A question Georgea Kovanis attempts to answer in her article, Did purple apparel send a message at the State of the Union address? I was quoted in the article.

“Color sends a message,’” says Kate Smith, a color expert who works as a corporate color consultant. “There’s some message on our mind, whether it’s conscious or unconscious.”

So, what does purple mean when it comes to politics?

Because it is a combination of red and blue, it carries some meanings from both colors. “You’re communicating the trustworthiness from blue as well as some red, the power, the in-charge side of red,” says Smith, who owns Sensational Color, a company based in Washington, D.C. “They’re unifying.”

And unification was one of the points of Obama’s speech.

And a bit further into the article: