Art Portfolio Project: Initial Ideas research for Development

In my 'martials have landed' blog post (click here to access it), I started brainstorming some initial ideas that came to mind when I thought of 'Purple Haze'. 

My initial ideas included the designing of 6 different products that have a purple finish. In this blog post, I will be further developing my ideas to explore specific outcomes. 

Product design revolves around the idea of designing a product that solves a specific problem area. During the last term, I explored the theme 'conservation of space' for my main project. An idea that came to mind was to continue with this theme and create designs that conserve space. The product that sparked this idea was this chair.

Foldable Chair

The idea of foldable products that conserve space really excite me, therefore, I wanted to look into this concept in a greater depth. 

After receiving some feedback from my tutor, I thought that it would be a good idea to also analyse the meaning of purple and how it can be interpreted in my design. I will be looking at these in greater detail and analysing them separately in the future, however, I wanted to start researching about some of the elements in my design.

I also researched about the emotions the colours purple evokes and how it affects your brain. I realised how much colour psychology can affect a certain product and the consumer purchases. Purple is often associated with

Additionally, I looked at how purple is associated with culture. It seems that purple is very popular amongst people that are less cultural whereas with more cultural countries, purple seems to be less popular.

In western cultures such as north America and Europe, purple is associated with royalty. It is used for the cloaks and robes of kings and queens in movies as it represents fame and wealth. I tend to associate the colour purple with royalty, and in my future blog posts I would like to look at examples of how they use purple in movies to convey the meaning of the colour.

In the United States, purple is associated with honour, as the highest award for the military is the purple heart.

In eastern and Asian cultures, purple is also associated with wealth with an exception of Thailand that represents the mourning after a husband’s death.

Similarly, to Thailand, Latin America associates purple with mourning and death.

In the middle east, purple is also associated with wealth.

‘With Buddhists, in addition toyellow and orange, it is also famous for clothing. Purple is the color ofHinduism and feminism (symbolizing the right of women to power and equalitywith men). Purple symbolizes the situation of the bishops. It is the colour ofpenitence and fasting before Easter and Christmas. Violet connects the physicalworld (red) with the spiritual world, the sky (blue) in the magical world ofmystery (purple), where completely different rules apply. Usually, kings,rulers, and priests were dressed in scarlet-violet. This expensive dye couldonly be afforded by wealthy, due to it was produced in tiny amounts out ofsea-snails (Murex). So purple (scarlet) has always been associated withnobility and spiritual power. Small children were often wrapped in violettextiles since this would bring prosperity and success to a child. In Brazil,it is the color of mourning.’ I liked how this paragraph was written as it conveys how much the purple colour symbolises in a religion, culture or society.

Researching into various cultures allowed me to understand that purple is often related with royalty. In 1953, the tickets to queen Elizabeth’s coronation were purple which shows that even in more recent and modern years, purple can be associated with wealth. During the 15^th century, a purple dye was produced in the city of Tyre by crushing the shells of a small sea snail. The colour produced was known as Tyrian purple. This colour was used to colour the clothes of Alexander the great and kings of Egypt. Even in this example, we notice that the Tyrian colour was specifically used for royal purposes. In ancient times, the purple colour in clothes was less common as it was not a colour found in nature, therefore it was way more costly and hard to find. Many people did not have the leisure to afford such items which is why in ancient times purple was associated with wealth.

‘Purple prose’ is also a phrase known and is used in writing to describe how something is imaginative or extremely exaggerated.

Purple is a colour that combines the stability of blue and passion of red. Purple can be linked with mystery, creativity, royalty, wealth, piece and magic. Purple can be calmer to the eye; therefore, it is used in many beauty products. The dominant colour in many magicians is the colour purple as it evokes a sense of magic and mystery, engaging the viewer more. Additionally, different shades of purple can be associated with different emotions. Really light shades can be associated with apathy and negativity. Really dark shades are associated with gloom and sadness. In my previous post, I mentioned that one possibility is to include 6 products with 6 different shades of purple, creating a spectrum of the colour. If I decide to proceed with that idea, I need to ensure that the shades of purple are carefully considered so that they convey a positive meaning. 

In my previous blog post, I noted down an idea of using stained glass for my design. I decided to look into it and I found out that stained glass is used in buildings to beautify them, control the light and tell a story. Glass is commonly seen as a symbol of fragility and vulnerability. However, glass can also represent things that are protective and strong. In the future, I would like to look into this more and if I decide to use it, maybe I should consider conveying a story through the stained glass. I want to further look into how and where stained glass is used.

I previously looked at how I can implement geometric shapes in my own design. In the next blog posts, I would like to research the shapes and the different meanings each shape has in order to ensure that my shapes meaning can be directly linked with the meaning of the colour. Additionally, I would like to research more about the finish of the material. Depending on which meaning of purple I would like to proceed with, I should consider if my finish would be matt or shiny. Matt is usually related with dull things whereas shiny is related with glossy and happy things.

This blog post was mostly dedicated to research of the colour as a good understanding of the subject matter will allow me to develop my ideas further.

In the next blog post, I will use this information to develop my ideas even further and research into purple products from other product designers. 

References:

Lisjak, B. (2019) Colour meaning in cultures and religions. Available at: https://www.about-colors.com/color-meaning-cultures-religions/  (Accessed: 18/01/21)

Organisation (Year that the page was published/last updated) Title of web page. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Cherry, K. (2020) The colour psychology of purple. Available at: https://www.verywellmind.com/the-color-psychology-of-purple-2795820 (Accessed: 18/01/21)