What is the meaning of red? Is it the command of a red stoplight? Is it the intoxicating allure of a beautiful woman in a deep crimson dress? Could it be the political statement from a candidate’s red power suit or pocket square? Does red’s meaning relate to a shiny back-to-school apple? Whether it’s clothing, food, or holiday decorations, red’s meaning surrounds and excites us.
I’m having a red-letter day!
He’s seeing red.
There are red flags everywhere.
Red is the color of heightened emotion, strength, and power. It’s invigorating, intimidating, and it’s never boring.
Why do we feel so strongly about the color red?
In some ways, red is the opposite of blue. Red speeds up our heart rate, blood flow, and body temperature. Red stimulates our senses of smell and taste, making us more sensitive to our environments. Red also stimulates the adrenal gland, making us more prone to take action and giving us more energy. Red is a physical stimulant.
Red is the color of heightened emotion, strength, and power. It’s invigorating, intimidating, and it’s never boring.
Red stands for many things, all of them potent. Red is romantic love, and its physical passion. Red is violence, anger, and aggression, and it frequently indicates danger. Paradoxically–for a color associated with action and energy–red is universally used as the color that means "stop." Red is used professionally to capture attention, elicit emotion, and convey confidence.
We think of vitality, the life-giving power of blood, and helping people in need (think American Red Cross.) We give red roses when we’re in love, and call simply outstanding experiences "red letter days." Red calls us to action, gets us motivated, and wearing red lets people know we feel confident and ready to take on the world. Red is also associated with luxury–a red Ferrari and the soles of Louboutin shoes declare that a person has achieved material success.
Red calls us to action, gets us motivated, and wearing red lets people know we feel confident and ready to take on the world.
Just as blood can be associated either with its life-giving properties or with violence, red is also paradoxically affiliated with notions of violence, danger, and anger.Matadors use red capes not to attract the attention of the bulls they fight (since bulls are colorblind,) but rather to hide the bloodstains of their gory sport. Red can indicate anger beyond what reason can contain–"seeing red"–and red flags indicate (or should) when something’s wrong with a person or a situation. Red is also associated with financial loss.
Chakras are energy centers within the body that help to regulate all its processes. Each chakra governs specific functions and is represented by one of the seven chakra colors.
Red: The color of the Base or Root chakra, also known as Muladhara. This chakra is located at the base of the spine and allows us to be grounded and connect to the universal energies. First chakra, base of the spine. Groundedness, trust, belonging, lessens feelings of mistrust. Gemstones that will aid the Root chakra include lodestone, ruby, garnet, smokey quartz, obsidian, hematite and onyx.
Red has the longest wavelength of any color. It’s the first color babies can see, and it’s the very first color to vanish as the sun sets.
Red is the least common color of seaglass, as red glass is expensive to produce.
The color red is an appetite stimulant. Strawberries, cranberries, and apples are all red when ripe.
Only 1-2% of the world’s population has red hair. Redheads are more sensitive to sunlight and thermal pain than people with hair of other colors, and while redheads tend to have less hair, their hair is more resistant to turning gray with age.
The color red on an exam paper can negatively affect students’ scores, as red pens are associated with negative feedback.
Red is the color of winning. Studies have shown that weightlifters demonstrate an increase in muscle strength when in a room with red light, and in video games, red players are more likely to win than players of other colors.
The color "madder red" was used in tapestries of French royalty. The recipe for the dye included ox blood, rancid castor oil, and sheep or cow dung.
Red is sexy! Studies show that both men and women perceive potential partners dressed in red as more attractive than others. In addition, men tend to give waitresses in red shirts bigger tips!
Examples of how the meaning of red colors our language:
Red carpet treatment: giving privileged treatment to an important person
Caught red-handed: clearly guilty
Red in the face: to become embarrassed
Seeing red: to be angered
Red flag: a warning of danger
Not worth a red cent: having no value
Red letter day: a memorable, joyful day [See Why an Important Date is Called a Red Letter day]
Red tape: excessive formalities in governmental process [See An Annoyance With a Colorful Name]
In the red: a term to describe an economic loss
Scarlet letter: a punitive mark of adultery that originated with the novel (1850) The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Red is such an interesting color to correlate with emotion, because it's on both ends of the spectrum. On one end you have happiness, falling in love, infatuation with someone, passion, all that. On the other end, you've got obsession, jealousy, danger, fear, anger and frustration.
Taylor Swift, American singer-songwriter, b. 1989
The true color of life is the color of the body, the color of the covered red, the implicit and not explicit red of the living heart and the pulses. It is the modest color of the unpublished blood.
Alice Meynell, British poet and essayist, 1847–1922
I'm in love with red. I think it's such a passionate color. Every flag of every country pretty much has red on it. Its power, there's no fence sitting with red. Either you love it or you don't. I think its blood and strength and life. I do love red. I love all colors. Great shades of blue, you find them in nature. They're all magic.
Bryan Batt, American actor, b. 1963
My mother warned me to avoid things colored red. - Claes Oldenburg #color #quotes
My mother warned me to avoid things colored red.
