A Q&A with Karen Haller
Karen Haller is a leading international authority in the field of behavioral color and design psychology and the author of The Little Book of Colour, How to Use the Power of Colour to Transform Your Life. Based in the United Kingdom, Karen combines Human-Centered Design and how our relationship with color, design, and nature affects and influences us every day. She was kind enough to sit down with us for a conversation.
WHAT’S YOUR BACKGROUND, AND HOW DID YOU GET INTO SUCH A COLORFUL CAREER?
When I was studying fashion design and millinery back in my native Australia, I had my color epiphany. I was pinning chocolate-brown feathers on to a teal-blue hat, and just seeing the impact of the colors together stopped me in my tracks. I thought: ‘That’s it! It’s color!’ I didn’t know quite what it all meant, but I knew I had to find out. The class and my teacher thought I was a bit crazy, but that’s what began my quest to learn about color.
WHERE DID YOUR JOURNEY TAKE YOU?
Well, I didn’t really know what I was looking for other than knowing there must be more to color than the color wheel. So I started asking a lot of questions. My search took me on a course in child psychology, and one in interior design, and to every color teacher I could find. It wasn’t until I came the United Kingdom, and doing my umpteenth color workshop, that I realized what I was looking for—it was called color psychology—how color can influence how we think, feel, and most importantly, behave. I went on to study color and design psychology with the UK’s leading expert. Now I’m recognized as one of the global authorities in Applied Color & Design Psychology working alongside forward-thinking businesses and design professionals who seek new ways to positively improve our human experience in balance with nature.
Space really should nurture us. We should love it, and it should love us back.
KAREN HALLER
WHAT’S BEEN THE MOST SURPRISING THING YOU’VE STUDIED OR FOUND AS YOU WROTE YOUR BOOK?
Color is universal like music, sport, and food, yet I could see that so many people were scared of color. They were scared of getting it wrong, scared of making a mistake. This is why I wanted to write this book. I had this big audacious goal to get the world to fall back in love with color again.
The most surprising thing I found as I wrote the book was that color is the perfect vehicle for self-expression: “For when we connect to color, we connect to what we feel. And when we connect to what we feel, we can start to connect to who we are … If we were to switch off color, we would switch off our feelings. We would lose our most innate and fundamental means of self-expression.” (The Little Book of Colour, How to Use the Power of Colour to Transform Your Life)
WHAT’S THE MOST POTENT TRUTH ABOUT COLOR?
Color is emotion. We are having an emotive experience with color whether we realize it or not. Color is very much a journey of discovery and self-expression. When we are children, we are our authentic self. We love color. And then guess what happens? Someone says, “No, that’s a boy’s color” or “That’s a girl’s color.” Or you have parent who’s self-conscious about the colors their child wants to wear, and that child loses that inner knowing, that self-trust. I love it when I see children being able to express themselves through the colors they wear. This teaches them self-confidence and to not rely on the approval of others.
WHAT TIP WOULD YOU HAVE FOR OTHERS WORKING WITH CLIENTS REGARDING COLOR?
Behaviors are measurable, while a mood or a feeling is not. Whenever I do design work with clients—for example, in the built environment—we need to address the emotional needs whether that’s for the home, the office, education—any space. With the framework I’ve developed, I always start by identifying the positive behaviors for each given space, department, or function, as everything leads to this point.
