The Voice of Color

color

Carlton Wagner, director of the Wagner Institute for Color Research in Santa Barbara, CA, and an internationally known expert on color says:

"Remember, color is a language. It will speak for you. It always does the talking, whether you are conscious of it or not. Make certain that you are using color`s wonderful ability to communicate to your advantage. Use color to get the response you want. It will work for you!"

Color affects you consciously and unconsciously; it appeals to you or sidetracks you and, thus, impacts your opinions of the people wearing certain colors. What is most important is people`s response to color. Secondary is what colors are most complementary to your skin tone, your eyes, your hair color, etc. This may turn upside what you have learned from an image consultant or read in glamour magazines.

Response to color is learned and inherited. Each of you may react differently to specific colors, based on your culture, sex, level of income, sophistication, your geographical location, your childhood experiences and your background. Yet, there are so many universal associations that it behooves you to become aware of what you are saying through the colors you wear.

For your impression management plan and to be most successful in business, you need to be attuned to the responses various colors elicit and how to wear them in styles most fitting to you and the occasion. The "right" color sometimes aces out your "favorite" color or what you think is your most complementary color. Keep these in your closet for your personal life.

Some people don`t get it - like the man in a brown suit, who shared with me he didn`t put a lot of stock into what I was saying about the importance of color. I shared that I appreciated his opinion; however, he couldn`t control people`s unconscious reaction to the colors he wore and how it impacted their opinion of him. That he understood!

In her book, Dress Code, Toby Fischer-Mirkin, says:

Color is perhaps the most potent force in fashion communication. Within seconds of meeting you, others will respond to the "color messages" flashed by your clothing. Color can influence the viewer`s hormones, blood pressure, and body temperature. It has the power to stimulate or depress, invite or repel. Thus, before we dress for a particular occasion, we must consciously consider not only how colors make us, the wearers, feel and what they communicate about our personalities but how others react unconsciously when they view the colors we wear."

In Corporate America, men seem to instinctively know what colors to wear to get the responses they want. (More about women, later.) Their black, gray and navy suits are seen daily in boardrooms and on television… and are the only ones worn by the President of the United States. They have a successful formula that is still largely followed in what I earlier called the traditional professions.

The following question is a review of the content on this page. Answer it and then click below to check your response.

In Corporate America, ____ know what colors to wear to get the responses they want.