Purple is beautiful mixture of red and blue: it’s both warm and cool and combines the power and energy of red and the sadness and tranquility of blue. Shades of purple communicate originality, brilliance, and visionary thinking. Such ‘purple’ qualities are imperative for creativity. Take for example, Prince’s Purple Rain, and the 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning Novel, The Color Purple, by Alice Walker.
The Color Purple and The Color Violet
The color purple relates to the imagination and spirituality. It stimulates the imagination and inspires high ideals. It is an introspective color, allowing us to get in touch with our deeper thoughts.
The difference between violet and purple is that violet appears in the visible light spectrum, or rainbow, whereas purple is simply a mix of red and blue. Violet has the highest vibration in the visible spectrum.
While the violet is not quite as intense as purple, its essence is similar. Generally the names are interchangeable and the meaning of the colors is similar. Both contain the energy and strength of red with the spirituality and integrity of blue. This is the union of body and soul creating a balance between our physical and our spiritual energies.
Purple or violet assists those who seek the meaning of life and spiritual fulfillment – it expands our awareness, connecting us to a higher consciousness. For this reason it is associated with transformation of the soul and the philosophers of the world are often attracted to it.
In the meaning of colors, purple and violet represent the future, the imagination and dreams, while spiritually calming the emotions. They inspire and enhance psychic ability and spiritual enlightenment, while, at the same time, keeping us grounded.
The color violet relates to the fantasy world, and a need to escape from the practicalities of life. It is the daydreamer escaping from reality.
From a color psychology perspective, purple and violet promote harmony of the mind and the emotions, contributing to mental balance and stability, peace of mind, a link between the spiritual and the physical worlds, between thought and activity. Violet and purple support the practice of meditation.
The color violet inspires unconditional and selfless love, devoid of ego, encouraging sensitivity and compassion. Violet can be sensitive to all the different forms of pollution in the world today, whether it be air pollution, noise pollution, visual pollution or the pollution in our food chain. This sensitivity makes violet susceptible to illness and allergies, vulnerable to its everyday surroundings.
Violet encourages creative pursuits and seeks inspiration and originality through its creative endeavors. It likes to be unique, individual and independent, not one of the crowd. Artists, musicians, writers, poets and psychics are all inspired by violet and its magic and mystery.
Violet is the color of the humanitarian, using its better judgment to do good for others. Combining wisdom and power with sensitivity and humility, violet can achieve a lot for those less fortunate.
The color purple is specifically associated with royalty and the nobility, creating an impression of luxury, wealth and extravagance.
Purple has power. It has a richness and quality to it that demands respect. Purple is ambitious and self-assured, the leader.
Too much of the color purple can promote or aggravate depression in some. It is one color that should be used extremely carefully and in small amounts by those who are vulnerable to these depressed states.
If your favorite color is purple, it will reflect in your personality! Personality color purple will give you more information on this.
If you are thinking of using purple in a business application, read about the meaning of colors in business .
Positive and Negative Traits of Purple/Violet
Positive keywords include: unusual and individual, creative and inventive, psychic and intuitive, humanitarian, selfless and unlimited, mystery, fantasy and the future.
Negative keywords include: immaturity, being impractical, cynical and aloof, pompous and arrogant, fraudulent and corrupt, delusions of grandeur and the social climber.
The Color Purple/Violet Represents
Inspiration : Original and sound ideas are created with violet – use it when looking for inspiration during brainstorming sessions.
Imagination : Violet inspires creativity with intellect – it is also stimulating to dream activity.
Individuality : Violet is unconventional, individual and original. It hates to copy anyone else and likes to do its own thing.
Spirituality : Violet assists us during prayer and meditation, helping us to get in touch with our deeper subconscious thoughts. Churches often feature violet in their stained glass windows. From a negative perspective it can relate to the cult follower.
What is the Color Violet?
Violet is the last color on the visible light spectrum, located just after blue and before the invisible ultraviolet. Most people associate violet with purple as these colors are combinations of blue and red. In strict violet vs purple terms, purple is the word we use for colors between red and blue with a reddish hue and violet for similar colors with a bluish hue. In scientific terms, violet is both a part of visible light and color. Purple is just a color and not part of the light spectrum.
Violet is a color that we find throughout nature, though it is not as prominent as other earth tones like green, blue, and brown. Many flowers like violets, pansies, and lobelias are violet/purple. There are also some animals like birds and sea creatures that feature violet coloring. Because there are so few animals that have violet coloring, it is striking when we see it in the wild.
The origin of the English word for violet comes from the Old English and Middle French word violete or viola from Latin. Both of these words referenced the flower of the same name. The first recorded use of this word as a color appeared in the late Middle Ages.
Symbolism of the Color Violet
The color violet has powerful and diverse meanings that have developed as a result of its usage over time.
Royalty
Violet-purple has a strong association with royalty and wealth. Most people believe that this relates to the expensive natural violet dye of the ancient world, Tyrian purple. In the ancient world, the Phonecians and later the Greeks and Romans, produced this natural purple violet dye from the Murex, a type of sea snail. This dye was labor-intensive and rare. People prized this dye throughout the ancient world because it did not fade like other violet dyes made from berries. Because of its rarity and expense, it was only available to the most wealthy.
