You may not have thought about it much before, but colours can make a big difference to how creative and productive your team is. Psychologists have studied the effects of different colours for several years and have discovered that certain colours are more advantageous to have in rooms or environments when you are looking for creativity.
When you are setting up the room for a team idea generation session, you can use the colours below to spark creativity. At the least, you may wish to wear a shirt in the right colour, as the facilitator of the session usually draws all eyes and can wear clothes that subtly affect the mood of the room. Use colours on the whiteboard instead of plain black markers to increase the colour impact. If you have a choice of rooms, choose the room with the most creative colours in the paintings or pr, ints on the walls. You may even like to use coloured paper to write on to create the perfect environment for creativity.
Here is how psychologists describe the effect of each base colour on our psychology and the impact the colour can have on your team:
Blue
Blue is the colour of peace and tranquillity and can increase wisdom energy, according to some colour psychologists. Studies have shown that judiciously wearing blue tones can lower blood pressure. I find it especially useful to wear a light blue shirt on a deadline day, as I find I tend to be less stressed. If your team has been feeling the pressures towards the end of the project, wearing a light blue shirt could provide an emphasis on stability, harmony, and order.
Many scientific studies have proven that people are more productive in a room with blue tones, so a blue carpet is popular in meeting rooms. Lighter blues are better than darker blues though, as the darker shades of blue can evoke sadness or depression in some people. A bright blue or lighter shade of blue can exude confidence and create harmony in the team.
Red
Although red is an energising colour, you should use it sparingly in a creative environment. A splash of red colour is more conducive to creativity than a whole wall painted in red. Typically, red enhances self-assurance and produces an illusion of fantasy.
These can be feelings that are helpful when brainstorming, but because red also stimulates passion, you could end up with a team who is tense and argumentative if there is too much red around. Red can be both energising and fatiguing, so use red judiciously. Wear a red tie or scarf to add a splash of red to the environment, without the colour becoming overwhelming.
Yellow
Yellow is also a stimulating colour and can provide an energising lift to the environment. However, like red, yellow can be a fatiguing colour to the eyes, and if too much of the room is yellow can be draining rather than uplifting. Yellow communicates happiness, warmth, and joy, but you should use yellow as an accent colour in an environment when you want creativity to shine, rather than paint the whole room yellow. Yellow is renown for being intellectually stimulating, so it is not a bad colour to have in some areas in your team’s working environment. Accent a lemon yellow colour with light blue in the room to create a good colour combination for creativity. The yellow gives your team’s spirits a lift and the blue provides a calming influence.
Green
Green inspires unity, motivation, concentration, and balance. It is one of the best colours to use to create an environment conducive to creativity. As the colour most associated with nature, green is both restful and tranquil, and restores energy. Since colour psychologists consider green to represent fertility, using green in your creative environment could fertilise and encourage imagination.
Give out light green coloured paper to participants in the brainstorm to write notes on and see if the colour has a positive influence on the levels of concentration in the room. Some researchers have discovered that laying a transparent sheet of green plastic over reading material increases reading speed and comprehension, so if you are providing reading material to your team with detailed information on technical aspects of the project, try printing the data on the light green paper.
Use colour in your team’s environment to promote creativity, energy, and inspiration.
photo credit: ThaRainbowRaider.
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