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Topic: Colours
1. What’s your favourite colour?
I’m not really all that sure actually, but I guess it’s probably a toss-up between green and blue. You know, I’ve always liked those two colours, and they were the ones that popped to mind when you asked me the question.
2. Are there any colours you dislike?
No I wouldn’t say there are, cos I mean, obviously for some things, there are certain colours that I don’t think would look so good, such as me driving a pink car around! But that doesn’t mean I don’t like pink, it just means I wouldn’t choose it for certain things.
3. Are colours important to you?
Not really, no. I mean, I might take the colour into account when choosing something, like a shirt or pair of trousers, but you know, in the grand scheme of things, they’re really not that important at all, especially compared with things like friends and family.
4. Is colour very important to you when you’re buying clothes?
Yeah, I suppose it kind of is, because certain colours tend to look better on me than others. For example, a lot of my friends have told me I look quite good in a white shirt, so I tend to favour that colour when I’m choosing a new shirt. And as well as this, I’ll also consider the colours of the clothes I’ve already got, and maybe choose a colour which I don’t already have.
5. Do you prefer light or dark coloured clothes?
I honestly don’t have a preference, because I mean, I actually like to wear a combination of both. So just to give you an example, I often wear light trousers together with a dark shirt, or vice versa, because the light and dark colours kind of compliment each other, if you know what I mean!
6. What colour would you choose to paint the walls of your room?
That’s an interesting question! What colour would I choose? Um... I guess I would probably choose a creamy white colour, or possibly a yellowish-white, which would make the room feel a bit cosier than plain white. And at the same time, it would make my room feel nice and bright. So yeah, that’s probably the colour I would choose.
7. Is there any colour you wouldn’t want your walls to be?
Yeah, for sure. I mean, firstly, I wouldn’t want my walls to be pink, as that’s way too feminine for me, and also I wouldn’t want my walls to be a dark colour, like black for example, because I think it would be depressing and possibly also make me feel a bit claustrophobic.
8. Do you think different types of people like different colours?
That’s an interesting question! Um, thinking about it, I’d say yeah, there’s probably an element of truth to it. Obviously, men favour the more masculine colours, like black and blue, while women gravitate towards the more feminine colours like pink and red. But apart from that, I think it’s also probably fair to say that outgoing people probably like bold and bright colours relatively more than people who are reserved and inward.
9. What colours are the least popular in your country?
Uh… that’s an interesting question, and I’ve never actually thought about it before! Let me have a little think… uh… I suppose it also kind of depends on what you’re talking about. So I mean, for clothes, let’s say, I don’t see that many people wearing orange. So that’s not really a very popular colour in terms of clothes. And for things like cars, then orange is also not such a popular colour. You know, I can’t even remember seeing an orange car around. So yeah, I guess that’s probably the least popular colour here. There are probably a few others too, but none that I can think of right now.
10. Might this colour become popular in the future?
Sure. I mean, the future’s never-ending, isn’t it! So I think it’s highly likely that at some stage in the future unpopular colours like orange are gonna come into fashion. You know, things are always coming in and out of fashion, and I guess colour’s no different. But when exactly this might happen is anyone’s guess!
11. What was the most popular colour last year?
Um… it’s kind of hard for me to say, because I don’t really follow fashion that closely, you know, I don’t pay that much attention to the latest trends and stuff, but off the top of my head I would say red seems to have been quite popular in the last year or so. Um… yeah, quite a lot of people seem to have been wearing red. And um… also black and white, which I think are actually popular every year, simply because they go well with most other colours. Uh… So yeah, I’d say it’s a toss up between those three – red, white and black.
12. How do colours affect people’s mood?
Jeez – I’m not getting any easy ones, am I! Um… how do colours affect people’s mood? … I guess some colours tend to have a positive effect on people’s mood. For example warm colours like red and yellow kind of make people feel relaxed. And um, bright, striking colours like pink might give you an energetic feel, if you know what I mean. And in terms of dark colours, they might have a somber effect on people, You know, if you walk into a dark room, it might kind of dampen your mood somewhat. So yeah, I think colours can affect all of us subconsciously to varying degrees.
13. What colours are mostly seen on buildings?
I guess it’s generally light colours like grey and white, so not really very exciting. But having said that, I’ve noticed that in some of the smaller cities, there are quite a few other colours of buildings dotted around, like pink and yellow, but grey and white, I’d say, are definitely the predominant colours.
14. What colour is suitable for offices?
That’s a good question. Thinking about it, I suppose a colour that would make people feel… I dunno… um… attentive and focused on their work, and also give people a happy feeling when they walk into the office. So, for me I’d say a bright-ish colour could help create such kind of positive effect. For example, I think yellow would be good – not too bright a yellow, but a kind of light-ish yellow, or maybe a light grey or green… I think all these kinds of colours could have a positive effect.
15. How differently do men and women look at the same colour?
Um… my initial thought would be not all that differently. Because I mean, if you take pink, for example, then both men and women see it as a feminine colour, and the same goes for purple. So I think they see colours in pretty much the same way. Having said that, though, I suppose there are instances when women might pay more attention to a colour, for example when choosing clothes. I mean, men, on the whole, don’t ponder a lot over the colour, whereas women tend to, I think. For instance, they might see black as giving them a slim look, while white may have the opposite effect. And men definitely don’t think about that kind of stuff when they’re choosing what colour to wear. They’re much more laid-back about it.
16. Is there any change in the use of colours in the present and in the past?
I’m sure there is, but I can’t really think of any examples off the top of my head. But I guess one thing to mention would be that in the past, people were generally a lot more superstitious about things, you know, they knew less about science and how the world works, so probably some colours held some kind of special meaning which now isn’t the case. So yeah, I think they’re used a bit differently now, but I’m afraid I can’t think of any concrete examples!
17. What colours are suitable for formal occasions?
It’s kind of hard to generalize because it really depends on what the formal occasion is, but I suppose, on the whole, colours that are, not too “in your face”, you know, that don’t stand out too much, like grey, white, black and brown would be suitable, unless, of course, you really want to make an impression, in which case you might want to go for something bold and striking, like bright red!
18. Do business people need to wear dark clothes?
No, I’d say most definitely not. That seems to be a very outdated concept, that they should wear dark clothes. And I mean, nowadays, a lot of the most successful business people are young Internet whizzes, and they turn up to press conferences in all kinds of casual wear, like jeans and t-shirts. So wearing dark colours is definitely not a “must”, you know, looking presentable is really the main thing. And people nowadays, I think, are very open-minded and accepting towards what other people wear.
Thank you, Amy! :)