Yellow Color Meaning: Symbolism of the Color Yellow

change depending on the shades of yellow. Yellow color symbolism includes:

• Caution: Your eyes see yellow first from a distance, so officials use yellow for any object you need to see quickly, such as school buses, traffic signs, traffic lights, taxi cabs, and safety vests.
• Cowardice and sensationalism: In the United States, being “yellow” or a “yellow-belly” suggests cowardice. The term “yellow journalism” means a news source sacrifices good reporting for sensational headlines to make a profit.
• Happiness: Yellow, particularly bright yellow, connotes cheerfulness. In China, yellow signifies joy, glory, and wisdom. Fashion, packaging, and advertising designers use yellow to indicate celebration, frivolity, spontaneity, and jubilation.
• Optimism: Yellow ribbons symbolize the hope of the return of a loved one after a long absence, as popularized in the classic song “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree.” In addition, yellow ribbons symbolize hope and awareness around AIDS, bladder cancer, endometriosis, and suicide prevention.
• Sickness: Yellow can mean illness or nausea, especially in the combination of yellow-green.
• Warmth: Because of the association of golden yellow with sun and sunlight, many think of yellow as a warm color. In combination with red, it symbolizes heat or fire. A yellow room can make you feel warm in comparison to a white room since cool colors in interior design instead invite relaxation and calm.
• Wisdom: In medieval Europe, yellow meant reason. Modern European universities’ scientific faculty still use yellow caps and gowns to represent reason in the world of science.

Due to an abundance of a natural iron-rich mineral called yellow ochre, the color yellow dates to the first examples of human art—as far back as a 17,000-year-old yellow horse, a figure in a paleolithic cave painting in Lascaux, France.

In ancient Egypt and ancient Rome, painters used yellow ochre pigment to paint gold and skin tones in murals and on the walls of tombs. Early Christian art used yellow to symbolize Judas Iscariot and heresy, and Hinduism art used yellow to represent deities. A synthetic replacement for yellow ochre became popular in the early 20th century, and modern painters still use it today.

Perhaps the most uplifting color on the color wheel, yellow adds cheer and festivity to any design. Pros of using yellow in design include:

1. 1. Yellow grabs your attention. Bright yellow captures visual attention immediately, especially as an accent color or in color combinations with darker hues, such as black or dark blue. You’ll find yellow is a popular choice in logo design for this reason.
2. 2. Yellow triggers mental activity. According to color psychology, yellow may increase mental activity and stimulate the nervous system.
3. 3. You can see yellow from a distance. If you’re designing a sign or billboard you hope will gain attention, yellow claims the distinction of being the first color the human eye can observe from a distance.

Yellow is a bold color that won’t work in every context. Cons of using yellow in design include:

1. 1. Yellow is difficult to read. Though yellow captures attention, reading the color yellow fatigues the eye more than any other color due to the amount of light it reflects. Using yellow as a background can cause eye strain.
2. 2. Yellow may cause frustration. Though experts seem conflicted on this, yellow may make you feel frustrated or anxious.
3. 3. Some forms of yellow pigment are toxic. Be wary when using the color cadmium yellow, especially in powdered form, as inhaling the highly toxic chemical element cadmium can negatively affect your health.

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