say what you see
DESCRIPTION
This book is part of a wider investigation into the the relationship between colour and language, produced for my MA Graphic Design Major Project. It uses still life photography to document objects that share the same name as a colour. It aims to highlight the relationship between descriptive colour terms and the objects that give them their names.TRANSCRIPT
Say WhatYou See
A gentle reminder of the connection between the words we use and the colours we see
SAY WHAT
YOU SEE
Eleanor Maclure
Since we developed the use of language, we have borrowed words from things in the world around us to describe the colours that we see. Even what we now think of as abstract colour terms like ‘black’, originally referred to something else like ‘night’.
The word for pink originally came from flowers known as pinks (from the genus Dianthus) due to their frilled petal’s relation to the 14th century verb ‘to pink’, still used today in the term ‘pinking sheers’. Our language has evolved dramatically since then and, as with so many words, the ties to its origin have virtually been lost. Far removed from its beginnings, the word ‘pink’ is now widely understood as referring to the rosy band of hues ranging from salmon to magenta.
Of the eleven basic colour terms that we have in English, only orange is still regarded as descriptive, attributed to the hue of a ripe orange. Originally derived from Sanskrit, the word first appeared in English, in the 14th century, after the Persian and Arabic form, nãranj, was adopted by European languages.
Compared to the millions of hues our eyes can detect, our colour vocabulary is startlingly limited. Despite appearing to be well defined and understood, our basic colour terms are open to a surprising amount of interpretation and can be painfully imprecise, failing to truly capture the world we see. English has evolved to include thousands of terms for colours, and yet only a tiny percentage of these exist as abstract terms. Most are re-appropriated from tangible things like lemons and lavender, as an attempt to articulate even a fraction of the colours we experience.
This book does not aim to present a true reproduction of the colours of objects. Rather it is a visual reminder of where some of our words for colours come from, their inherently descriptive nature and their undeniable connection to the often mundane objects in the world around us.
Introduction
Say WhatYou See
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List of Images
01 CREAM02 ALMOND03 SAND04 OATMEAL05 GINGER06 CHAMPAGNE07 SULPHUR08 PRIMROSE09 LEMON 10 MUSTARD11 GOLD12 HONEY13 APRICOT14 AMBER15 ORANGE16 RUST17 MARIGOLD18 PEACH19 SHELL20 EGGSHELL21 SALMON22 BRICK23 COPPER24 TERRACOTTA25 PAPRIKA26 TOMATO27 MELON28 RASPBERRY29 BERRY30 FUCHSIA31 ROSE32 PLUM33 CHERRY34 WINE
35 THISTLE36 HEATHER37 AUBERGINE38 GRAPE39 AMETHYST40 LAVENDER41 VIOLET42 BLUEBERRY43 SLATE44 TURQUOISE45 JADE46 AQUAMARINE47 SAGE48 KIWI49 MINT50 AVOCADO51 LIME52 PISTACHIO53 MOSS54 OLIVE55 STONE56 BISCUIT57 CINNAMON58 WALNUT59 TOFFEE60 CARAMEL61 CHESTNUT62 CHOCOLATE63 COCOA64 COFFEE65 CHARCOAL66 MUSHROOM67 OYSTER
