Bridge 1- color walk

SEARCHING FOR RED

It was 6.40 pm, I was dazzled by the red color of the exit sign. The luminous red color suddenly excited me. As soon as I stepped out of the university center, the wave of freezing air made me dizzy. A group of freshmen was trying to escape from the heavy rain by covering their heads with their red portfolio bags. Obviously, they are Parsons students and they were heading to their 7 pm drawing class.

Due to the thick fog invading the sky, the city seemed highly claustrophobic. I felt like I was in the limelight. The dense fog choked every single one on the street, and it was as if the traffic light rejected turning green from red. It took 3 minutes and 21 seconds.., the red light which is the color of extremes illuminated the street, and standing still made me feel way colder than before. Being exposed to red light I could hear my accelerating heart beats.

All of a sudden, a man with a red umbrella touched my arm to warn me that my gloves are about to drop from my pocket. He might have done some cardio, his increased blood flow resulted in a flushed appearance. I crossed the street, the smell of candied peanuts brought me to my childhood. Suddenly, CVS’ red color brought to my attention that I should have bought water. As soon as I stepped inside, the red-packaged snacks got my attention; Skittles, Kitkats, Pringles etc. They were all placed at the front obviously  to capture people’s attention and to make them make quick decisions. Anyways, I picked the things that I needed to buy and swiped down my red debit card then left there.

As I put on my earphones, I shut out the world entirely. Storefront window displays with almost every shade of red, bold textures along with red hearts, red LED lights and glitters caught my eye and reminded me that Valentine’s Day is around the corner. I wondered about the reason behind the connection between love and red, then I noticed that red excites me and increases my heart beats just as love does. Even though I’m not that into dessert, I wanted to grab one of those Baked By Melissa’s red colored Valentine’s Day gift boxes filled with red velvet cupcakes just because I got attracted by their red packaging design.

I was at the Union Square Park, the smell of the burning incense sticks stuck on my nose. The girl with red ombre hair was selling those sticks and some healing crystals from a sidewalk table on the edge of Union Square Park almost every day. As I continued, I saw a red KFC box on the floor, and it reminded me of my recent research topic which was about the impacts of packaging color on consumers’ buying behaviors. So I was aware that the majority of the fast food chains utilize red on their packaging since scientific research confirms that red attracts people’s attention, speeds up their body’s blood flow to the digestive system. Eventually, the driven up metabolism makes you feel hungry. So when I consider my observations through my color walk, I realized that one in every five restaurant exterior that I came across was designed by using the hues of red. Apparently, brand managers of the food industry prefer to use red to build up their brand’s recognition in the way that make their target consumer hungry and make them eat. When I was a kid, we used to go on road trips and I clearly remember that my eyes were always in search of red color since at that time it meant that Burger King is around the corner.  I was about to arrive at my dorm, so I got my red new school id card from my backpack…

As soon as I get into my room, my thoughts started to create a intriguing loop in my brain that I started to question my walk. Before, I started to walk my main goal was to focus on reds. Therefore I commanded my brain to concentrate only on red. It was surprising to see that much of red in a ten-minute walk. As I was struggling with the thoughts inside my head, I tried to remember my walks in Istanbul (my hometown) and tried to envision the reds that I always come across. All of a sudden, I found my self visualizing the differences between the cultures in terms of red.

Red is a common color in Turkey, it is possible to come across to huge national flags hung outside the buildings as it symbolizes nationalism. For that, whenever I think about my hometown the first color that comes into my mind is always red. I clearly remember that as a kid, the first thing we learned in our history class was the meaning of our red Turkish flag. According to the legend, the blood of the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the sake of the establishment of the country was completely covered with red. At night when the crescent appeared, it was reflected on the red blood with the loadstar and our flag was emerged.

While walking the streets of Istanbul, I always see people who sit under the large red patio umbrellas and drink red Turkish tea from the tulip-shaped glasses. When the tea is strong, it is called as rabbit’s blood because of its dark red color. As I continue on my way I find myself being surrounded by red tulips which plays a significant role in Turkey in terms of culture and art. Similar to the other cultures, red is the color of passion and love in Turkey and red tulip is associated with true love.

Thinking about the link between red and love, I recalled our henna nights which is a wedding ritual in Turkish culture that generally happens one day before the wedding ceremony. On that day bride should wear a red traditional dress since red represents that it’s time for a girl to become a woman. Besides, traditional red henna that is put in the palm of the bride is regarded as a sign of dedicating yourself to your family. Mentioning the use of red on traditional events brought to my mind that red is one of the colors that is traditionally associated with Christmas. “Christmas holly berries represent he blood of Jesus when he died on the cross.  Furthermore, red is also the color of Bishops robes which would have been worn by St. Nicholas and then also became Santa’s uniform.”

Through my walk in Istanbul, I usually see the window display of a traditional rug store that displays traditional Turkish Kilims. That are mostly woven with red colored strands. In fact there is a red tone called “Turkish Red” (similar to carmine) which originated in Turkey and is used to dye cotton textiles.

To conclude, seeing so many reds through my walk made me wonder about the hidden meaning behind the color. As I went down into the topic, I was convinced that “the brain processes color before it processes words or shapes”. As I gathered all the information that learned from my research, my cultural background, my personal experiences and my observations, I witnessed how a particular color hold so much meaning behind it.

Color triangle that we created in the class;

BRIDGE 1- 300-word description

While I was walking the streets of New York City focusing only on red, I realized that red is commonly used by the restaurant owners and fast food companies. One in every five restaurant exterior that I came across was designed by using the hues of red. Especially, it caught my eye that fast food restaurants, fast casual restaurants,  diners, markets etc. they are all RED. When I was a kid, whenever I saw red, my brain automatically signalized me that there must be   Arby’s around. The companies make people see red with their logos and their packaging design. Can you imagine getting a white hot wings bucket from KFC? For me, its definitely no, because it is the color of the packaging that excites the target customer and makes them want to purchase it. Red is chosen deliberately by food brands for some reason… Scientific facts confirm that red attracts people’s attention, speeds up their body’s blood flow to the digestive system. Eventually, the metabolism is driven up and you start to feel hungry. Moreover,  chromotherapy, known as color therapy also affirms that red has always been used to stimulate the body and mind and to increase circulation. “Red enhances our physical reactions because it is seen as a danger cue,” explains coauthor Andrew Elliot, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester and a lead researcher in the field of color psychology. He proves his claim by saying that humans turn red when they are excited or are about to attack. Therefore, this correlation could be the justification of the link between red and fast heart rate. Obviously, brand managers of the food industry, prefer to use red to build their brand recognition in the way that make their target consumer hungry and make them them eat.

So for the Bridge 1, I wanted to create a piece that represents the increase of heart rate. For that,  I explored the restaurants which have red exterior through my walk and captured their photos. From my research, I was aware that red is the color that increases heart rate and appetite and used by restaurant owners to make people hungry. Therefore my initial idea was to make a digital collage with my findings, so as my first draft, I arranged each restaurant’s banner in the way that when all of them gathers they symbolize heart rate line.

WHY RED INCREASES HEART RATE?

Naturally, when we get excited or when we get angry, our face automatically turns into red. Also our face turns red when we do exercise. It is because our body starts to supply more blood flow and results in increase in heart rate. So this natural process could be the correlation between red and heart rate.

the photos I took while walking in NYC

First Draft 

Second Draft 

Third Draft:

I played with the composition and designed a heart shape by using the photos I took.