I'll have a danger burger and hazard fries. To glow, please.
Why do we use red and yellow to alert us to fast food and danger? Red/yellow says, "The food's good here and pretty cheap, too," and, out of the other side of its signifying mouth cries, "Watch out! Trouble ahead!"
The National Fire Protection Association uses color-coded warnings in which red indicates flammability, and yellow indicates reactivity. The U.S. Department of Transportation identifies the Pantone colors for its traffic signs, reserving red (187), yellow (116), and orange (152) for the most important cautionary signs. At the same time, hundreds of fast-food joints and cheap eateries rely on the red/yellow/orange combo, their exit-ramp signs blooming from Seattle to Shanghai. If you jumble these signs together, the Toxic Hazards with the Taco Palaces, you'd be unable to distinguish one species from another based on plumage (Figs. 1, 2). You'd need words and context.
So do we instinctively associate danger with these colors? After all, Mother Nature warns us with the red and yellow of the poisonous coral snake (red on yellow kills a fellow/red on black, venom lack). If not by instinct, then perhaps by experience we learn to associate danger with red and yellow. Either way, do fast-food folks bait us with danger colors and then switch to assuring us of the proximity of rice noodles and cheesesteak?
Why do we use red and yellow to alert us to fast food and danger? Red/yellow says, "The food's good here and pretty cheap, too," and, out of the other side of its signifying mouth cries, "Watch out! Trouble ahead!"
The National Fire Protection Association uses color-coded warnings in which red indicates flammability, and yellow indicates reactivity. The U.S. Department of Transportation identifies the Pantone colors for its traffic signs, reserving red (187), yellow (116), and orange (152) for the most important cautionary signs. At the same time, hundreds of fast-food joints and cheap eateries rely on the red/yellow/orange combo, their exit-ramp signs blooming from Seattle to Shanghai. If you jumble these signs together, the Toxic Hazards with the Taco Palaces, you'd be unable to distinguish one species from another based on plumage (Figs. 1, 2). You'd need words and context.
So do we instinctively associate danger with these colors? After all, Mother Nature warns us with the red and yellow of the poisonous coral snake (red on yellow kills a fellow/red on black, venom lack). If not by instinct, then perhaps by experience we learn to associate danger with red and yellow. Either way, do fast-food folks bait us with danger colors and then switch to assuring us of the proximity of rice noodles and cheesesteak?
1 comment:
ti tha ginei? oloi mazi tha to kanoume to metaptyxiako sto graphic design? (se peirazo, interesting info indeed)
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