Colors Can Speed Up Your Thinking

By John D. McCall

Colors speed up thinking by means of the “color wheel.” Since a color wheel is just a circle with colors in order (orange, red orange, red and so on), it’s handy for decoration; but how can it speed up the brain?

THE USES OF THE COLOR WHEEL

Invented by Isaac Newton in 1741, a multicolored wheel is employed by think tanks to stimulate a cascade of ideas from exceptional minds. Color wheels can accelerate other minds too, if energized and made keenly receptive by the emotions. Psychologists (and decorators) have long known that colors affect both the mood and the mind. We can choose colors that create moods that, in turn, unleash ideas. And from a decade of faltering experience, the author of this article has seen how quickly the mind responds to the wheel.

The Fanciful Wheel prescribes a drastic dose of fantasy to cure a mental block or anything that stymies ideas. The “treatment” includes – as a mild example, the image of an orange hedgehog (or is it purple?). The other wheel is practical; it can help solve many problems for many readers.

THE PRACTICAL WHEEL

The Practical Wheel presents six colors and moods. It also includes general advice to encourage specific solutions. Will that guidance seem obvious, irrelevant, or surprisingly useful? For answers, examine three of the six colors:

1. Green = calm – To calm matters, investigate complaints, set up negotiations, and remind participants of shared interests. However, if calm becomes complacency, stir things up.

Frankly, isn’t this boring? Does this color stimulate ideas or yawns? But how dull will this advice seem when one is genuinely puzzled? And could it be obvious because it is true and truly relevant? Of course, it’s “only” common sense. But do the decisions of governments, corporations, and flower-planting committees always smack of common sense?

2. Yellow = happy – If results exceed expectations, one might order more products, open more locations, and schedule more events. But warily -- with plans for reverses.

Who would look for “happy”? The project is already successful. But managers may feel perplexed, for example, by a sudden rise in sales. And, if a color does not apply, the reader can often find one that does, for instance, in items 3,4, and 5, described later on.

6. Navy Blue = sad – In case of disappointment – detect trouble spots, slim down operations, or reduce expectations. And don’t give up too readily.

So how can we apply that generalization? An example? Let’s say some religious body (say a church) had a bake sale that failed. Another sale is planned, based on number 6. Navy Blue:

1) “Detect a trouble spots”: The big one? Gasoline price hikes at that time.

Suggestion: Hold the sale in the church meeting hall just after the service.

2) “Slim down operations.”

Suggestion: poll prospective customers for bake sales, and prepare what they want. Don’t overstock goods they might possibly want.

3) “Reduce expectations”.

Suggestion: Limit rosy interviews with the local gazette. Instead, appeal to community sprit and promote sale days.

Realistically, however, even after one selects the “right” color, the ideas that spring from the generalization may be irrelevant. But the clear directions on the wheel should quickly invite further thoughts. With ingenuity -- most likely useful.

So by devising a wheel* and persevering, one can become (“for all practical purposes”) one’s own think tank. The result should be effective independence, the fundamental goal of this article.

Yet the wise reader may read no further. That’s because Fanciful Wheel addresses a small group – people obsessed with analyzing – and the “therapy” offered might well put some people off. They may reject all color wheels.

THE FANCIFUL WHEEL

This wheel is bizarre.

Though the Fanciful offers no advice, like the Practical Wheel, it has a pattern of colors and moods. . Yet compared with that wheel, this one is irrational, even infantile, and dominated by animal images. But who should use such a wheel? People so infatuated with logic that logic, as if bored, deserts them. They are left with a mental block. The victims range from inventors to investors: they may struggle with urgent challenges demanding intricate responses. Perhaps the most familiar example? The novelist facing a deadline and blank page.

When experts are stalled and logic fails, try the ridiculous – the illusion of, say, a grotesque wheel with perhaps a dozen spokes, colors, and animal images. Tell these experts to take their imaginations back to childhood and into a toy box full of stuffed or wooden animals. Bring out a scuffed wooden worm. Though faded, the toy is clearly yellow green – and so begins the color wheel: 1) yellow green = a worm; then 2) yellow= a butterfly; 3) yellow orange = a squirrel; 4) orange = a hedgehog and so forth.

Anxiously, the novelist with writer’s block mentally examines the image of a yellow green worm. Nothing comes to her. She grimaces -- still blocked. But then an idea (or the shadow of one) comes: humble characters that might “worm their way in.” A disappointing cliché. She looks next at the yellow butterfly and thinks “social butterfly.” Another cliché. But two clichés for one character? That’s not so bad. Many minor characters have no more depth – and sometimes possibly should not.

Next on the wheel -- the yellow-orange squirrel. That suggests nothing, same for the hedgehog. But the color orange (as in the practical wheel) makes her think “health.” The images coalesce, and soon the outline of a character forms in an affable pharmacist subtly undermining the boss. That’s worth considering.

A second look at the spiky hedgehog, for some reason, suggests a lawyer, maybe a dangerous one. And, changing her mind, as one often does with a wheel spinning ideas, they arise and subside; but within minutes, a tentative plan develops. The sly pharmacist has become, instead, Greg, a war-wounded health instructor. Greg’s wounds have made him empathetic, but steely and manipulative, with a cautious attitude towards three secretive members of the class (one a truly fun-loving lawyer, recently disbarred.). An interesting premise? Possibly, possibly not. But the novelist began to fill the blank page.

The color wheel has quickly heated and melted ideas in their flow, but will the momentum persist chapter after chapter until the finale? Better keep that wheel handy. (Readers who might like a wheel of their own should see below. **)

Hopefully, someone will develop the wheel further, some day, for instance, evoking ideas from other senses. As for the present, if either wheel saves the reader a single day’s work, thank Isaac Newton.

NOTES

* Need a color wheel? A print out from this article might not be handy or apt. To devise a color wheel it might be helpful to draw a simple sketch first. Simply draw a bicycle with six spokes for the practical wheel and twelve for the fanciful wheel. Then write the color between the spokes and refer by number to the items listed below. (Some readers may want to use actual colors.) This note concludes with the Fanciful Wheel.

For the Practical Wheel, this list includes: color, mood, and general approaches that can help solve problems:

1. Green = calm – To calm matters, investigate complaints, set up negotiations, and remind participants of shared interests. However, if calm becomes complacency, stir things up.

2. Yellow = happy – If results exceed expectations, one might order more products, open more locations, and schedule more events. But warily -- with plans for reverses.

3. Orange = healthy – If a project is already well run and improving, there’s no need for radical change. But phase out practices that, beneath a robust surface, could be harmful long run.

4. Red = heated – It’s best to resolve conflicts in aims, schedules, and so forth; however, constructive rivalry should, at times, be encouraged.

5. Purple = proud – Fortify morale by praising excellence and promoting group spirit. At times hyperbole may be needed, but avoid careless arrogance.

6. Navy Blue = sad – In case of disappointment – detect trouble spots, slim down operations, or reduce expectations. And don’t give up too readily.

**The Fanciful Wheel can be sketched in a few minutes. It is comprised of the number, the color, and the name of the animal. In order to startle and prod the mind, the color on the wheel hardly ever matches the usual color of the animal:

The list includes:

1) yellow green = a worm;
2) yellow = a butterfly;
3) yellow orange = squirrel;
4) orange = hedgehog;
5) red orange = an elephant;
6) red = a tiger;
7) violet = a peacock;
8) purple = a spider;
9) blue = a fawn;
10) blue green = an owl;
11) green = a turtle.

Don't like some animal? Replace it.
No animal or color for #12? Add your own!