Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°2, 622-627
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.287 622
APPLICATION OF AESTHETIC P
SYCHOLOGY IN THE COLOUR MATCHING
OF ART DESIGN
Shenghe Cheng
Abstract
Colour matching is an important step of art design. Good colour matching makes the audience relaxed and happy. This paper mainly studies the application of aesthetic psychology in the colour matching of art design for interior decoration. First, the author analysed the influencing factors of aesthetic psychology. Then, the colour matching of interior decoration was investigated for audiences with different aesthetic psychologies. The audiences were of different ages, genders and occupations. Finally, several suggestions were proposed for colour matching of interior decoration based on aesthetic psychology. The results show that the colour matching of interior decoration should unify subjective and objective feelings, use abstract and dynamic colours, and coordinate the colour composition. The research findings greatly promote the colour matching for the design of art works.
Key words: Art Design, Colour Matching, Aesthetic Psychology, Interior Decoration. Received: 07-03-19 | Accepted: 25-10-19
INTRODUCTION
Colour is a powerful artistic expression tool and one of the important artistic languages for emotional expression (Granger, 1955). Colour matching art is a main part of art design. Since ancient times, aesthetic colour has been a common element constantly pursued by people. Colour itself has no emotions, and observers attach emotions to colour through their own aesthetic consciousness, psychological association and other factors (Deng, Hui, & Hutchinson, 2010). Different colour combinations can bring different emotional feelings to people, and make the space environment produces different visual effects, thereby creating a diverse atmosphere.
Through reading relevant references at home
and abroad, it’s found that there have been
abundant research results on colour, colour matching and colour aesthetic psychology. Fu
Nanjing University, Nanjing 210000, China. E-Mail: [email protected]
Jing studied the colour matching of indoor home decoration art (Davis, 2007); Yan Chao pointed out in his Indoor Colour Design that colour is the most effective means to influence people's emotions and create a space atmosphere (Thomas & Schlutsmeyer, 2004); Jeanne Kopacz conducted research on colour in various aspects such as colour psychology, colour theory and experiment (Haines & Davies, 1904); Sun Xiaohua believes that colour can improve people's mental health and change their living environment, and reasonable colour matching can promote positive emotions (Seckler, Opwis, & Tuch, 2015); Jiang Shubin analysed the application of colour emotion in commercial space design (Graf & Landwehr, 2017); Zhang Yongmei studied the formation and characteristics of Chinese colour aesthetic psychology (Irwin, 2011).
In view of the above, taking the interior decoration art as the research object, this paper aims to study the application of aesthetic psychology in the colour matching of art design. It first introduces the concept of aesthetic psychology, and briefly analyses its influencing
SHENGHE CHENG 623
factors and the emotional expression of colour. Then, a case analysis was conducted for the colour matching of interior decoration, by taking the aesthetic psychology of different ages, genders and occupations as examples. Finally, it proposed some suggestions about the colour matching of interior decoration from the perspective of aesthetic psychology.
RELEVANT THEORETICAL BASIS
Aesthetic psychology
The science of aesthetic psychology is the interdisciplinary subject of psychology, aesthetics and other related disciplines. It studies the subjective reflection of human beings on the beauty of objective things (Gear, 1986). Aesthetic psychology is a pleasant psychological experience and psychological
change process, but not a single “stimulus
-response” process. It’s a collection of
perception, imagination, understanding, and emotion which interact with each other to form a pleasant aesthetic experience (Feldman, 1987).
Influencing factors of aesthetic psychology
The aesthetic psychology process of humans is very complicated. Influenced by various internal and external factors, the aesthetic psychology of different people also varies. This paper mainly analyses the influencing factors of aesthetic psychology from three aspects: gender, age and education level.
Figure 1
.
Differences in colour aesthetic
preferences between different genders
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Others White Black Pink Purple Blue Green Yellow Orange Red Male Female % Gender
Because of the different physiological structures, males and females have certain differences in aesthetic psychology and personality traits. In terms of personality traits,
females are generally gentle and biased towards image thinking, while males are rigid and prone to abstract thinking. Therefore, females focus more on appearance, males on performance and value. Figure 1 shows the results of survey on the differences in colour aesthetic preferences between different genders.
It can be seen from the figure that there is a big difference in colour aesthetic between males and females, and the largest differences are reflected in the colours of red, pink and black.
