledge around colour was thought to be a product of light and dark. Newton’s discovery came after experimenting with white light, noting that white light is created from the combination of all coloured light. It was through this experiment that colours were categorised into primary and secondary colours.
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White light after passing through glass prism
White Light
Colour Prism Experiment
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe expanded the knowledge around colour, making links between psychological aspects of colour and human emotion and behaviour. He refined the colour wheel to what is used today, so that opposing colours on the wheel were complementary.3
1856
Creation of the first synthetic dye In 1856 a chemist by the name of William Henry Perkin accidently created the first synthetic fabric dye, mauve, when trying to find cure for malaria. Leading up to this time, all fabric dyes were created from natural sourced ingredients. Created from a chemical reaction, this discovery led to other synthetic dyes such as red, black, magenta, violet and green.4
1900s
Introduction to colour in films Despite colour featuring in films since the 1900s, the 1930s saw the introduction to higher quality coloured films. Leading up to this point, colour was added in by hand to each frame. It was the introduction of Technicolour, colour was added to the film through a dye transferring process.6
Sources 1 https://www.artsy.net/article/the-art-genome-project-a-brief-history-of-color-in-art 2 https://www.byrdie.com/hair-color-history 3 https://caltechletters.org/science/history-of-color-1 4 https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/historians-miscellaneous-biographies/william-henry-perkin 5 https://caltechletters.org/science/history-of-color-1 6 https://www.britannica.com/topic/Technicolor 7 https://www.thoughtco.com/color-tv-invented-1779335 8 https://lowendmac.com/2015/coco-a-brief-history-of-the-trs-80-color-computer/
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1979
Coloured computer
In 1979, Apple II was the first coloured display computer that could be commercially used at home. Since then, computers have evolved drastically to become slimmer and more portable than ever.8
Early 1900s
Expansion of the colour wheel
Chroma / Saturation
Value
Hue
Early 20th century saw the expansion of the knowledge of colour by Alfred Munsell. The colour wheel was expanded to add in chroma (now referred to as saturation), which is the purity or intensity of colour and colour value (now referred to as value or brightness), which is lightness or darkness of colour.5
1940s -1970s
Introduction of Coloured Televisions Between the 1940s to the 1970s coloured TV was introduced in various parts of the world. As the world transitioned to colour, television broadcasters had to also convert to colour updating film equipment in order to modernise.7 By 1975, Australia officially transitioned to full colour television.
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WORDS BY JAMES MILNES
DESIGN BY SAMMAR BASSAL
COLOURS IN
CULTURES White in Scandinavian culture
Purple in Chinese culture
Yellow in German culture
White symbolizes closeness to nature and the repelling of evils. A noticeable comparison to Turkish culture is the belief that a colour repels evils, however in Turkish culture blue is believed to have this trait. Nordic houses in Scandinavia traditionally also have white interiors, to portray peace and light.
Purple to the Chinese, represents immortality or divinity. Perhaps for its relative rarity in nature, limiting the amount it could have been accessed in ancient chine, giving it a high spiritual status.
Though this view is shared with many other nations, to Germans, yellow symbolizes jealousy and status. It is also associated with money, power, and sublunary success. However in Sweden, yellow exerts generosity!
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Blue in Turkish culture
Red in Shintoism
Orange in Buddhism
The colour blue in Turkish culture symbolizes the repelling of evil, as represented in the evil eye. It also shows wealth and healing.
The colour red in Shintoism represents peace and festivity to Shinto. During Shinto festivities, many items are covered in red. Torii are also red, along with any other Shonto landmarks across Japan.
Orange in Buddhism symbolizes a state of perfection and illumination. In some forms of Buddhism, it also represents simplicity, and distance from the material world, to allow one to reach closer to the divine, or in zen Buddhism, with oneself.
Green in British and Irish culture
Black in New Zealand culture
In general British culture green exhibits fertility, and freshness. Perhaps due to the rich green countryside of the UK also represents freshness. To the Irish however it symbolizes luck and is their national colour.
Like many other nations and cultures, New Zealand believes the colour black to be a symbol of mourning. This belief peaked in the 20’s when during the aftermath of world war one.
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WORDS BY NAKETRA MENDES
DESIGN BY SAMMAR BASSAL
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT COLOUR
Sir Issac Newton created the colour wheel in the 17th century.
