Colour Notes

“After weeks of teasing, Taylor Swift has returned with a new single and a fresh color palette ahead of what would be her seventh studio album.”

– Joe Coscarelli, “Taylor Swift Releases ‘Me!,’ a New Song Featuring Brendon Urie,” The New York Times, April 26, 2019

The colour palette of a music video is not something I would ever have considered newsworthy, and certainly not for the venerable New York Times. Colour palette in a music video? Might this be a breakthrough in synesthesia, with colours and musical notes getting mixed up?

Nothing of the sort. This is the 21st century and fashion has collaborated with technology and psychology to bring colour into every aspect of our lives. Colour is no longer just decoration or whimsy.

Over the past few decades, a lot of research money has gone into understanding the psychological effects of colour, and how it can be used to create moods, build brand identities, encourage consumption and, as in the TV ads and movies, support a storyline and generate memorable imagery. The media are saying to us: active, vibrant, fashionable people are identifying with this product. You should, too.

Architects tend to steer clear of being fashionable. Fashion changes; buildings endure. If our buildings are to be timeless, then fleeting fashion must not concern us. But architecture, like all arts, is subject to movements, which are larger and longer-lasting than fashions. This is especially true of colour. To wit: avocado green, fashionable in the 70s, vanished quickly without a trace; meanwhile, white – and otherwise colourless – buildings, introduced with the modern movement a century ago are still the norm, with the addition of earth tones and neutral shades to brighten things up just a little.

But architecture today is not just about shelter and function, and permanence may have had its day. Increasingly, marketing, branding and entertainment have become architectural concerns. In this regard, colour has started to “call the tune.”

There’s been a noticeable change in the use of colour in architecture over the past few decades, starting with Postmodernism and now evident in the use of high-tech building materials, some which have the ability to change colour to suit mood and – dare we say it – fashion.