Age
People's cognitive ability to the surrounding things grows with age, and similarly, their aesthetic psychology also varies. This is especially true for colour aesthetics, e.g., children and teenagers like the radiant colours such as red, orange, green, etc.; the young people mostly like green, yellow and pink, which represent youth, vitality, and sunshine; the older tend to the colours of black, blue, and purple representing modesty, courtesy, and elegance .
Education level
Education can change people's concept, thinking and temperament. So, with different education levels, the individual's aesthetic ability and aesthetic psychology are also very different. For instance, individuals with low education level often aesthetically evaluate the surface of things, but not deeply understand and appreciate its connotation, while the individuals with high education level have deeper and more diversified aesthetic requirements, and enjoy more abundant aesthetic psychological experience.
Emotional expressions of colours
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and purple are the seven coloured rays of white light that are produced by the triple prisms after two refractions. According to the seven basic colours, a hue circle is then created, as shown in Figure 2. There are no changes of temperatures in colour itself, but the colour is divided into cool and warm colours through human psychological illusion. The warm colours look protruded, bringing a feeling of close distance, and easily catching the eye; the cool colour gives a sense of far-distance and unnoticeableness, so that it can make the space more spacious indoors.
APPLICATION OF AESTHETIC PSYCHOLOGY IN THE COLOUR MATCHING OF ART DESIGN 624
Figure 2
.
Hue circle
Colour is a physical phenomenon of nature. It has no emotions in itself, but can change people's emotions through the visual stimulation. When seeing the colour, the observer will produce different psychological emotions through subjective psychological association, e.g., yellow is recognized as a colour reflecting friendliness, kindness, happiness, and warmness, but if used improperly, it will be too dazzling.
APPLICATION OF AESTHETIC PSYCHOLOGY IN COLOUR MATCHING OF ART DESIGN
Colour matching of interior decoration under different aesthetic psychology
Colour matching of interior decoration for different ages
Colour can stimulate people's first vision. Under different ages, the aesthetic psychology and colour preference also vary. Therefore, during the colour matching of interior decoration, the colour preference at different ages should be considered.
In the decoration of Children's rooms, the colour matching should consider children's characters of innocence and fantasy. Thus, the pure and contrasting colours such as blue and green should be used to highlight children's joy and innocence, while apple colour and pink etc.
are the girls’ favourite. In addition, in order to
not affect children's sleep and future aesthetic appreciation, the disorganized colour matching should be avoided when designing. Also, the colours of bright red and purple should be blended with yellow and green to better highlight the joyful atmosphere of the whole hue. Figure 3 shows the picture of the colour matching effect in the interior decoration of children's room.
Figure 3
.
The colour matching effect in the
interior decoration of children's room
Unlike children, the elderly is less interested in new things, and prefer a relatively calm, atmospheric decoration effect, so the interior decoration mainly use the soft colours, and
doesn’t need excessive trivial ornaments, as
shown in Figure 4. Figure 4 shows the picture of the colour matching design in the interior
decoration of the elderly’s room.
Figure 4.
The colour matching design in the
interior decoration of the elderly’s room
Colour matching of interior decoration for different genders
Females usually like to dress up the bedroom in light pink or other warm colours; the floor mats are usually fresh and elegant blue, and the chandelier is more colourful. Figure 5 shows the colour matching effect of interior decoration for females. Males prefer the bed room decorated with light blue; the colour of the mat is mainly black, white, grey or other plain stripes, and the chandeliers mostly use the fresh, elegant and simple colours. Figure 6 shows the colour matching effect of interior decoration for males.
SHENGHE CHENG 625
Figure 5.
The colour matching effect of
interior decoration for females
Figure 6.
The colour matching effect of
interior decoration for males
Colour matching of interior decoration for different professional
Public servants enjoy a sense of order and awe. Black and white colour matching can give people strong visual conflicts and emotional conflicts, creating a strong visual world. Grey is the intermediate colour between black and white, full of the space sense. Black, white and grey convey the sense of rationality, professionalism and concentration to the people. Therefore, the public servants prefer the colour matching of black, white and grey. Figure 7 shows the colour matching effect of the living room for public servants.
The businessmen have different aesthetic psychology because of their own business views and values. Therefore, when making colour matching of interior decoration, their personal character and preferences should be fully considered, displaying their aesthetic tendency and life taste. Figure 8 shows the colour matching effect of the living room for one businessman. It can be seen that the whole
colour is mainly gold, which is full of luxury and elegance.
Figure 7.
The colour matching effect of the
living room for public servants
Figure 8.
