Looking for an eye catching pop-cultural review of color that will appeal to all ages? At the “Suupaa Pop! Contemporary Japanese Package Design” exhibit you may find colors you deem shocking, optimistic, and youthful, displayed in a fun and delightful manner. The collection says much about Japanese culture by way of color in a massive collection of Japanese packaging items. Not only does it illustrate that packaging can be used as an art form, but the exhibit also shows colors which represent certain emotions and associations in Japanese society, while bringing visions of recycling bins to your mind. The display is grouped by color rather than item type, which further emphasizes the usage and variety of significant colors, whether they suggest new trends or age-old tradition. On mlive.com, Honore Lee explains that the colors are gendered but not in the typically pink/blue style that we are used to in the U.S., but that pink/black denote female/male respectively. Q-tips in the exhibit were entirely black while there was a white dog food holder displayed, which are probably not the colors that would be chosen for an American market. In the U.S., white can denote purity and cleanliness, which is why our q-tips are generally white or pastel; therefore, this tells us something about Japanese associations with the color black. This exhibit could prove very helpful for one interested in the subject of color psychology.
This collection has been shown in New York and is currently on exhibit at the Richmond Center for Visual Arts at Western Michigan University, arranged by Desgrippes Gobé.
(image from AIGA.org)
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