BROWN COLOR: PSYCHOLOGY AND MEANING - ARTE - 2025

The brown color is a brownish color, like coffee beans or coffee to drink. The psychology and meaning of this color can convey various meanings: antipathy, laziness, stupidity, common and old-fashioned; it is the color of the poor.

The color brown is one of the most disliked colors in people, according to surveys, and occupies the last position among the list of people's favorite colors. Although it is not the most popular of colors for certain aspects of our lives, in others it is very welcome. For example, in interior decoration, wood has a high value.

Thus, as with the other twelve colors that are part of the theories of color psychology, coffee is full of a set of very complex associations, which speak of us and our psyche.

The symbolism of the color brown

Let's see what are the symbolic associations that people make about the color brown that are independent of the culture and that, as such, cross borders. First, on the positive pole.

• Seriousness (responsibility, commitment, honesty, credibility, genuineness).
• Practicality (keeping your feet on the ground, realism, common sense, maturity).
• Stability (structure, strength, support, protection, material security, restraint, order).
• Sense of belonging (to family, to work, friendship, closeness, patriotism, loyalty).
• Comfort (quality, warmth, simplicity, tranquility, sensitivity, sensuality, sophistication).
• Natural (health, well-being, conservation, ecology, care, protection).

If we think of a manager who wears a black suit, he will surely make us evoke someone ambitious and closed. If instead we imagine him with a dark brown suit, he will give us the feeling of being a more loyal, more mature, more responsible and friendly employee.

In the same way, if we imagine a woman dressed in white at her wedding, we will think that the search for perfection and independence may concern her. Whereas if she were dressed in ivory, it would make us think of a more committed, genuine and accessible woman.

From this same approach, a restaurant decorated in red tones will refer to feelings of speed and poor quality. The same place, but decorated in brown tones, will give us the impression of good quality, sophistication, comfort and well-being.

Strong-flavored products, like coffee and chocolate, will appear more bland and artificial with colors like blue or green. And they will also look robust, sensual and natural if their packaging is brown.

In hotels and tourism it gives the feeling of hospitality, in offices it encourages camaraderie and commitment, in law firms it speaks of the ability to solve problems and protection, etc.

Negative associations

It would be missing, then, to see some of the negative associations of coffee. Some of them were already mentioned in the previous section, but here we can see and understand them more clearly.

• Lack of sense of humor or excess of seriousness. It is associated with boring and very predictable people.
• Dirt or neglect of hygiene. For this reason it is also associated with manual work.
• Old age or lack of sense of the current. It is associated with the outdated and old-fashioned.
• Passivity or slowness. Not suitable for products or services that want to keep up with today's fast pace. It is also associated with depression or laziness.
• Materialistic or stingy. It is associated with the accumulation of money or goods.

While a tanned person is synonymous with someone uncomplicated, risky, detached and natural (someone timeless), at the other pole a person dressed in coffee can leave the feeling of being boring, old-fashioned, stingy, depressive and dirty.

We can note, then, that these associations are not given on all shades of brown or on any way in which they are used. It is more about not making a correct use of color. If it is used in a balanced way, its negative associations are avoided.

Brown color in different cultures

There are some associations typical of some specific cultures, which are not repeated in other contexts. Some of the most relevant are worth reviewing.

• In the Chinese horoscope it represents the color of the earth.
• In India it is the color of morning.
• In Nicaragua it is a sign of disapproval.
• In the West it is associated with making mistakes.
• In Germany he is associated with the Nazi party.

Coffee color psychology

The psychology of color does not focus only on knowing what effect colors have on people according to how we use them. It is also able to tell us what our personality is like, according to our preferences with colors.

Personality is assumed to be a fairly stable construct, maintained with very little change during adult life. Same as color preferences. Therefore, it is possible to use the data of the preference of a color as an approximation to the personality.

Even so, it does not have the qualification of a theory of personality (like that of psychoanalysis, for example), but it can be very useful to know personal aspects about ourselves. We can also get information from the colors we hate.

Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that people who prefer brown will have many of the positive or negative traits already indicated. But let's take advantage of the following list to point out 10 new aspects associated with the personality of the color brown (and check if they describe us).

1. They are industrious people, who like hard work.
2. They believe in material rewards for good work and they like quality things.
3. Some may be accumulators of money or assets, while others organize their finances well to have few things of value instead of much less valuable.
4. Although they are organized and structured, they tend not to be perfectionists.
5. They may not get along with spontaneous situations or where they have no control. They prefer the controlled and predictable, because they also tend to act.
6. When they have problems, they tend to be self-absorbed until they find a solution.
7. They are sensitive to the needs of others, as well as to criticism.
8. They tend to prefer the calm that they have forged for themselves, and therefore may dislike others bringing their own problems to them, although they are usually good at solving them. Hence, many seek them for that purpose.
9. They do not like to spend money or time on frivolous or unnecessary things. Nor give more than someone or something deserves. That is why they are often seen as stingy.
10. They can repress their emotions at times and withdraw from the outside world.

A zentangle of tree rings to close

We offer them the opportunity to finish with a relaxation exercise, where they can apply some of the principles learned.

On this occasion, we will use a pattern or zentangle from the fabulous Annelies Belemans blog “a pattern a day”, made with age rings of trees of different sizes. The idea is to connect with the references of the brown color.

Think of some quality of the brown color that you want to reflect or deepen in your life (such as natural, strong, stable, mature) and use it as inspiration while adding color to the drawing.

Remember that zentangles are abstract drawings that consist of creating structured patterns in a larger drawing. They are considered a good meditation technique, whether you create them from the beginning or color one already finished.