A good web design has increasingly become a need more than a luxury as we humans tend to associate emotions to certain colours, like blue evokes feelings of serenity and trustworthiness. These colour clues become an important foundation when creating a website. The hugely popular social networking website, Facebook, is known for its blue colour. So why is Facebook blue? According to The New Yorker, the reason is simple. It’s because Mark Zuckerberg is red-green colour-blind. In his own words, Zuckerberg says: “Blue is the richest colour for me; I can see all of blue.” However, this isn’t true in case of the other brands. Colours highly influence our purchasing decisions.

The first things that come to mind when you hear the word “green” are often plants, money, green peas, traffic signals, etc. Spanish playwright and poet, Pedro Calderone de la Barca, describes it well - ‘Green is the prime colour of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.’ Interestingly, green is also the colour of our heart chakra, and when this chakra is open, we’re able to love, empathize and feel compassion. Green affects our emotions both physically and mentally. It’s a soothing colour to the eyes and can alleviate depression, nervousness and anxiety.

A type of translucent quartz, Aventurine has flake-shaped layers inside. The colour looks spectacular when light refracts from the quartz and strikes these layers. The gleaming effect it creates is known as “aventurescence”. In some stones, the layers are dense which make the refraction abundant and it looks remarkable to the eyes. Commonly, the gemstone is green in colour, but the layers are what make it look outstanding. The gemstone can also be found in colours like orange, yellow, red, pink, brown, white, grey, and blue. The fuchsite, green chromium-rich mica is also a common kind of Aventurine.

The popular brand, Tiffany and Co., used the name Tanzanite for gem-quality specimens of the mineral zoisite that were blue in colour. The mineralogical name of ‘blue zoisite’ was too difficult for people to pronounce and remember. Hence, they came up with a simple name, Tanzanite. The belief was that the name ‘tanzanite’ would inspire people and be easier to sell. The name ‘tanzanite’ came from where the mineral deposits are found for commercial purposes in northern Tanzania. The name echoes the gem’s restricted geographic origin. The mineral is located in Merelani Hills, near the base of Mount Kilimanjaro.

Legend has it that the colour purple has its origins strongly rooted in nature. Both the name and the colour stems from a dye made from the mucus glands of a tropical sea snail, the murex, known as “porphyra” in Greek. The Phoenician god, Heracles, the guardian deity of the city of Tyre happened to discover the creature. On a fine afternoon, his dog bit the murex shell and its mouth nearly turned purple. His confidant, the beautiful nymph Tyrus demanded that the god gift her an outfit dyed in the same shade. Heracles indulged her with a beautiful purple gown and that’s how the legendary famous Tyrian purple dye came into being.

Chances are, when asked to think of something black and white, you’d probably first think of a zebra. We often think of the animal as a dark one with white stripes. However, it’s the other way around. A zebra is a light-coloured animal with dark stripes, not a dark one with light stripes. Dark parts of zebras fade while the light parts remain unaffected. Black mambas are not black. Similarly, Black panthers are actually leopards but produce more black pigment than usual. They still have rosettes or the dark spots typical of the leopards. But because of the dark skin, they are quite hard to see, like the rest of the fur.