Natural colors have become more and more popular as consumers search for healthier alternatives to synthetic dyes. These ingredients come from plants or minerals extracted with physical or chemical methods.
Color plays an integral part in nature. From summer skies awash with blue to the shimmering hues of bindweed leaves in bloom, colors play a crucial role.
Color Theory
Color theory provides artists, designers and creators with a tool for understanding the influence of colors on designs. It also serves as a framework to select appropriate hues to convey mood or meaning within designs.
Color theory’s most prevalent model is the color wheel, which illustrates the relationship between primary colors and their secondary counterparts, as well as illustrating three principal forms of harmony: complementary, analogous and monochromatic.
Natural colors are those made up of safe pigments found naturally in plants or minerals that are suitable for human consumption, like purple corn, red radish, and cabbage. Synthetic hues on the other hand are chemically synthesized; examples include FD&C Red #40, Yellow #5 and Blue #1 (or Allura Red, Tartrazine and Brilliant Blue in EU terms) which require special labelling requirements for food labelling purposes.
The NCS system is a perceptual colour model based on Anders Hard and Lars Sivik’s opponent process theory of human color vision, which has been utilized in order to illustrate color atlases sold by NCS Colour AB of Stockholm, Sweden.
Cool Colors
Cool colors can evoke feelings of fresh air, peace and tranquility. Additionally, they are great choices when creating images that portray distance or inanimate elements like lakes or the sky.
Natural colors can create a truly captivating and refreshing design when combined with the right images, such as this mobile app mock-up featuring earthy tones and forest imagery to demonstrate that their brand is environmentally aware.
Another excellent use for cool colors is this zen-inspired palette, which marries the calming beauty of tropical coral reefs with earthy tones from nature. Ash grays and blues evoke calm waters of the sea while greens and purples bring depth.
These shades are typically created using anthocyanins, natural water-soluble pigments found in many fruits, vegetables, and herbs – such as purple corn, red radish and mulberry – that are heat, pH and light stable – providing an eco-friendly alternative to synthetic food coloring products.
Happy Colors
An optimistic color palette can elicit feelings of optimism, excitement, and hopefulness. According to color theory, warm hues such as orange and yellow create energy-infused feelings while soothing blues and greens promote calmness and serenity.
Yellow has long been associated with happiness as it recalls the sun’s warmth and brightness; conjuring images of sunflowers, baby chicks, lemon drop candies and bananas as we think of their bright yellow petals. Yellow makes an effective accent or primary hue in creating a joyful home environment; however, when used excessively it may overtake its surroundings and be overwhelming.
Soft hues of pink or peach can add a subtle but charmingly joyful atmosphere. Their associations with romance, love, and nurturing make these colors perfect for creating an inviting, cozy dining room ambiance. Green is also an inspiring hue that symbolizes growth and health – use it subtly on dinnerware or more forwardly throughout your dining area to bring color into the room and add its soothing properties!
Warm Colors
Warm hues on the color wheel include oranges, reds and yellows which can energise one and create feelings of excitement, passion and love. Cooler tones such as greens, blues and violets can have an opposite effect, promoting peace, equilibrium and overall wellness.
Natural colors are extracted from vegetables, fruits, seeds and flowers found in their natural environments, providing heat, light and pH stability as well as offering more colors than synthetic dyes such as FD&C Red #40 or Blue #1.
Anthocyanin is an organic food colorant found in purple corn, red cabbage, and cranberries that is both heat and light resistant. The molecules of anthocyanins respond to pH changes by changing color from bright pink or red at lower pH levels to violet or blue at neutral or higher pH levels – offering outstanding color stability across multiple applications. This property makes them unique among natural hues.
