A long time ago someone said to me: “red is your color,” and it stuck. Sadly, I cannot remember who it was that kindly informed me that with my skin tone and dark hair, I wore the color well, it was insight that has stayed with me. It has even branded me among family and friends, who see it and think of me.

The color red is a primary color and the vixen of the color world next to cheery and friendly yellow and laid-back blue. When the warm tones are combined they can make an array of fiery oranges and when mixed with blue it creates lovely hues of purple. In addition to being a primary color in the traditional color wheel red is a key component to the RGB color model. The RGB color model is used to create all hues seen via digital media by combining red, green, and blue. Using the eyedropper tool in Photoshop you can pick a color and find out it’s corresponding RGB color.

One could never mistake red for a neutral color, it’s almost always used to attract attention. The psychology of red tells us that it is active, aggressive, angry, amorous, passionate, or even dangerous and courageous. Restaurants have even used the color red to subconsciously increase appetites.  It is often associated with holidays like Christmas and Valentine’s Day and of course the emotion and feeling of love. Companies, sports teams and nations use red in their branding, allowing for their logos, uniforms, and flags to pop! (GO BUCS!)

Red is definitely a statement color and a commitment. It is hard to match as the spectrum of hues range from deep burgundy colors to orangy- scarlet and even raspberry-pink tones.

Red can be found all over the natural world. Many forms of flora and fauna from the land and sea are in hues of reds. Fruits and vegetables may start out green and turn red when ripe.  There are red stones, rocks, and gems containing high amounts of iron-oxide and magnesium.

A small, but blessed, percentage of the world are redheaded and boast a beautiful array of hues from strawberry to auburn.

One can also look to the sky to see red in the planet Mars, sunrises, sunsets, and blood moons. These are caused by the light ray scatter effect referred to as Rayliegh’s Effect – we originally learned about this phenomenon when we studied the color blue.

It is amazing how much of our world is dyed, painted, and naturally red. We can’t wait to see where the red is in your world as you join us on this color challenge #itsaredworld!

xoxo,

Learn more about red

Camera bag pictured by Kelly Moore Bag