During the Roman and Byzantine eras, only the emperor was allowed to wear the color purple. This color continued to be the color people associated with wealth throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance in both eastern and western cultures. World leaders and monarchs today still favor violet and purple hues.
Repentance and Sorrow
Violet is a hue that we associate with mourning and repentance because of its deep and moody color and because of our cultural associations. In Christian churches throughout the west, violet is the color of Advent and Lent. Advent is a season of waiting and examining your life in preparation for Christmas. Lent is a similar period of waiting and mourning leading up to Easter. Violet/purple is also the color that Catholic priests wear when they celebrate a mass for the dead.
Wisdom and Enlightenment
We associate deep violet hues with the dark and mysterious night sky and with the wisdom of heaven. Cultures throughout time have also connected violet with enlightenment. In Japan, only the highest-ranking Buddhist monks are allowed to wear the color purple. In Taoism, purple/violet symbolizes the ascension from the mortal into the immortal. The crown chakra, in Hindu ideology, is pictured as purple. This chakra represents our energy center which connects us to the divine. When our energy center is balanced, we feel inner peace, clarity, and spiritual connection.
Creativity and Individuality
Most cultures also associate purple with creativity because of its association with the divine. When creativity strikes, it can often seem like a manifestation of the divine.
We also associate violet with individuality. Violet is a striking color. It is present in nature but in ways that are eye-catching and distinct. As in nature, when people wear violet, they attract attention and notice. Violet is a way that we can express our own distinction.
Using Violet Hues in Interior Design
Violet shades are a way to bring a bit of drama and glam to your home by reinvigorating faded color schemes. Try some of these methods to use violet in your home decor.
Wall Paint
As overwhelming as violet may seem, it can be surprisingly subtle when you paint it on your walls. It is best not to go with highly saturated violet shades if you want to maintain a subdued color scheme. You can still add distinction with violet shades that are tinted with white, gray, black, and brown. These colors will give you a more subtle vibrancy but work well with other shades in your home. Bold violet colors work well to create drama, but use these colors sparingly.
Accent Colors
You can add colorful violet accents to enliven your interior design if you aren’t ready to paint a whole room violet/purple. Paint one large piece of furniture violet or add purple throw pillows, wall accents, or a rug. Violet also looks stunning on cabinetry in the right setting. Try different shades of purple to accent your color scheme. Remember that the addition of gray or brown will tone down the vibrancy of the hue, which makes it more easily complement multiple colors.
Fabric and Wallpaper
Using violet-toned fabric and wallpaper gives your room that extra touch of luxury. While you can choose solid violet patterns, you can also find floral, geometric, and contemporary pattern options.
Colors for Learning: The impact of purple
Many moons ago, purple was recognized as the color of the elite. It symbolized status, power, and wealth. Purple’s elite status stems from the rarity and cost of the dye originally used to produce it . Purple fabric used to be so outrageously expensive that only rulers could afford it. Keep reading for suggestions on how to incorporate this royal color into modern learning environments so students feel just as powerful as those who ruled before us.
Sharing the classroom space with 20 or more kids isn’t always easy. Some students naturally prefer to work alone, while others only need a quiet zone to catch up on work, study, read, write, take a test, or reflect. Pair Artcobell’s NEW! Nebula + Expanse Shape Benches with an organic shape table to define the zone. If possible, provide some earphones to help filter out classroom noise. If needed, use mobile storage or flip-top tables to block visual distractions.
purple is commonly associated with:
- Nobility
- Luxury
- Wisdom
- Spirituality
- Power
- Courage (Purple Heart)
Arguably more important than color is access to natural light in learning environments. Think your student is spacing out when he’s gazing out the window during math class? He may be instinctively searching for a cognitive reset that will improve his ability to focus.
One study of 21,000 U.S. elementary students showed that, over one school year, kids who were exposed to more sunlight during their school day displayed 26 percent higher reading outcomes and 20 percent higher math outcomes than kids in less sunny classrooms.
use purple as a stimulant to:
- Calm the mind
- Boost mood
- Meditate + reflect
Providing Breakout Spaces within or outside the classroom encourages students to kick back, relax, and move at their own pace. Shades of purple communicate originality, brilliance, and visionary thinking.
purple has the ability to:
- Inspire
- Uplift
- Encourage creativity
- Spark imagination
Purple works quite well with warm neutrals such as the ceiling treatment in the image above. A tan and purple combo will make the purple appear more sophisticated than say a bright orange, for example.
The soothing purple paired with a pop of apple green is the perfect combination for creative thinking.
three tips for designing with purple in learning environments:
- Have fun: Balance the bold with a neutral work surface such as white or grey and consider these pops of color to make students feel alive and visually inspired.
- Spark imagination: Use purple soft seating in zones where students are inspired to create.
- Provide an escape: Design a quite zone where students are able to escape the monotony of the day. Consider painting a corner of your room purple and adding the SnugSack to encourage kids to kick up their feet and decompress.
- Museum of New Zealand. The history of purple, from ancient Rome to women’s rights.
>>> Download favorite (.cmfav) and insert this layout in your CET drawing.
Jul 5, 2022
