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Color Therapy: Go Green

Green is made by mixing blue (an intellectual colour) with yellow (an emotional colour). Green is located between these two hues on the colour spectrum (or the visible spectrum) and represents balance. Green is considered a restful colour: easy on the eye, it promotes harmony and reassurance (Source: Colour Affects). In a wider world context, we might think of green as: political, ecological and environmental; immature, inexperienced and naive; verdant, natural and lush. Green is the universal sign for “go” or “proceed” and often denotes money (most notably in the USA).

Go green with these colourful ideas.

Primo Restaurant Chair

Made using wood, Primo is a dynamic and energetic restaurant chair from British industrial designer Sebastian Bergne. In this image, the green seat and back add a striking and reviving edge to the chair.

RELATED: Shades Of Green For The Modern Home

The Primo restaurant chair by Sebastian Bergne.

Image © 2016 Sebastian Bergne.

Green Mood

Brussels-based studio Alain Giles designed the Biennale Interieur exhibition booth for young Belgian company Green Mood. Founded in 2014, Green Mood offers fully preserved and hyperreal natural plant products that work to combine aesthetics with acoustic absorbance.

Biennale Interieur exhibition booth for Green Mood by Alain Giles.
Biennale Interieur exhibition booth for Green Mood by Alain Giles.

Photos by Piet Albert Goethals © Alain Gilles.

Green Pops

Muller Van Severen is the brainchild of Fien Muller and Hannes Van Severen. A venture straddling that fine line between art and design, the Muller Van Severen collections are designed to invite participation. Perusing Muller Van Severen’s online exhibit of furniture and objects, green is a spotlight colour that tends to grab one’s attention.

Waves of leather for petit h, Hermès.
Cutlery for valerie_objects.
3 pieces desk.

First chair.

Cutting boards for valerie_objects.

Images © muller van severen.

Aalto Vase

On its 80th birthday, Alvar Aalto’s superb vase remains a fresh and vibrant design icon. The Aalto Vase was designed in 1936 for a competition at the Iittala glassworks factory; today, it remains Iittala’s most iconic glassware series. Available in a range of colours, this emerald green hue glistens and sparkles.

RELATED: Color Therapy: Quell Those End-Of-Summer Blues!

Aalto Vase in emerald green.
Aalto Vase in emerald green.

Images © Fiskars Finland.

Hüzün Green

As part of the 60th anniversary celebrations for Arne Jacobsen’s Series 7™ chair, in 2015 Fritz Hansen invited Danish artist Tal R to create nine new colours for the iconic seat. Tal R’s vision for the Series 7™ was less about choosing colours from an aesthetic perspective and more about finding hues based upon association, information and language. One of the nine colours that Tal R developed is known as Hüzün Green. Inspired by Islamic green, Hüzün is Turkish for “wistful” and as such expresses a quality of nostalgia and yearning.

Series 7™ by Arne Jacobsen in Hüzün Green.
Series 7™ by Arne Jacobsen in Hüzün Green.
Series 7™ by Arne Jacobsen in Hüzün Green.
Series 7™ by Arne Jacobsen in Hüzün Green.

Images © Republic of Fritz Hansen.

Mint Green

Cool as ice cream, fresh mint-green glazed bricks adorn the outer walls of this primary school block by Belgian studio Areal Architecten.

Belgium primary school rear
Fresh mint-green glazed bricks adorning a school facade.
Fresh mint-green glazed bricks adorning a school facade.
Fresh mint-green glazed bricks adorning a school facade.

Images by Tim Van De Velde via Dezeen.

Traffic Light

Green is for “go”. The famous UK traffic light system was redesigned in 1966 by industrial designer David Mellor and remains in use today.

RELATED: Going Green: The Art Of Bringing This Earth Friendly Color In The Home

Traffic Light Screenprint by Bibliothèque.

Image © 2016 Design Museum Shop.

Dollar Sign

Green is for money.

This is just one of a series of drawings and paintings of the Dollar Sign by Andy Warhol.

Image © 2016 MutualArt Services, Inc.

Gerard McGuickin

Gerard is a writer, a thinker and a modern-day gentleman living in a modish neighbourhood in south Belfast. Walnut Grey Design is his popular manifesto of good design. From Gerard’s discerning perspective, design should be aesthetic, smart, honest and gratifying. Moreover, it must be for keeps. A self-confessed urbanite, Gerard is enthralled b[...]

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