Ellen Divers, Design Theorist and Researcher

Fifty Shades of Feeling - Monday 4:30 - 5:30

Colors carry affective connotations – some are associated with positive emotions, others with negative, and they can vary in levels of intensity. However, before one can start linking colors and emotions in practice, one must deal with challenges related to operationalization of color as well as emotion. The goal of this session is to deepen participants’ understanding of the complexity of studying color, emotion, and the links between the two, in order to become educated consumers of relevant research. We will discuss quantitative and qualitative research methods employed to study how people affectively respond to color, along with their advantages and limitations. The interactive discussion and participants’ personal insights will be supplemented with the most recent scientific findings in the field. 

Turning the Kaleidoscope: Two perspectives on the meaning of color - Tuesday 4:30 - 5:30

In this interactive session participants will reflect on their own response to color and together with other participants build meaning profiles for four types of colors: pale, dark, vivid, neutral. The goal is to look for shared patterns of meaning and compare them to research findings. Participants will be introduced to two paradigms: The Hue Paradigm (HP) which is based on specific colors and the Value-Chroma Paradigm (VCP) which is based on certain types or categories of color, and understand how different color contexts are suited (or unsuited) to each way of thinking. 

Bio

Ellen Divers, M.Ed. is a design theorist and researcher, primarily focused on how to facilitate the designer’s color selection process. A core theme in her work is the observation that value and chroma may exert a stronger effect than hue on the emotional response to color.

The Inter-Society Color Council advances the knowledge of color as it relates to art, science, industry and design.
Each of these fields enriches the others, furthering the general objective of color education.