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The Secret Lives of Color

The Secret Lives of Color

By Kassia St. Clair

The Secret Lives of Color. Penguin Books, 2017.

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19 mins read

15 Key insights

A brief summary of The Secret Lives of Color

A vivid anthology of forgotten tales about multiple shades and hues found in nature and made by scientists and artists, including fascinating facts, literary references, and cultural analysis that reveal the significant impact of color on human history.

Key insights in The Secret Lives of Color

1
What do you get from this book? Fascinating anecdotes about many hues of the rainbow
2
Colors are important to our world, though we deceive ourselves by which ones we actually see
3
Our intricate relationship with different shades of white reflects various cultures and time periods
4
From emperors to journalists, the color yellow and all its iterations has deep significance for many
5
Despite its prominence in multiple cultures, orange has had its up and downs
6
We may associate pink with women and girls today, but that wasn’t always the case
7
Red hues tap into people’s emotions and are used in everything from literature to food products to advertising
8
A regal color in many cultures, some purple shades have quite an interesting origin and journey
9
Don’t get the blues—the color liked by the most people comes in many different versions, all with interesting stories
10
Various greens have made waves—sometimes positive and sometimes poisonous— throughout human history
11
Some of our oldest forms of art were made with brown pigments, which has been an important color ever since
12
Some may think that black isn’t a color at all, but it certainly has its place in color history
13
Summary of the key insights
14
Selected critiques in brief
15
Final word

Who should read The Secret Lives of Color

Painters • interior designers • graphic designers • art appreciators • those interested in color theory • anyone curious about where colors come from

About the author of The Secret Lives of Color

Kassia St. Clair is a cultural historian, freelance writer, and public speaker. She is a regular contributor to Elle Decoration, where her column on color was so popular, she wrote an entire book on the subject, The Secret Lives of Color. A former editor at The Economist, St. Clair’s other publications include The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History and The Race to the Future.

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Kassia St. Clair

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