Color is energy and the energy of every living thing is expressed through color.

Different hues vibrate and create energy to influence and express moods, feelings and surroundings. Auras are the colors that emanate from a person, depending on their mood and state of mind. Trained color therapists can use this information to help restore balance and discover the colors the person might be lacking. New Zealand born photographer Carlo Van de Roer photographs auras for The Portrait Machine Project. He uses a special camera and a hand sensor to record the subjects electromagnetic field as well as changes in temperature and static electricity. He explores the idea that the camera can capture the unseen and can give insight into the subjects character or mood through color alone.

There is no doubt that our perceptions of color are informed by cultural diktats. Food, landscapes, raw materials and light can inform a particular view of color that is intrinsically connected with culture and symbolism. David McCandless has created a formula for these influences using a detailed color wheel. Letters on a circular graph describe identifiable cultures, while the numbers denote the emotions connected to each color. By cross-referencing the letters and numbers we can find the associated emotions or traits. In Western culture for example, black can symbolize mourning whereas in Asian culture its a symbol of intelligence. Traits such as healing, flamboyance and trust are among the 84 characteristics, along with compassion and deceit. The result is a new color wheel, created from an emotional and cultural perspective.

Color is key for marketing campaigns, and provokes an instant reaction in customers, generating purchases through color attraction. IBM created a color sensitive interactive billboard that changes color depending on what the viewer is wearing. Ogilvy Digital designed the billboard for IBMs Smarter Planet campaign, which encouraged industry leaders to use technology in innovative ways to create positive growth. Color can be a persuasive tool that can influence buying decisions. The Color Marketing Group uses the slogan, Color sells, and the right color sells better. Colors can also become synonymous with brands and a brand can leverage this through packaging and advertising to create a recognizable brand identity. The Elizabeth Arden Red Door Salon on Fifth Avenue, NYC, has informed the whole brand identity and remains an iconic symbol of the brand. According to Kissmetrics, color can affect purchases in different ways. Different colors appeal to shoppers depending on their budget, how impulsive they are what the company is trying to sell. For example, orange is aggressive and is a call to action. It forces the consumer to choose, subscribe or buy.

Color is vital to engage with consumers and once a brand starts to do well, smaller brands often follow their chromatic leads in order to emulate their success. ColourLovers has analyzed the web landscape and found that reds and blues dominate the Internet, even though colors are often chosen arbitrarily. Color associations are even more important on the web, due to the lack of tactile association and the overall intangibility of the online world. Jessica Reynolds designed the IKEA Color Spectrum to represent the entire IKEA furniture catalogue by color. This innovative color wheel allows consumers to choose by color first, appealing to an emotional and energetic sensibility rather than a functional one. The color wheel is designed to be interactive, and feels more like a design program, featuring color swatches and complimentary color suggestions.

Personalizing color is the next step in consumer preference, where color has the power to alter and adhere to the users moods. Philips has designed the Ambient Experience that combines color, light and sound to create positive and personal influences on spaces. Using LED lighting, specific colors can be created and new technology means color can now be made using light. The Ambient Experience is in use at the Catharina Hospital in Eindhoven for MRI scanning innovation. The multisensory experience offers a positive distraction for patients, taking the fear and discomfort out of the examination. The system is also in use at Schiphol airport at the Innovation Gate where colored lighting reflects the different airlines. The lighting also changes to signify when its time to board the plane. At the Rockefeller Center in New York, LEDs are used for an interactive art space where viewers movements are tracked and translated into unique color and space patterns. Likewise, the Bus Shelter concept by Fiori uses kinetic color technology to communicate when the next bus will arrive.

Along with branding and attracting consumers, packaging is now using color for functional aspects. The largest packaging manufacturer, Tetra Pak, has created milk cartons that change color when left out of the fridge for too long. The cartons have an embedded chip that provides information about provenance and packaging and is aimed for use in BRIC countries to develop the notion of sustainability. Ball Packaging has developed aluminum cans with thermochromic inks where temperature changes give rise to color changes. This clever tool expresses when the contents are at the optimum temperature. Similarly, Scientists at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow have developed smart plastic that can indicate if the food packaged in it is spoiled or not. The new material would be cheaper than currently used labeling, making it a viable solution for future food packaging.

