The Secret Lives of Color
By Kassia St. Clair
The Secret Lives of Color. Penguin Books, 2017.
Summary of The Secret Lives of Color book by Kassia St. Clair
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.
Chapters in The Secret Lives of Color book summary
What do you get from this book? Fascinating anecdotes about many hues of the rainbow
Colors are important to our world, though we deceive ourselves by which ones we actually see
Our intricate relationship with different shades of white reflects various cultures and time periods
From emperors to journalists, the color yellow and all its iterations has deep significance for many
Despite its prominence in multiple cultures, orange has had its up and downs
We may associate pink with women and girls today, but that wasn’t always the case
Red hues tap into people’s emotions and are used in everything from literature to food products to advertising
A regal color in many cultures, some purple shades have quite an interesting origin and journey
Don’t get the blues—the color liked by the most people comes in many different versions, all with interesting stories
Various greens have made waves—sometimes positive and sometimes poisonous— throughout human history
Some of our oldest forms of art were made with brown pigments, which has been an important color ever since
Some may think that black isn’t a color at all, but it certainly has its place in color history
Summary of the key insights
Selected critiques in brief
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The Secret Lives of Color — Book Summary Snapshot
Who should read The Secret Lives of Color book
- 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
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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