Colour at the workplace

Why should you think about colour design in the workplace?

1. Quality of stay

Employees who feel good at their place of work, work more reliably and are more active than employees who don’t feel good at their place of work, may it be because they find it unattractive, anonymous or distracting.
For colour planners the quality of stay in a room therefore doesn’t consist of factors such as available space for each user, the height of the room, temperature, humidity, the light or noise levels etc. Quality of stay has to include the need for comfort. This consists of things such as
- the positive experience of ones own corporeality
- the joy in visual exploration and partaking
- the meaningful dealing with attentionabe,
- den sinnvollen Umgang mit Aufmerksamkeit.
To achieve this we combine the different colour tone groups to create a naturally perceived light atmosphere or colour dynamic, and use all possibilities to create contrast (two dimensional- linear, intensive - taken aback, light - dark and others) to support meaningful eye movement.

2. Ergonomics

Ergonomics, as the theory of optimised workflow, gives the visual surroundings a crucial importance. Not only the legally regulated amount of light at the workplace, avoiding strong  blinding contrasts or the intuitively understandable design of a screen. On a physiological level it is important to find a balance between positive stress and relaxation within the field of view. This applies both to a single workplace as well as the arrangement of space within the building.
We do not only consider the physiologically necessary rhythmification in our colour concepts. We also consider visually comprehensible structuring of workflow, for good recognisability, work safety, evening out of contrast, change of milieu and other things. (In the chapters “Aufenthaltsqualität”, “Raumfunktionen” and “Arbeitslandschaften” in the book “Farbgestaltung Innenraum” we systematically address this topic.)

3. No colour without light!

We coordinate the wall and floor colours as well as the colours of the furniture with the quality of light, that is to be expected in the room. This is due to the fact that lightquality has crucial influence on colour reproduction.

Picture on the left: In the linear drawing the body colours are unshaded and represented “as they are”.
Picture in the middle: The simulation of the daylight decides the look of the body colours in direction light and shade. Even if the painting doesn’t quite represent the colours from the colour fan, but rather lighter and slightly grey variations, the whole colour appearance mostly matches the original sample.
Picture on the right: The simulation of artificial light (our example being trilux 3621, with a luminous intensity of 4000lm, and a colour temperature of 5000ºK), visible changes the painting. Especially the blue tone in the flooring is swallowed by the complementary effect of the light colour and is unrecognisable. The renderings make clear: Either the colour concept (walls, carpet) or the illuminants must be changed!

4. Individualisation

With a professionally individualised colour surrounding you can demonstrate to your employees that you are interested in them and that a good working atmosphere is close to your heart! Such direct signs of appreciation are in close correlation with motivation and willingness to perform.