5 min read · May 8, 2020
Purple exists barely in nature but we see a lot of purple in pop culture. Ever wondered why Black Panther and Thanos have purple in their appearance and stand in two contradicting groups? Purple is the one colour which has distinct connotations than any other artificial colours. Let’s dive in deeper to understand what makes purple such an intriguing colour.
The Royal Purple
Purple can lead to different feelings, emotions and associations. Initially, purple is associated with royalty, wealth, power and nobility. During the 15th century, the ancient Phoenicians made three major discoveries to the humankind — they introduced alphabets, made glass from the sands of Mediterranean beaches and extracted the purple dye from a species of snail called Murex Brandaris. The dye was called Tyrian Purple, after the Phoenician port city of Tyre. The reason for purple’s regal reputation comes down to a simple case of supply and demand.
Clothes made from the dye were exorbitantly expensive. A pound of purple wool cost more than most people earned in a year. The reason behind its outrageous price is 250,000 snails were needed to yield just one ounce of purple dye. The dye was too expensive even for royal families. Third-century Roman Emperor Aurelian wouldn’t allow his wife to buy a shawl made from Tyrian purple silk because it literally cost its weight in gold. Since, only wealthy rulers could afford to buy and wear the colour, it became associated with the royal classes.
Purple in the Elizabethan era (1558–1603), under Sumptuary law, enforced by Queen Elizabeth I, purple fabrics are forbidden for all the classes of people except the royal family. Commoners could only wear white, or earth tones like brown or green.
Some Roman emperors also forbid their citizens from wearing purple clothing under penalty of death. They wore flowing purple robes and signed their edicts in purple ink, and their children were described as being “born in the purple”. Alexander the Great and the kings of Egypt also wore clothing coloured with the famous Tyrian purple. The Persian king Cyrus adopted a purple tunic as his royal uniform
Purple in the contemporary world
The dye became more accessible among lower classes about a century ago, when an English chemist William Henry Perkin accidently created a synthetic purple compound while attempting to synthesize quinine, an anti-malaria drug . He noticed that the compound could be used to dye fabrics, so he patented the dye and manufactured it under the name Aniline purple.
Purple has been found to retain its qualities in the latter-day. In the United States, the Purple Heart is one of the highest honors for bravery in military service. In writing, the phrase ‘purple prose’ is used to describe a writing that is extremely creative. Even in the Chakra colours, purple is the Crown Chakra.
Coming to fiction, you can see Anna from Frozen wears purple as a symbol of her royal and noble character. Aladdin from One Thousand and One Nights also wears purple clothing denoting his nobility. Now, you could see the connection of Black Panther’s suit, which is powered in purple symbolising the wealth of his country due to vibranium, his royalty and noble character.
Purple is an evil color in Japanese culture. It symbolizes death and mourning in Brazil and Thailand. Exorcists in Japan are usually dressed in purple. In gaming, the meaning of purple is found to be weird and fascinating. According to colour language in games, Purple indicates forbidden and unnatural magic, tainted air and water or a spreading danger which must be stopped. And it’s being called ‘The Colour of Corruption’. This is being evident in games like Ori and the will of the wisps, Animal crossing new horizons, Pokémon and many more.
Purple is the colour of villains
Most of the villains who were once good and later shifted due to some external powers were found to have some element of purple in their appearance. This also goes with the villains, who are explicitly evil like Hilda in the game, The legend of Zelda: link between the worlds.
Similarly sliding to the fiction world, a lot of villains are found to have purple elements in their appearance denoting evil, mystery and danger like Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty, Evil Queen in Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, Emperor Zurg in Toy Story 2, Joker in The Dark Knight and Thanos in Avengers, as we previously said.
Why is purple the colour of villains?
In the early days of colour film, the technical limitations meant that only certain colours showed up strongly on the screen. This created the convention of the Disney villain being purple. The same goes for printing, comics were printed with a limited colour palette and once again purple was picked for the bad guys. Also to soften the depth of black and its impact, purple was used as a child friendly colour on villains. Purple stands out from the ambience and grabs quick attention. These reasons evolved over time and became the symbolisms of evil and danger in the contemporary language of fiction, animation and games.
Colour Psychology
The chromatic mixture between the fiery red and profound calm blue gives purple, which is considered to be a balance between these two primary colours. As it balances, purple possesses three different connotations. Light purple has more feminine energy and nobility; bright purple is associated with richness and royalty, whereas dark purple represents evil, sadness and frustration.
Purple in Branding
When it comes to branding, the power of colour is both emotional and practical. On an emotional level, colour can affect how customers feel when they look at a brand, while on a practical level it can help a brand stand out in the crowd. In fact, colour increases brand recognition by up to 80%.
Within branding, purple is not used as often as the primary colours. Out of 100 of the most valuable brands in the United States, less than 5% of the companies use it in their logo. This is because, on the colour spectrum, it can be a difficult color to work with as it has the shortest frequency of wavelengths visible to the human eye. While it doesn’t ‘pop’ in the same sense that we think of yellow or orange, which has the attention grabbing nature.
