The Visual Biography of Color

Book excerpt: The Visual Biography of Color is a first chance at a second look at color, which is so often overlooked in every day living. While other books discuss the phenomenon of color from a cultural perspective, The Visual Biography of Color reveals color through time by using information graphics and other forms of data visualization to visually describe color's cultural role. The book moves the reader through the visible spectrum, as they turn the pages they exist inside of red, then orange, then yellow. In red, they encounter the evolution of red states in the U.S., the compilation of every red subway line in every major world city collapsed onto a single page, and they see a radiant wheel that displays every major song that has red in its title. As they continue to move through the book they'll read about how artists, musicians, and other great thinkers have considered individual colors. Color is vital as a communicating cultural mechanism. Instead of a pure revelation of conceit, the book embraces what one might consider high-brow and low-brow culture, embracing colloquialisms and idioms that reveal how deeply embedded the idea of color is in our color full world.