The Language of Colour provides a fresh and innovative approach to the
study of colour from the co-author of the best-selling textbook,
Reading Images.
Moving on from the meanings of single colours, Theo van Leeuwen develops
the theory that many different features shape the way we attach meaning
to the colours we see in front of us, and the idea that colour schemes
are more important than individual colours. Chapter topics include:
- a brief history of the meanings of colour
- the relationship between language and colour names within a cultural
context
- corporate uses of colour
- the meaning of colour in everyday life.
Spanning a wide range of examples from graphic design to the visual
arts, this title presents a cutting-edge and engaging overview of the
use of colour in a wide variety of situations and cultural and
historical contexts. Incorporating both contemporary and traditional
theory and supplemented by questions and ideas for projects at the end
of every chapter, The Language of Colour is the ideal textbook for
students of multimodality and language and communication within applied
linguistics, communication studies, art and design and cultural studies.
Theo van Leeuwen is Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social
Sciences at the University of Technology, Sydney. He is author of An
Introduction to Social Semiotics (2005), Reading Images (second
edition, 2006) with Gunther Kress, and The Language of New Media
Design (2008) with Radan Martinec, all published by Routledge.
Linguistics/Communication Studies/Media Studies/Art and Communication
