This time, we’re going to do the opposite of what we did with the complementary colour palette. Now the MAIN colour Purple is used as the Accent.
Understanding the Color Purple and Its Shades (Guide 2023)
The color purple is defined as any variety of colors with a hue between red and blue. In the RYB model historically used by painters, purple is produced by mixing red and blue pigments.
Purple has long been associated with royalty, rarity, and mystery. It’s been worn by Roman magistrates, Byzantine & Japanese emperors, as well as Roman Catholic Bishops.
As an artist, it’s important to understand this regal color, how it’s used in the past until today, what it means and the different emotions it evokes, as well as its different shades, and how to produce them.
This article aims to help you do just that.
A Brief History of the Color Purple
Purple is one of the earliest colors that prehistoric humans used in art. Neolithic artists of Pech Merle cave, among others, used sticks of manganese and hematite powder to draw and paint outlines of their hands as well as animal shapes.
The citizens of Sidon and Tyre in ancient Phoenicia produced a purple dye from a sea snail called the spiny dye-murex. The long, difficult, and expensive process of using these snails produced a deep, rich purple dye which would be known as Tyrian purple. Being so expensive to afford, this color became associated with kings, nobles, priests, and magistrates – the only ones who could afford the dye at the time.
To put things into context:
Modern chemists used the same process to reproduce Tyrian purple dye. The formula required 10,000 mollusks to produce a gram of the dye – which cost 2,000 euros!
In ancient China, purple became a fashionable color for garments. There the color was derived from a plant known as purple gromwell. This dye didn’t cling to fabric very well which made purple garments usually cost five times more expensive to make.
In ancient Europe, the rulers of the Byzantine Empire also used purple as the imperial color, for diplomatic gifts, and even for imperial documents and the pages of the Bible.
The Renaissance saw purple become less favored by the monarchy and more by the professors of many of Europe’s new universities. It was at this time that the Virgin Mary was usually depicted wearing purple robes.
The 18th century saw lighter shades of purple being worn by rulers, like Catherine the Great, and members of the aristocracy, and rarely by ordinary people, because of its high cost. This changed in the 19th century when a British chemist accidentally created a purple-shaded aniline dye called mauveine or mauve. Before this discovery, mauve was a color only the rich could afford but now it could be produced by the ton in a factory.
In the 20th century, rulers continued using purple but the color also became part of the Women’s Suffrage movement (along with white and green). It later became the color for the women’s liberation movement.
The 1960s and early 70s saw purple become the color for nonconformists and psychedelics.
In the first decade of the 21st century, purple neckties became popular among business and political leaders. The purple necktie combined the strengths and characteristics of red and blue, and it went well with the blue business suit.
Purple Colors: Psychology and Meaning
Artists have used the color purple since prehistoric times so it’s no surprise that the color has picked up several meanings through the centuries.
As previously mentioned, purple dye was difficult and expensive to produce which made it available only to the super-wealthy. This led to purple being associated with royalty, worn only by rulers and monarchs around the world.
Before the Muslim conquest of Constantinople, purple and violet were colors of piety and religious faith. Purple is also linked with penitence as Anglican and Catholic priests often wore purple stoles when hearing confessions. Purple is also associated with theology as senior pastors of Protestant churches and bishops of the Anglican Communion wear the color.
People in Europe and America often associate purple with vanity, extravagance, and individualism. It’s the color that represents pride (in the 7 deadly sins) and is often worn to get attention.
Because purple rarely occurs naturally, it’s also become symbolic of the artificial and unconventional.
Like most colors produced by combining two other colors, purple also represents uncertainty, ambiguity, and ambivalence.
Why does adding red light with blue light give purple light? [duplicate]
Our eyes contain 3 photoreceptor cells (cones) to perceive three wavelength ranges of light. Here is a visual representation of the wavelengths by these receptors (S, M and L). So if we have light of 440 nm, it results in the color blue. If we have light of 540 nm, it results in the color green. If we see light of 650 nm, it results in the color red. I think I understand our ability of the brain to mix the results of the signals of these receptors, producing colors like yellow. However, what I do not understand is how the color spectrum is displayed like this: Given that spectrum, I would suggest that the color ‘blue’ is actually a mix between the receptors S and M. And the pure result of activating the S-receptor would result in the color ‘purple’ (I would describe the color in the left of the image as purple, right). Therefore, the receptor colors should instead be RGP (red, green, purple) instead of RGB (red, green, blue). However, there is one problem with this which I cannot explain. How come that mixing red light with blue light also results in purple light? How is it possible that purple light can be achieved through mixing (additively) blue and red light, just as going to the shortest wavelength boundary of what we can see (from blue to ultraviolet via purple)? So the actual problem here is:
- Purple is the color at the very shortest wavelength we can see.
- Purple is an additive mix between what we see as red light and blue light.
That just doesn’t make any sense. I don’t see how our brain can possibly perceive this as being the same color. Shouldn’t both purple colors actually be different colors (thus we would have a new different color for that)?
UPDATE: Pure activation of the S-cone (blue) may actually give violet instead of blue. That means that the color blue contains also a bit activation from the M- and L-cones (green and red). So then the “blue-est blue” is actually violet, not blue. This confusion originates from the RGB-system (and other sources) that assume blue as being a primary color, whereas violet would perhaps be more accurate! Further details can be found in the accepted answer.
The line of purples may further help to understand what purple/magenta/violet really is.
When not to use Purple in your Branding
Purple can be a very polarizing colour because it’s a non-traditional hue and not as commonly used in branding as Blue, Reds or Green. Therefore it can feel foreign or uncomfortable to some people.
Luxury brands love using purple due to the idea that Purple conveys wealth and royalty. However, some business professionals may not take Purple seriously. Believing it’s too immature, playful and not professional enough, so make sure you know your audience before adopting it.
You Did it!
That’s a wrap on Should you use Purple as your Branding Colour?
How do you feel about Purple now? Is it a colour that would suit your branding? Let us know. And in the meantime, follow us on Pinterest for more blog posts like this.
Where to now?
Want to discover other colours for your branding?
- If your brand is youthful and fun – Check out Orange.
- Is your brand all about nature, growth and harmony? – Green may be a perfect match.
- If happy and energised is part of your brand DNA – Yellow is calling your name.
Don’t forget to download our FREE Colour Guide
