Good as gold

From BlackWhite magazine - issue 10, accent

Architectural accents in prominent pigmented yellows are garnering plenty of attention.

The colour of bananas, lemons, corn, pineapples, egg yolks, wattle, kowhai, daffodils, sunflowers, marigolds, canaries and bees, yellow is among the most evocative and eye-catching hues that can be used to characterise your projects – and one that’s become an important emerging colour trend.

Yellow pigments have a long history and have been derived from a range of minerals, metals, plants and synthesised sources. Ochre yellows, which are made from widely-available earth minerals, were some of the earliest pigments used by humans – dating back more than 17,000 years – and they continue to be used to this day. One wellknown variation, Naples yellow, was once believed to have originated from Mount Vesuvius but can actually be traced back to Ancient Egypt. Highly-coveted Saffron yellow, which comes from the stamen of crocuses, has existed for millennia and was a particularly pricey pigment as the delicate saffron threads had to be laboriously extracted by hand.

Tartrazine yellow, patented in 1884, was the first synthetic organic yellow pigment and it is still in use today as an artists’ pigment. As colour technology progressed, a wide array of new azo dyes and pigments emerged which range from a clean bright yellow to lemon yellow to warm oranges – including Hansa yellow, which was invented in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Since the 1960s, these yellows have become widely used as replacements for toxic chrome and cadmium yellow pigments.

The psychological associations with yellow are complex and vary greatly from one geographic region to the next. In many Asian countries, yellow is seen as the colour of royalty, nobility, respect, happiness, glory, harmony and wisdom. Surveys conducted in Western nations found yellow to be the colour most often associated with amusement, gentleness, humour, happiness and spontaneity. In some countries, yellow is a traditional wedding colour; in others, it is a funeral colour. In Iran, it has connotations of pallor and sickness as well as wisdom and connection. The colour yellow appears frequently in nature, which likely explains why countless studies have concluded it to be one of the most appetising colours. This psychological association, and its ability to grab our attention, is also why many food companies and restaurants incorporate yellow in their branding and spatial design.

When we think of high contrast colour pairings, black and white is likely the first to come to mind because they are as far apart in value as you can get. When black is used in combination with a bright, clean yellow, you can achieve a similar difference in contrast. However, yellow has been shown to attract the human eye far more effectively – which is why black and yellow are frequently used together for traffic and warning signs because it is the best combination for capturing our optical attention, thus the most effective for notifying us of potential hazards.

In architectural and interior design, this combination is an equally powerful tool for practical and aesthetic uses. A door in a sizzling yellow like Resene Bright Spark or sunshades in a bold golden yellow like Resene Galliano look particularly striking against a black exterior painted in Resene All Black CoolColour. This stylish combination can also serve to improve navigation. When a brilliant yellow like Resene Happy is used to paint an important interior door and frame in contrast to hallway walls painted in a cinder black like Resene Foundry, it acts as a beacon lighting the way to a reception area in a medical clinic for patients trying to find their way from a carpark.

With any project, proper preparation is key for achieving high-quality results. When painting with or specifying Resene yellows in your projects, it’s highly recommended to use a Resene Varishade undercoat – especially when choosing highly-chromatic, bright yellows such as Resene Turbo and Resene Spotlight. Vibrant yellow paint colours are more transparent than duller, darker or paler pastel yellows as bright yellows need to be kept ‘clean’ of other pigments and binding agents that would muddy their vibrancy. Building the right foundation by starting with a Resene Varishade undercoat will help keep the job on track and ensure that you achieve a solid opaque finish that looks identical to the Resene yellow you see on your swatch without excess coats. Because pale and creamy butter, corn silk and lemon yellows are tinted off a white or pastel tone, colours like Resene Marzipan, Resene Hampton, Resene Corn Field and Resene Sidecar are opaquer, making it easier to achieve the correct coverage.

There are plenty of exemplary case studies where Resene yellows have been used to great effect, so if yellow's return as a fashion and design trend has captured the attention of you or your clients, take note of the curated selection of projects on these pages for inspiration.

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BlackWhite magazine

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