The colour matching effect of the
living room for one businessman
Suggestions on the colour matching of interior decoration from the perspective of aesthetic psychology
Subjective-objective unity
The design of interior colour matching must first consider the aesthetic needs, family style, life rules and other factors of different occupants, trying to make them feel relaxed and comfortable and realize the spiritual enjoyment of colour aesthetics. According to the survey, different people have different aesthetic needs for colour, e.g., a newly married couple prefers the passionate colour such as red, and the relatively quiet people like the fresh and cool colours.
Colour abstraction
(1) Overall harmony and unity
APPLICATION OF AESTHETIC PSYCHOLOGY IN THE COLOUR MATCHING OF ART DESIGN 626
brightness contrast are the key to colour matching. Too much colour will make people feel messy and uncomfortable, and the over-contrast might make them feel bored. Therefore, colour matching should pay attention to the overall harmony, creating a more poetic and artistic atmosphere for people.
(2) Human emotions about colour
People have different perceptions of different colours. The dim living space gives people a feeling of depression and drowsiness. So, most people do not like this kind of living environment. Green and orange can adjust and relax the mood, and blue-green can alleviate the fatigue caused by heavy exercise.
Colour dynamics
(1) Meeting the functional requirements of indoor space
Because of the widespread existence of aesthetics in People's pursuit of life, different spatial structures also show a certain degree of difference in colour matching. Reasonable colour matching can make the whole space full of agility, and change people's emotions, while the hazy or weak colour can make the dark space comfortable, and the high-brightness colour matching can brighten the indoor space.
(2) Conforming to the spatial layout
In order to realize the effective colour tone conversion between the indoor subject and the object and the change of the indoor space
environment, it’s necessary to perform the
effectiveness analysis of the corresponding spatial background structure before the effective colour matching of the indoor environment, so as to be in line with the human aesthetic psychology.
(3) Incorporating the nature into the interior colour design
The design of the interior space should consider the colour harmony with the space environment, such as animals, plants and other related decorations. Effectively matching the natural environment with the free artistic conception can achieve the harmony between the interior decoration and colour matching.
Colour composition
The people have different perception of colour and colour preferences, and they also have their own standards and opinions on the colour art. Therefore, firstly the colour preference of the occupants into considered
should be taken, and the mastering and pre-matching should be carried out so as to fully
understand the occupants’ preferences, and well
coordinate the colour composition.
CONCLUSIONS
Colour matching art is an important part of art design. This paper attempts to study the application of aesthetic psychology in colour matching of art design. The specific conclusions are as follows:
The influencing factors of aesthetic psychology were analysed from three aspects: gender, age and education level.
Taking the aesthetic psychology of different ages, genders and occupations as an example, the case analysis was conducted for the colour matching of interior decoration.
From the perspective of aesthetic psychology, the colour matching of interior decoration should fully consider the subjective-objective unity, colour abstraction, colour dynamics, and colour composition.
REFERENCES
Davis, S. T. (2007). Aesthetic preferences for the unity ratio resist the influence of color illusions.
The American Journal of Psychology, 120(1), 47-49, 51-71.
Deng, X., Hui, S. K., & Hutchinson, J. W. (2010). Consumer preferences for color combinations: An empirical analysis of similarity‐based color relationships. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 20(4), 476-484.
Feldman, D. H. (1987). Developmental psychology and art education: Two fields at the crossroads.
Journal of Aesthetic Education, 21(2), 243-259. Gear, J. (1986). Eysenck's visual aesthetic sensitivity
test (VAST) as an example of the need for explicitness and awareness of context in empirical aesthetics. Poetics, 15(4-6), 555-564. Graf, L. K. M., & Landwehr, J. R. (2017). Aesthetic
pleasure versus aesthetic interest: The two routes to aesthetic liking. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1-15.
Granger, G. W. (1955). Aesthetic measure applied to color harmony: An experimental test. The Journal of General Psychology, 52(2), 205-212. Haines, T. H., & Davies, A. E. (1904). The psychology
of aesthetic reaction to rectangular forms.
SHENGHE CHENG 627
Irwin, W. (2011). Art and the category of being aesthetic: a neo-Wittgensteinian account. The
Journal of Value Inquiry, 45(1), 59-66.
Seckler, M., Opwis, K., & Tuch, A. N. (2015). Linking objective design factors with subjective aesthetics: an experimental study on how structure and color of websites affect the facets
of users’ visual aesthetic perception. Computers in Human Behavior, 49, 375-389.
Thomas, J. C., & Schlutsmeyer, M. W. (2004). A place for the aesthetic in experiential personal construct psychology. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 17(4), 313-335.
