What Does The Colour Purple Mean?

Purple – what does it mean to you?

The transparent coloured wrapper of perhaps the favourite Quality Street chocolate? Or the famous house colour of Nestle’s rival in the confectionery world – Cadbury’s? Or Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’? Or verbena, buddleia, lavender, clematis (among many others) – all wonderful, yet common garden flowers? Or the poignant image of the purple Imperial State Crown, sitting on a sumptuous purple cushion, on top of Queen Elizabeth the Second’s coffin, at the Lying-In-State.

It is at the end of the spectrum, that we find ‘violet’ – the colour with the shortest wavelength in the visible spectrum. Violet is a true colour, and although it is often used as another word to describe purple, the word purple is the term for any colour which is a mixture of red and blue.

This makes purple often a difficult colour to pin down, as one person’s purple may be completely different to the next – ie more blue or more red!

How is Purple Created? Where Did it Come From?

Purple was always a difficult colour to create – it came from the Murex snail, and was produced by the Phoenicians in Tyre, as early as 1200 BC, and thus called Tyrian Purple and was extremely expensive. Because of that, and it continuing to be a hard to produce colour, until chemical discoveries allowed it to be produced cheaply – it was extremely costly in terms of money, time to produce (and not least, the near extinction of this form of animal life).

In Ancient China, and Rome, and even in more recent royal houses, purple was generally worn by those in power. Whether lower mortals were really punished (and even killed) for wearing it, is probably more myth than anything else – the main barrier to ordinary folk wearing purple was the enormous cost.

It was not until 1856 that a young up and coming chemist called William Henry Perkin, discovered by accident, a beautiful purplish hue, which he named mauve. He was trying to synthesise quinine when the process caused a dye to be produced which was intense and stable enough to make the colour purple available to the masses.

Purple: Jewellery and Gemstones

For jewellery lovers, the gemstone that best represents purple is amethyst. It is a variety of quartz and is mined throughout the world. The best quality amethysts are known as ‘Deep Russian’, which have deep, rich reddish-blue hue.

Purple and Chocolate…

The chocolate makers Cadbury’s and Nestle have been in and out of the courts in recent years, as the former has sought to try and trademark the colour. Although Cadbury’s has used this colour since the time of Queen Victoria, it remains exceedingly difficult to gain this legal protection. However, many people will now naturally associate Dairy Milk Chocolate, with PMS 2685 – the Pantone colour that all the fuss was about!

Purple and Promotional Merchandise

From a promotional merchandise point of view, a lot of the products I supply come in a purple colour. But as with other colours, and especially with purple, is it really your company colour? This is where sampling comes in and I happy for you to see how that purple book, pen or bottle looks and if it is a close enough match.

Of course, one way is to Pantone match a product, which deals with any issue of colour matching. However, although it is possible, in most instances, the quantity required to be produced, or the cost to produce a more sensible number, is prohibitive.

In that case, I would revert to go-to solution where I will offer a product in a neutral colour, and will then print your house colour on that product. It may not be the ideal solution, but merchandise can still look really professional and smart, by taking a different route.

Are you needing to source some merchandise in your particular colour? I will enjoy helping you in the best way possible.

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