The annual Indian festival of Holi celebrates color where brightly colored pigments are thrown on the attendees. In a similar vein, the practice has been adopted in the U.S. in the form of a fun run that is currently touring a number of cities. The Color Run is a 5km run that aims to celebrate the wonder of color and energy rather than racing. Runners must wear a white T-shirt and be prepared to be covered in a rainbow of powdered pigments. At each leg of the run, the participants are sprayed with a specific color to end up with a mix of yellow, blue, green and pink hues. This adaptation combines the rituals of the East with communities in the West, through the medium of color. Young British photographer, Louis Lander Deacon, has also experimented with this concept to create a series of images using subjects being covered in colored pigments.

Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn of Haas&Hahn had a vision to inspire the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Among other murals they painted the facades of 34 dwellings in the Brazilian shantytown of Santa Marta with a view to painting entire favelas. Their goal is to use art to inspire the inhabitants, create beauty among poverty and combat prejudice. The use of bright colors invites outsiders to view these places as colorful and characterful communities and to construct a positive life with the dwellers. The rainbow colors appeal to the senses and ultimately change perceptions. Likewise Spanish art collective, Boamistura, comprises five graffiti artists who worked with the residents of a favela in Rio to re-paint the walls of winding alleys with a trompe loeil effect. Bright colors combine with inspiring words like Beauty and Love, which appear to be overlaid on the space and can only be viewed at a certain distance. The projects purpose is to transform the communitys internal life.

Color is an important aspect of architecture that is often overlooked. Imposing urban structures can affect how we go about our everyday lives and can impact city living in a positive way. Sauerbruch Hutton is one architecture firm that has redefined color as an essential material within architectural construction. Colors and forms merge to develop energy, reflective of contemporary urban landscapes. The firms design for the Office for Urban Development and Environment in Hamburg features strips of color on curving structures. Likewise, the GSW Headquarters in Berlin features a curtain of colors in shades of coral, sand and raspberry to create a pleasing mosaic that reflects the sunshine.

Synesthesia is a neurological condition where the senses become intertwined. Each case is unique but the most widely reported is called grapheme, where people hear, and see, letters and numbers in color. Many accomplished artists and musicians have been known synesthetes including, Wassily Kandinsky who likened painting to composing music, The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul. Cretien van Campen is a Dutch author, editor and scientific researcher in social science and fine arts. He is the founder of Synesthetics Netherlands and is affiliated with the Netherlands Institute for Social Research. He has investigated synesthesia in art along with studies of perceived qualities of life, in particular how people with health problems perceive their living conditions. Dutch architecture practice K2 looked to color synesthesia to create the facades of a multi-unit residence in the Netherlands. Using a piece of music by 16th century composer Obrecht, the team employed pianist and synesthete, Dorine Diemer to select colors in accordance with the music. The resulting color-blocks represent a harmonious and melodic color composition.

Color and sound are intrinsically linked in terms of creating energy and vibrations. The Color a Sound project by Blair Neal uses felt markers and a projector to create a unique kind of music. The project works by associating a different sound with a different color using a roller device to create an unconventional form of music. Product designer Yuri Suzuki created the Colour Chaser as a nave technological device that translates color into sound. The device follows hand drawn lines, while simultaneously making RGB colors into sounds. Instructables member Ledartist has created a color organ that works by emitting different colors of light, based on sound frequency, where three frequency bands emit red, green and blue lights. Prints by graphic designer Laia Clos of Barcelonas Mot Studio, explore a color-based translation of musical notation. SisTeMu relies on simple geometrical forms and colors to make a piece of music visible. Using Vivaldis Four Seasons the resultant circles of color vary in size and reflect the melody of the music.

Appealing to the artistically minded, words can be replaced by colors, to develop a more abstract form of communication. A project by Tyree Callahan reinvents storytelling using a chromatic typewriter. The typewriter leaves paint on the page rather than typed words creating a form of writing using the medium of color. Likewise, Lauren DiCioccio translates text into color in a soft, abstract style. Her Color Codification Dot Drawings are created from printed magazine pages from the likes of Vogue or Vanity Fair and are reinterpreted in colors. This type of modern pointillism effect alludes to the tone of the story while keeping the content intangible and open to interpretation.

The ARoS Museum of Modern Art in Aarhus, Denmark, has been coated in color, thanks to a permanent installation by Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. He constructed a 150-meter-long circular promenade with glazed walls that glow in every color of the spectrum. From the viewing platform you can look out across the city through a color filter. The installation also plays tricks, where the red glass produces a vivid afterimage in green blurring the lines between what the viewer actually sees and their added introspective ideas. James Turrell is an American artist who uses light, color and space to create sensory experiences that take the viewer on psychedelic journeys. His exhibition in Sweden called, SEE! COLOUR! includes a permanent Skyspace along with a huge variety of spaces and installations that immerse the viewer in color.

