Blue period: a colour that keeps returning
Painters, designers and engineers keep coming back to blue. A short history of the most trusted colour.
Cover image Photo by Jon Tyson / Unsplash
For centuries, blue was the most expensive colour a painter could buy, ground from a stone shipped across continents. It was reserved for what mattered most.
Today it is everywhere: on our screens, our uniforms, our bank cards. Designers choose it because it reads as calm and trustworthy. Artists keep returning to it for the opposite reason: a deep blue can still be unsettling.
Stand in front of a large blue canvas for a full minute. It does not stay the same colour.
