Your office colour scheme makes a difference

Ever felt that overwhelmed out of control feeling, unable to focus on the task at hand?
No it’s not the recession or the fact that it’s only halfway through the year. Our working lives are characterised by multi-tasking and too much stimulus to the language centres of our brains - we're constantly calling, sending SMSs and emailing, sometimes all at the same time and perhaps working on what we should be doing.

Such a feeling probably means you need to introduce a blue-green colour to your working environment. Blue has the ability to slow down the mind, while green has a calming effect. Importantly, research has shown that blue-green does not elicit great variances in emotional reaction from people, as do brighter colours. Most human beings respond the same to blue-green because it reflects the predominant colours of nature, of the sky, the sea, plants
Ever wondered why our drawing boards where that blue mostly green? Why the factory safety asks for the machinery to be painted SABS E32 Cactus now NCS S3020-B90G (blue with 90% green) this colour calms the mind down and focus’s the mind on the task at hand. On our drawing boards it allowed us to concentrate on the design, with the machinery Blue Green prevents accidents.
Our minds start losing the ability to focus on one thing at a time. By using the correct colour in a working environment, we can become calm, more productive and better able to deal with the noise of technology, deadline stresses and the general speed of our everyday lives.

We need to have fewer warm colours - yellow to red - in our work environment, and more of the blue-green.
That being said we still need the creative orange for Training to stimulate the mind and the yellow for the Creative room.

When choosing a colour scheme for an office, companies should consider not only how to incorporate their corporate colours and identity, but also the nature of their business and how they want their staff to perform.

Low morale, high levels of absenteeism as well as the occurrence of headaches could indicate that the colour scheme in the work environment is not the ideal one.

In the creative industries such as advertising, one usually finds the brightest and most colourful offices - and a high percentage of workers who burn the midnight oil. Too much colour over-stimulates the mind and puts stress on the body; it is possible that creative people work into the night because that is when colours and light are duller and kinder to the eye. The ability to use the imagination to develop new and original ideas or things, especially in an artistic context, actually needs a lack of colour, as that stimulates creativity. The creativity must come from within.

Shades of white with tinges of green allow creativity to flow better than other colours. Pure white on the other hand, has a glare that affects the eye and may cause headaches. This is sometimes called “bleaching”

Each office environment must be dealt with on an individual basis. The choice of colour for reception areas is much broader, for example, and should reflect the ethos of the company and set the tone for interaction with clients.
Meeting rooms and boardrooms are more limited in terms of colour - here blue-green once again works best to create a calm atmosphere conducive to negotiations and presentations.

That is not to say that you can transform your workplace into a blue-green paradise and expect the colour to take you into the next century - no environment is static.

Ideally, a workplace should be colour-updated every three to four years, taking into consideration factors such as world events, the company's direction and societal changes. An updated workplace feels fresh and new, and thus uplifts the people working in it. The same hue can be used, but whiten or darken the colour to stimulate the mind and the eye anew; no matter how successfully a colour has worked in the past, people get used to it and the colour loses its impact
What colour should your working environment be?

It all depends on the industry and the nature of the work you do. The suggestions below can serve as a broad framework:

Medical - Purple-blue is ideal as it is the colour associated with healing. Ideally, it should be combined with another colour so it does not become overwhelming.

Information and Communication Technology - Blue-green (B90G on the NCS colour circle) is best for this environment to create structure and calm amid the information overload and chaos.

Banking - Green with about 20-percent yellow will lift spirits and give hope for the future.

Education - Blue-green to calm the mind and enable information to be absorbed more easily. Note that chalkboards are no longer black, as research found green to be more conducive to learning and kinder to the eye.

Creative - Shades of white with a touch of green to allow creativity.

Admin and clerical - So-called vibey colours - yellow, orange and red - combined with neutral colours - will stimulate workers to be more creative.