Color Symbolism: Orange

Characterised by joy and creativity, warm like kindness and optimism, orange is a colour that evokes a general sense of wellness. A secondary colour created from red and yellow, it is thought of a colour on the edge and it's no surprised that it shares some of the attributes that red and yellow, its components, carry. It's warmth is stimulating to appetites, and can raise blood pressure if enough red is present.

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Always Optimistic
By association, orange is a symbol of wellness and good health because of its correlation to citrus and Vitamin-C rich products. Found in both sunrises and sunsets, it's also a colour associated with autumn, in that it becomes prevalent in leaves as they fall and that Halloween carries orange and black with every decoration.

Orange Variations
Softer oranges can be more friendly than striking. Peaches, for example, characterised by softness is touch and taste, are soothing to the eye. Darkened with black, orange becomes rust, and is rich and smooth, and still holds tight to being stimulating but not overbearing. Past rust is where brown lies, which can be achieved in adding black or grey to the vibrance of orange.

Orange on Blue, ... on red and orange.
Without screaming vibrance, wearing orange is an easy way to be noticed without taking over. Orange goes well with a range of colours. Wearing or decorating with a medium blue to contrast, as blue is opposite orange on the colour wheel, both colours play harmony and melody simultaneously in standing out together. For vibrances extraordinaire, combining this optimism with red or yellow would bring out its fiery tendencies and exude warmth.

Widespread Use
Because of orange's eye-catching properties, it has been used in cautionary mediums. It's high visibility has landed it places in the hands of air traffic control personel or traffic cones to warn of unsafe patches of road. It has since coined names for itself like Dayglow Orange or Safety Orange. It has also politically come to represent opposition, as many uprisings, rallies, and strikes have come to carry it.

What does orange make you think of? Is orange your favourite colour? Where have you used orange before? Have you had any reservations about using it?