What’s Your Favorite Color?

By 8th-Grader Jackie Doyle Padgett

We have a new addition to the Blog Staff: Jackie Padgett. Jackie breaks out with great enthusiasm for her favorite color: Orange. According to Jackie, the vibrant color of citrus fruit just doesn’t get enough representation and not nearly good enough press. She’s here to change your mind.

Knowing someone’s favorite color is probably one of the most asked questions when you meet someone–after asking their name of course. It’s used to start a lot of small talk. Well, my favorite color is orange. It’s one of those colors people either love or hate (According to Color Matters). 

You may have seen results of the Statistics class surveys (posted outside of MS E-3, aka Mr. Gil’s room). Statistics class members went around the school asking people’s opinions on things. One Statistics group asked people What‘s your favorite color? On the posted findings, I noticed that no one said “Orange.” Orange didn’t even make it on the graph. This inspired me to change people’s minds about the disliked color orange. It deserves some spotlight, and, who knows, maybe after these facts, it will be your new favorite color.

HISTORY OF ORANGE

Surprisingly, orange didn’t really have a name until the 16th century (MyModernMet). It was mostly called yellow-red, but when orange trees were brought to Europe, people saw the vibrant fruit and named the color after it. Orange was used a lot by painters in 1809 after the first fully orange color was produced around 10 years prior (Pigments through the Ages). Van Gogh used shades of orange in a lot of his paintings to contrast the blues, purples, and blacks (Van Gogh Museum). Monet also incorporated lots of oranges in his work–mainly in sunsets and flowers.  

THE MEANING OF ORANGE

With basic art knowledge, you should know that orange is a mix of red and yellow. Red is used in many things like stoplights/signs which are meant to capture your attention. Wearing red tends to give people confidence. Yellow tends to help people’s memory (SpringerOpen), and, apparently, wearing yellow makes people try to engage in a conversation. It makes people feel more active/talkative (SensationalColor). That’s why when you wake up, you might feel a lot more energetic after going outside and seeing the sun. Orange is said to project confidence and energy but also optimism. When you wear orange, it might make you more outgoing and adventurous because it’s such a bright color.

ADVERTISING

Thus, many famous companies use orange for advertising:

• Snapple
• Reeses 
• Nickelodeon 
• Dunkin
• Amazon

They do this because the right color combo draws attention. This is similar to when on the highway some people will turn their billboards upside down to make you look. The companies who use orange are mostly toy stores, gift shops, and food places. Orange can symbolize cheap but good quality. So, if you’re shopping on Amazon and see that little orange arrow, it sparks a little voice in your head that pulls you in if you’re looking for good deals (even though they might not be). Also, children are more likely to pick up or play with things that are orange (TreeFrog.). They’re drawn to it. See Nickelodeon; it could’ve been any color, but Nickelodeon executives chose orange.

Orange will forever be my favorite color. I expect to see it on the next-color related chart (Statistics Class, I’m looking at you.). If you have any fun facts about your favorite color, feel free to share it in the comments below!