In our column, The Images That Make Us, writer, founder and CEO of MTArt Agency, Marine Tanguy, selects a painting, sculpture or photograph, and responds to its creative and cultural moment and importance in how it shapes us as individuals. Next up: is our world less colourful than before?
When you look at interiors, cars, and fashion styles from the 60s and 70s, they seem so much more colourful than what we see today. To understand why, researchers from the Science Museum selected 7,000 photographs of objects from the museum’s collection – including lamps, watches, phones, computers and other objects – dating from the 19th century through to today. They then counted the number of colourful pixels (red, yellow, blue, green, for example) for each photo. By putting all of this data into a graph and measuring the different years verses the amount of colourful pixels that the pictures had, the results are clear.
Image credit to Science Museum
In 1800, for instance, we notice that there is a strong diversity of colours from browns to yellows and greens; over time we see that grey and black become the strongest ‘colours’ – to the point that in 2020 those are the colours that dominate our daily lives. At the same time, we see that the colour blue remains in most of our technological devices (phones, computers etc) but that warmer colours become incredibly rare.
So yes, we do have less colours in our daily lives than before. We can also look at the colours of the cars that we drive: in the 1980s, the three most common colours of cars were red, green and orange. In 2022, it was grey, black and white.
Why did our everyday world lose all of its colours?
Loeffler Randall Spring 2025 Campaign
In a globalised world, it seems safer to go with consensual colours – ones that everyone will approve of. We see this on Instagram and TikTok, where influencers live in white environments and pale-coloured clothes. The lack of colours also mimic our natural world, a strong response against the industrial excesses of mid century.
We know from recent studies in colour psychology that a diversity of colours breeds happiness and a variety of much needed expressed emotions. In ancient cultures, colours were often used to treat different conditions and influence emotions. Egyptians and Chinese cultures practiced chromotherapy – sometimes referred to as light therapy or colourology – to heal, for example. While more research is needed, a 2020 study suggested that chromotherapy may be an effective way to help combat feelings of compassion fatigue and post-traumatic stress in intensive care unit nurses.
So, look around. Pick that yellow T-shirt to wear next Monday morning; display an orange vase proudly; and go and buy some yellow daffodils.
Lead image credit: Loeffler Randall Spring 2025 Campaign
We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site.
Any Questions or Tips to add?