Claes Oldenburg, Swedish-born American pop sculptor, b. 1929
Red protects itself. No color is as territorial. It stakes a claim, is on the alert against the spectrum.
Michael Derek Elworthy, English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author, 1942–1994
Painters use red like spice.
Michael Derek Elworthy, English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author, 1942–1994
All my life I've pursued the perfect red. I can never get painters to mix it for me. It's exactly as if I'd said, "I want Rococo with a spot of Gothic in it and a bit of Buddhist temple" - they have no idea what I'm talking about.
Diana Vreeland, fashion columnist/editor and consultant to Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1903-1989
You can spend a lifetime studying the interaction of colors, and painting how red can dance, so when the viewer ‘gets it’ and says ‘Aha!’ their way of seeing is transformed.
Gayle Konantz, artists’ responses to ‘Imagine’ by Robert Genn, October 12th, 2004, The Painter’s Key
You can’t go wrong with the use of red; every painting should have red in it.
George De Groat, American painter, 1927-1994
A thimbleful of red is redder than a bucketful. - Henri Matisse #color #quotes
A thimbleful of red is redder than a bucketful.
Henri Matisse, French artist known for the expressive color and form of his Fauvist style, 1869-1954
Of all the hues, reds have the most potency. If there is one electric blue, a dozen reds are so charged. Use them to punctuate white, burn into bronzes, or dynamite black.
Jack Lenor Larsen, American textile designer, author and collector, b. 1927
If one says ‘Red’ – the name of color – and there are fifty people listening, it can be expected that there will be fifty reds in their minds. And one can be sure that all these reds will be very different.
Josef Albers, German-born American abstract painter and designer, 1888-1976
I want a red to be sonorous, to sound like a bell. If it doesn’t turn out that way, I add more reds and other colors until I get it.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French Impressionist painter, 1841-1919
The ‘pure’ red of which certain abstractionists speak does not exist. Any red is rooted in blood, glass, wine, hunters’ caps and a thousand other concrete phenomena. Otherwise we would have no feeling toward red and its relations…
Robert Motherwell, American abstract Expressionist painter, 1915-1991
Everything utilitarian needs a little red edge.
Reno Dakota, American Filmmaker, b. 1959
A signature color is different than a favorite color although for some people they many be one and the same. It is all in how you express yourself with a color and how consistently you wear it or surround yourself with the color that makes it your signature shade.
Here are a few U.S. cities with 'red' in their name:
It’s not just emotion that makes scent powerful. It’s closely tied to your memories, as well. Smell also plays a major role in our ability to taste. When combined with with color those connections become even stronger.
There are five basic groups of taste, which send signals to our brain to interpret flavor. However, we also send signals with our eyes before we take a bite and give our taste buds a chance to process the flavor. The color can pre-determine how we perceive the taste and flavor of what we eat.
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We painted our house Egyptian Red with Pale Purple as a trim around the windows and Brown Purple on the pillars and other trims, and Portland Stone for the roughcast walls, with Bath Stone for the roof.
The red, orange, yellow, and purple rhododendrons look great in the garden.
Elizabeth, that sounds like an amazing combination of colors. Good for you for being brave in your selection. It sounds like it turned out well and that you are pleased with the results, which is the most important criteria for any color scheme. Thanks for your comment.
Hallo what is the meaning of the colour Dark Pastel Red.
It is a perfect representation. the logo of our company, SIGMA ELECTRIC PLC. A company engaged with energy/power. unless handled with care, it is dangerous. The teams are passionate, enthusiast and courageous. Bereket, Marketing Manager
A govvernment servant told me we kept files and books of records in a red cloth hence we prevent our record from pests like creature. Can some one tell me is it true. You may see this in the movies and dramas make in india and pakistan in any scene of govt. office bundels and packes of office record bound in red cloths.red coloe clothes work as pesticide in india and pakistan. Or may be in other countries of British Commonwealth.
Sarwar, I have never heard or read any mention about bugs that I recall. I am also not aware of red as a pest deterrent and have no reason to believe that red would be more effective than any other color.
Another song is Red Eye by Andy Grammar. This was very helpful to me for a project, thank you!
It’s said that wearing the color red actually makes you more attractive!
It was told to me that. The reason I wear a lot of red is because I have a lot of love to give.
What a nice thing to be told. I bet it is true.
Hello, the article was very informative and helped answer alot of my questions and how I can incorporate the color red into my research paper, thanks…
You’re welcome. Thanks for leaving your comment.
Really helped with art homework,
Thanks!
Always happy to be able to help with homework.
I LOVE the color Red. It makes me feel happy, warm and joyful. This is a great article. Thank you!
Thank you for the nice compliment, Colleayn. I’m glad you enjoyed the article.
thank you!
Hi!
Great post, helped me with my Art homework. Another song with ‘red’ in the tite is ‘Red’ by the amazing Taylor Swift!
Red by Taylor Swift?
Oh one of my faves. How could I leave that album out?!?
Hey! This is my first comment here so I just wanted
to give a quick shout out and say I truly enjoy reading through your posts.
Thank you!
Thanks for visiting my website and leaving your comment. I hope you will come back often.