There is an old adage which goes “never trust a thin chef!” We believe there should be a new one to add into the mix; “never trust a designer who doesn’t wear sunglasses in winter!”
The reason why, I will get to in a minute, but it is all to do with colour vision – a topic which has suddenly come under the spot light as the result of social media war!
Not since the time of the presidential intern, Monika Lewinsky has a dress caused such a furore. Was it white and gold or blue and black? Twitter et al, went crazy for days on end and neither side of the argument would budge. The reason for this is all down to how we see colour.
You may remember from your school days that the retina in your eye contains both “rods and cones”. Your 120m rods, detect differences in light and shade. Cones, of which you have only about 7m per eye determine colour. However, it is not that simple. We all have the same number of cones, but there are different types of cones and it is those which determine excellent colour vision or make a person colour deficient or colour blind.
Anyone who has had a reason to visit an optician will have been shown images circles of coloured dots containing ‘hidden’ letters or numbers to see if they are colour deficient. However, a new and more fun test has been developed by renowned author Professor in Neuromarketing from American; Diana Derval.
Her test is simple: take a look at this strip of colours and count how many you can see.
According to Derval’s research, (which you can see in full by clicking on the rainbow image) the results are quite interesting:
If you see less than 20 colours
Basically you are in the 25% of the population who are classified as dichromats, meaning that you only have 2 types of colour receptor cones in your eyes. As a result of this colour identification deficiency, you are likely to prefer muted tones, black, beige and blue.
If you see between 20-32 colours
This makes you a trichromat, as in having 3 cone colour receptors in your eyes. 50% of the populations are trichromats, so you are in good company. It means you enjoy different colours and are perfectly normal.
If you see between 33-39 colours:
Please be one of our clients! It means that you are a tetrachromat, having all 4 types of colour receptive cones in your eyes. However, on the down side, you will be irritated by the colour yellow and avoid wearing it at all costs. Added to which you are so light and colour sensitive that you will want to wear sun glasses all year round.
If you see more than 39 colours:
You can’t count! There are only 39 colours. The bands of colour are not evenly spaced so your brain may con you into thinking that there is “another colour” where there is none.
Naturally, everyone at Alchemist could see all the colours and we love of our sunnies – even in winter, so there may be a lot of truth in what she says in her research. Hence having a cast iron excuse to say; “never trust a designer who doesn’t wear sunnies!”