The human eye contains 3 colour receptors (known as cones) allowing humans to only perceive around 1 to 10 million different colours.
The colour orange is named after the fruit. Originally the colour orange was called Geoluhread which is pronounced as yellowred.
The 2021 Pantone colours of the year are PANTONE 17-5104 Ultimate Gray and PANTONE 13-0647 Illuminating. These colours were chosen as a feeling of stability and optimism.
Chromophobia is the irrational fear of colours or a colour
There are two types of colour theory known as additive colour theory and subtractive colour theory. Additive colour theory is the perception of colour through light, as with no light there is no colour. Subtractive colour theory is the perception of colour through pigmentations such as paint.
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The Bluebottle Butterfly is the only recorded creature to have 15 colour receptors in their eyes allowing them to observe a wide range of colours including ultraviolet light.
Women can perceive more colours than men as they are able to differentiate the difference between a close range of colours.
Red has the longest wavelength, making it the first colour babies see when they are born.
Research has found out that blue is the most popular colour in the world.
Vantablack is the darkest black ever created. This material coating is so dark that it looks like one is staring into a hole.
The Sun is actually white, however when viewed from Earth at a low altitude, the sun appears yellow.
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Words, Design and Photography by Danielle Capobianco Model: Madison Capobianco
Although the colour blue can be associated with many meanings, it can often give the feelings of sadness and aloofness. Particularly the overuse of blue can feel cold and evokes the sense of darkness and being alone. While the colour blue may have different associations to everyone, one aspect that is universal is the feeling of sadness. To me, feeling blue encapsulates numerous emotions such as discomfort, anxiety, despair, grief, fear, and frustration. It is healthy to feel a wide range of emotions, both positive and negative, and to let your body fully express what it’s going through at any given moment. However, if you’re feeling sad, lost, or anxious and these feelings have started to negatively impact your everyday life, then it’s critical to find out what’s going on and how you can manage it. Research from Beyond Blue revealed “Over 75% of mental health issues occur before the age of 25, while suicide continues to cause the largest loss of life of young people in Australia.” Nevertheless, not all hope is lost as it’s never too early to start looking after your mental health and wellbeing, to allow you to be the best version of yourself. Whether you, a friend, a loved one, or anyone you know are going through something right now, it isn’t always easy to understand or know how to help. Thankfully there are many free resources available to give support. Please continue reading on the next page to discover many valuable resources, all with differentiated purposes and tools.
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Lifeline
www.lifeline.org.au Focused on crisis support and suicide prevention. A great point of contact to speak to someone about how you are feeling, knowing its without judgement and here to support you in confidentiality.
Kids Help Line
Beyond Blue
www.beyondblue.org.au A valuable source of information to educate people on many forms of mental health and key resources for groups such as young people, women, men, LGBTQI+, parents, and multicultural people. Ideal for anyone looking to connect with people through chat forums on shared topics, or directly with professionals through calling, direct messaging, and emailing.
www.kidshelpline.com.au This resource pays close attention on providing support catered to young people. Kids Help Line puts an engaging spin on what can often feel like overwhelming topics. Their slogan ‘anytime. any reason.’ emphasises their approachable method to supporting young people via phone, there to listen to anything on the callers mind.
R U OK
www.ruok.org.au This is a helpful resource for those wanting to learn how to better connect and communicate with others about mental health, in particular about suicide prevention. They give a realistic guide on how to start a conversation with those in your world who may be struggling with life.
Crazy Head Comics
www.instagram.com/crazyheadcomics Run by Swedish artist Matilda, @ crazyheadcomics is an Instagram page sharing relatable mental health content with a creative flare. Matilda is a mental health advocate and illustrates eye catching designs about common struggles and self-care advice.
Smiling Mind
www.smilingmind.com.au Smiling mind take a mindfulness focus on helping young people thrive in life. They provide practical advice for achieving mindfulness at home, school, and at work, Additional resources: through engaging > Kingston Youth Services content such as podcast > Headspace episodes and a meditation > Better Health app for your devices.
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UNIVERSAL: JOIN THE TEAM! Want to get involved? Universal is a quarterly youth magazine created and developed by local youth. We need writers, artists, photographers and graphic designers! youth.services@kingston.vic.gov.au 1300 369 436
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