I'm fairly tolerant of silly beliefs. Well, I'm not tolerant, but I'm normally too lazy to get indignant. But this book takes the cake. Or the biscuit. Or something. It doesn't just posit one obviously untrue thing - astrology - but it combines it with another - the idea that days have colours and this somehow has something to do with who you are. Incredible.
I actually looked the at colorstrology website just to check this wasn't all a joke. I discovered very oppresive use of flash animation and some choice mumbo-jumbo, but I also realised that the whole thing is sponsored by Pantone. (They alert you to this fact on the launch page and warn you that the content on the site 'is for entertainment purposes only'. So don't base your life on your birth colour and then sue them when it doesn't work out.)
You could see why they'd think this book would be a clever idea - except it makes them look like completely vapid new age idiots, rather than smart colour theorists.
Personally I will be buying my colours from someone else from now on.
(And I'm still not entirely convinced it's not an elaborate hoax.)
Strangely all the pages I flicked through listed only positive qualities. But presumably there must be some in there that say something like - Dirty Grey - Slow. Ugly. Weak. Otherwise the world would be full of only splendid, persistent people.
(By the way, aren't digital cameras marvelous? Once upon a time I would have to have bought this book in order to make fun of it. Not any more).
Mind you. Don't these things rather remind you of a typical brand values statement? There's the same limited universe of positive attributes, which end up signifying not much.
I too think all horoscopes are bollocks. However, I just called up the birthday colour of 4 passing designers and all of them said it was pretty much their favourite colour. Hmmm.
The Pantone thing is very suspicious.
Posted by: Ben | February 06, 2006 at 01:49 PM
This is based on synaesthesia - the condition whereby abstracts like numbers, days of the week and months of the year are strongly associated with a specific colour/taste/sound/touch.
But the idea that the condition could be anything other than a neurological mix-up is nonsense.
Also there is no universal set of colour associations for synaesthetes. The idea that anyone can empirically declare that May 18 is 'withered rose' is stupid at best, if not actually offensive.
Do I sound like a contributor to Points of View?
Posted by: jeremy simon | February 06, 2006 at 06:06 PM
I stumbled upon this site a year ago researching personality tests for a client, and like most I found this concocted and a little too far-fetched for Pantone.
If it had some entertaining value, I may considering passing it along.
The following example by Mini is a fun psychological test ...no predictions or deep insights based on birthdays...
http://www.mini.ca/content/microsites/inkblot/default.aspx?lang=en
Posted by: Vandy | February 06, 2006 at 08:36 PM