28 Jan intu Lakeside are boosting the moods of its shoppers using the power of colour
New research has revealed that people can beat the blues with yellow, green…and blue. A study by intu shopping centres looking at the happiness and wellbeing effects of colour found yellow makes us happiest, with blue and green helping to ease anxiety and combinations of soft blue, pink and green found to make us up to twice as happy.
The country’s biggest shopping centre group has brought together colour psychologists, light artists and designers to help boost the mood and wellbeing of the nation by creating three glowing ‘light houses’ featuring colour combinations proven to make visitors feel happier, calmer or more energised.
The Light House Experience launches at intu Lakeside and will pop up at 12 different intu shopping centres across the country throughout 2020 including intu Trafford Centre, intu Metrocentre and intu Braehead. Each light house is free to experience and aims to use the psychological benefits of colour to help improve the wellbeing of visitors as part of intu’s pledge to make its visitors happier.
The Happy, Calm and Energise houses feature different colour effects to evoke three different emotions including happiness when walking into a rainbow, calmness when sitting in a silent soft blue-lit room and an energy boost when walking through a glowing, neon-orange charged room.
As part of the research, yellow was found to make us happiest with 55 per cent of those who wake up in pink rooms saying it helps them to start their day feeling happier. Wearing blue was shown to produce the greatest feelings of goodwill. The nation voted blue their favourite colour, with brown being the least favourite. It follows the release of Classic Blue as Pantone’s 2020 Colour of the Year.
Those involved in The Light House Experience include light artist Liz West, whose work is focused on using colour to positively influence moods, psychologist and colour expert June McLeod and eight designers who spent three months turning conceptual colour designs into colour-changing houses. It will tour 12 intu shopping centres over the next ten months as part of intu’s effort to make its 35 million visitors feel happier.