Color has always been an essential component of art and now, thanks to advanced technologies, companies are finding new ways to use color in art. Softlab has created the Chromaesthesiae installation using photo inkjet paper shaped into funnel forms that are richly colored. The color and scale of each of the funnel structures changes as the viewer interacts and moves within the space. Roland Schimmels wall paintings play on the theory of vibrating colors. The paintings are influenced by the act of viewing by the visitors and the changing light is captured in curved walls. The black dots appear and disappear, momentarily leaving a pale colored residue. This experience leaves the viewer unsure of what they are seeing or if their eyes are playing tricks and reacting to the visuals.

Words, images and color combine for a project that merges all of these factors into a single abstract image. Called The Color Of, the system was designed and developed by Fung Kwok Pan, a product and interaction designer based in Singapore. Using the system, the user can find the color of any word. By typing a word into the website, a series of images is generated and then overlaid and layered, using a simple algorithm. The system will source and layer images tagged with the word from Flickr until they form a canvas of solid color.

The power of color is such that different hues have the potential to heal or to regulate the body clock. Chromo is a color clock that helps the body understand what time it is. Using colors that are known to release certain hormones, the clock could potentially be used as a cure for jetlag or Seasonal Affective Disorder along with other light-related imbalances. Two major hormones: serotonin and melatonin, act to readdress balance in the body and can be induced using color.

Color therapy is a form of non-invasive healing that dates back thousands of years. There is evidence in ancient texts that color therapy was used in India, China and Egypt. Color works as a therapeutic agent because it is made up of various wavelengths where each color has its own frequency. Researchers at the University of Mumbai have discovered that color, shape and taste can affect a persons perception of medication. It has also been shown that recovering patients get well quicker in response to certain colors. The Phoenix Childrens Hospital has an 11-storey tower that was designed by architectural firm HKS to offer distractions through color and movement. The lobby features a wall of water; created using textured surfaces and flowing, patterned light, while projected colored flowers dance on the walls. The Kinetic Chromotherapy system is a method of healing using the ancient wisdom of color therapy. The system promotes deep meditation and stress-relief through the combination of color and Reiki. The bed is aligned to open the crown chakra and help the body to boost its own natural healing ability.

Along with taste and smell, color is a very important in making food desirable and tasty. De Culinaire Werkplaats is a novel eating experience developed by Marjolein Wintjes and Eric Meursing in Amsterdam. They have an ongoing obsession with black and serve black food to create a conceptual form of eating and to make diners create new associations with foods. For the Italia Al Dente 2011 they created an installation called Taste the Palette as a way to describe recipes in color code. Each recipe reflects the proportion of ingredients used thus creating a barcode effect. For the Simply Red project, they were searching for the essence of the color red. Cherry, wine and tomato were just some of the ingredients used to express all the emotions associated with this most meaningful color. Marije Vogelzang is an artist who experiments with food as a medium. Her White Funeral Dinner was made entirely from white food. She also did a food color project aimed at combatting obesity in children, and connected colors to positive associations to help children chose food in a different way.

Pantone is the global standard for color, referenced by textile, design and digital companies alike. Pantone is branching into the beauty world in collaboration with cosmetics giant, Sephora. Together, they have created a makeup line that revolves around Pantones 2012 color of the year: Tangerine Tango. The collection includes lip-glosses, eye shadows, a set of brushes and nail polishes. Pantone acts like a dictionary of color with which to communicate with all levels and types of design industries. This invigorating shade of Tangerine Tango is vivid and can be worn in a variety of ways to enhance and define any skin tone.

The senses can be invigorated and lifted using two senses at once. Smell and color together have the power to transform an environment and alter perceptions and moods. MOST was instigated by Tom Dixon to turn the National Museum of Science and Technology, Milan into an environment for innovation and culture. Studio Toogood presented a hospital for the senses where visitors could rebalance using therapeutic expression. Perfumers 12.29 created a bespoke scent, which was designed to capture the essence of the color white in olfactory form. Mark Buxton has launched a collection of seven fragrances under his own independent label called Metamorphoses of Colours and Moods. The idea is to help the customer to find the perfume best suited to his or her personality or mood by inviting the customer to click on a color chart to choose the colors that are most attractive. Dawn Spencer Hurwitz began her career as a painter and has become a fixture on the American niche perfume market, using fine art principles to inform her creations. Her latest collection, Chroma Series, interprets artists colors like celadon, cyan, and sienna through scent. Color and scent combine as a primal force to engulf the emotions.

