The colour purple and its meaning

The colour purple is a colour that embodies empathy, unity and an ability to feel others feelings. It is a colour that can bring sensitivity to our way of thinking and encourages you to see things from another’s point of view.

In this post, I will look in-depth at the meaning of purple, how different shades have different meanings to us and when we should consider using the power of blue in our branding.

Purple and its meaning in the colour of the crown chakra – empathy & consciousness

Why am I talking about chakras and what is a chakra? A chakra is what is known as an energy wheel that helps make up our spiritual aura ( that can be seen by the use of special cameras) of seven colours. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, purple and gold/white. It is believed to relate to how we think and how we experience the world, how people see us, as well as our physical and mental health.

Each chakra has a purpose beyond its colour and the crown is believed to be the chakra of empathy and our connection to everything in the universe.

It is said to relate to how we feel for others and our ability to feel connected to all and that everything that is perceived is just an extension of their own consciousness. When in balance it allows us to be kind, gentle and totally in touch with our creativity and allows us to be able to face adversity with great vigour and control. Purple also gives power to our sense of generosity but can lead to others taking advantage of our good nature. Also, as a connection to all things you sometimes prefer to be alone rather than part of the crowd. It can relate to our ability to be visionary and when engulfed by too much purple and unbalances us can make us appear moody, arrogant, selfish or self-indulgent.

 The colour purple in nature

the colour purple in nature, here is a picture of lavendar

The colour purple in nature is a colour you will rarely find which gives the colour its sense of mystery and mysticism that it has long held. As colormatters explains

The earliest purple dyes date back to about 1900 B.C. It took some 12,000 shellfish to extract 1.5 grams of the pure dye – barely enough for dying a single garment the size of the Roman toga. It’s no wonder then, that this color was used primarily for garments of the emperors or privileged individuals.

Which would have cost a lot to create something purple relating to this day the sense of expense that it has connected to it but also for only the very top people in society to be able to afford.

Not only is purple rare and expensive to create as a dye from nature but it is also the strongest wavelength in the light spectrum giving the essence of power or strength as well as the form of luxury and mystery as previously discussed.

The bad side of the colour purple

Like all things, colour can have bad connotations in some situations. Purple can bring of feeling that the company using the colour is pompous, arrogant and what they believe to be the only way of doing things and all others are wrong or mistaken. Sometimes though if people want to feel the very best and they are living a luxurious lifestyle then this colour may attract the right kind of people to a luxurious brand or product.

 The colour purple and its cultural representation in different countries

purple petals that can be seen as spiritual

Culturally speaking the colour purple has vast differences depending upon where you are from. For the western world, it is a colour that doesn’t sit well with everyone and is the most common colour to provoke reaction and people either love or hate. It is also believed to be one of the strongest colours for the gay community alongside its rainbow flag.
In Italy, it tends to have a negative meaning as it symbolises death and Italian actors can refuse to go on stage if they have to wear anything purple, maybe because they fear their actions will be a disaster and their performance will be disastrous and die.
In the East, Japan is seen as wealthy and powerful and it is also a colour that is extremely sacred to Tibetans. In Thailand, widows wear purple to display they are mourning a loss perhaps due to its spiritual significance.
Purple, globally is commonly seen in two instances of either wealth, power and mysticism or spirituality, mourning and loss so when creating a brand you want to succeed in a certain country be careful what colour you use to ensure you give the correct psychological message.

How purple can affect our mood

Purple as already discussed helps us to be even more creative, increase our sense of empathy and our own self-importance or purpose in life but when it has negative connotations it can make us arrogant and self-centred only interested in our own gains rather than having a holistic viewpoint.

Shades of purple

Although all that I have spoken about here is a holistic view of blue, blue has many different variants of its colour combining it with the pigments of other colours. This website by colour matters with colour psychology explains some of the shades of purple and their psychological meaning in more depth.

Successful Purple Branding

Image reference: – https://www.monster.co.uk/jobs/

Lastly, if we consider businesses that already use purple successfully in their branding we can see how they have used the meaning in their marketing ideas. Hallmark, a card company used purple in their brand a company that sells gift cards and sentimental products connecting the colour to its customer’s sense of empathy. Asprey of London also use purple in their branding for the sense of luxury and Monster are a jobs website that use colour to indicate their ability to find the correct job match with a high success rate using the website.

Conclusion of the colour purple

With the colour purple, you should use it for a brand that sells luxury products or businesses that have creative intent, as well as those to do with the subconscious or spiritual reasoning as it is believed to balance your thinking.
I hope this brief article about the colour purple has been useful, do you have any other points that you think may be useful to someone thinking about using purple in their design work? Please comment below.
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