Vital-Office® Color Concept

The effect of colors

The general effect of colors according to modern color psychology is:

• Yellow colors have a brilliant, releasing, extroverted, alleviating and communicative effect.
• Orange colors are invigorating, exciting, anti-depressive, affirming, celebratory and joyous.
• Red colors are vital, active, expanding, resolving blockages, tremendously stimulating, accelerating, attractive, powerful and loud.
• Violet colors have a deepening, muting, relaxing, mysterious, depressing and introverted effect.
• Blue colours are broad, calm, concentrating, conciliatory and peaceful.
• Green colors are passive, mediating, conciliating, soothing, regenerating, protecting and hoping.
• Ochre and brown shades have a stabilizing effect and are connected to the earth.
• Achromatic colors (black, grey and white) have the effect of restricting life forces and are formalizing.

As always, each extreme endangers health in the long term. It is therefore not the best solution to paint over large areas of the office walls with striking and garish colors. It is better to work with less saturated colors, for example, paler shades of color and pastel colors. These are more pleasing to the eye and you are more comfortable. In addition, they reflect the light better and bring more brightness and natural light into the room. In contrast, dark, saturated colors “swallow” the light and more artificial lighting must be used. It is easily understandable that a dark room is less inviting than a light room.

Colors in nature

To ensure the creation of a harmonious room atmosphere, for the color combination we can orientate ourselves by nature. Which colors cover a large area, which colors only occur at certain points, which ones are mostly striking and which ones are pastel-like gentle during the course of the year?

The color red is very popular. However, with its quality of being tremendously stimulating and activating, is it particularly suitable in offices in which business success is of top priority. Not for nothing are the board of director areas usually fitted with reddish, Swiss pear wood. If you look at nature, you mostly find red in small doses at certain points, for example, blossom, fruits, fungi, plumage of songbirds and blood. The latter can be associated in a positive way with our archetypical hunter as a successful experience and only in second place with the negative aspect of war and suffering. However, in the plant section as well, for example, with blossom, fruits and fungi, red has the two aspects “good food” or “poisonous”. In any case, we can establish that the color red only occurs in nature at certain points, brilliant and in full saturated color.

• Blue sky and blue water are mostly present over large areas, however, only at certain times of day in full saturated color. We actually experience a transition from white (light) to full shade blue through to black (darkness). In principle, a blue floor is a bit strange. Who can walk over water?
• Yellow is the most popular color. In nature, the sun is yellow and therefore yellow suggests vitality.
• We find ochre through to brown as naked earth. We still like a natural stamped clay or wood floor. Without green vegetation the earth is also dust and mud, depending on the season, not always an inviting environment.
• Our ancestors found grey rock above the tree level, that is in the anti-life area. Nowadays, far to often, unfortunately, we find grey in our towns, streets and offices.
• We find green everywhere where there is water (blue), sun (yellow) and earth (ochre). Lush plant growth also tells us: Here is a good environment where we will find enough to eat and where we will be able to develop.

The more we think about the colors in nature, the more we realize that several colors work together in a harmonious situation as a whole. There is virtually an archetypical system which determines the effect of the colors only in combination with other colors.