Raw Color comprises designers Daniera ter Haar and Christophe Brach who develop a visual language through research and experiments. From their studio in Eindhoven they reflect a sophisticated treatment of materials and color by merging the fields of graphic design and photography. For the Cultural Day exhibition in Frankfurt, Raw Color was invited to show its color research. Based on ongoing research of deriving pigments from vegetables, the aim was to showcase the liquid condition of the color before its fixed to the medium of paper or textile. Presented in a cabinet, the 130 preserved containers expose pure and mixed shades of different vegetables. For the Make A Forest project, Raw Color explored trees in conjunction with Studio Mkgk. Their ever-changing life forms determine how we experience life, and this observation is translated using color, illusions and overlaying photography methods.

Natural dyeing has existed for centuries and certain types of dye are associated with geographical locations and seasons. Natural dyes appeal to environmental consciousness while producers are working with industrial dye houses to offer more homogenized natural colors for the mass market. RCA students Nicholas Wallenberg and Helena Karelson contributed to The Anatomy of Fendi project 2011 with a reverse dye project. They boiled down Fendi Sellerias colorful skins to produce a pigment to color flowers displayed on a large table, thus returning manufactured color to its natural state. Indonesian brand, Bluesville, uses the range of local wildlife on hand to develop experimental natural dyes. Mangosteen, wood ash and indigo are some of the substances they use to develop a wondrous set of dyes. Claudy Jongstra is an artist who works with natural materials, predominantly felt to create organic tapestries. She uses wool, silk and other natural fibers, making the final result extremely tactile. Jongstra believes that plant-based dyes work better with natural materials and that people have a greater affinity with colors that come from nature. Also, she believes that colors are viewed more vibrantly if the viewer really connects with that specific color.

Color cannot exist without light and certain projects are exploring this concept through artistic expression. Dennis Parren created the CMYK Lamp to project a network of lines in cyan, magenta and yellow on the surrounding space. He also discovered that the lines are 3D and can create new dimensions when viewed through 3D glasses. The ICA commissioned Oscar Diaz to create a project in conjunction with Veuve Clicquot, for a fundraising auction. The yellow-orange identity of the brand was decomposed and divided the resulting RGB colors into three hand-blown glass vases. When nested, the three vase colors overlay and the classic yelloworange color emerges once again. The colors mix visually to play with perceptions and highlight the link between light and color.

Milanese collective Carnovsky has created 3D-style wallpaper that changes under different lighting conditions. Called RGB, the papers are printed in red, green, blue and yellow to reveal different layers of images when viewed with colored lighting. The original images were further distorted in a series of silk scarves. The dimensional patterns became even more ephemeral using the medium of delicate and sheer silk. The Human Printer is a group that merges new and old printing styles. The CMYK dot patterns are painstakingly created by hand. Following the same process as a digital printer, the human creator is restricted by the process of using CMYK halftones, to develop a new form of handmade pointillism.

Anne Lindberg creates installations that merge the fields of sculpture and architecture. She has created a project called Drawn Light where thousands of threads are stretched across a space to create a web of color. The threads gradate gently from one color to the next, creating a hazy and ill-defined color effect. The installation was created for the Placemakers exhibition at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts. Similarly, L.A. based architects Benjamin Ball and Gaston Nogues generate immersive installations that combine digital computation, machinery and handcraft. Together they have created a series of site-specific installations where color takes on a spatial quality. Thousands of strands of twine are suspended from the ceiling to create shifting gradients of color and form. The Gravitys Loom project comprises vibrantly colored strings that generate the appearance of a softly spiraling surface. For six months the installation twisted and spiraled at the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Customization is a key element of new consumer goods and the automobile industry is offering the personalized treatment with new interchangeable color options. The Rolls-Royce Phantom App allows clients and enthusiasts to create bespoke virtual models where the users can apply unique color and interior trim combinations. A palette of 44,000 colors can be played with, while a range of exterior finishes creates individual surface effects. Users can also upload their own colors using an iPhone or iPad and match their virtual Rolls Royce to their favorite colored products. Toyota has created the Fun VII as an interactive design concept. The 13-foot-long vehicle features an exterior that can be used as a screen for any visuals the user chooses, which can be transferred using smart technology. The car could also drive itself and instantly convert into a video game, all while acting like a smartphone on wheels.