One of the first things I noticed when I first entered the office at Rosy Towers – who am I kidding? THE FIRST THING I noticed – was that it’s a very pink place. This might not sound out of the ordinary, but as someone who suffers with colour-blindness it’s very rare that I notice any colours at all. Rosy Towers does exactly what it says on the tin: it’s rosy, very rosy. It’s not in a tower, though, I have to admit.
On the whole, the colour issue isn’t an issue at all, however. Take a look on the web and you’ll find a number of experts proclaiming pink to be a very soothing colour, one that’s associated with love, kindness, friendship, affection and harmony. There’s an inner peace here in the office, although that peace is shattered once a day when the coffee van comes around. It’s also associated with positivity, and that can only be a good thing when you work in the media.
No longer a girly colour…
Over the years, pink has become associated with femininity, of course; pink for girls and blue for boys and all that malarkey. Thankfully, we’re becoming less pigeon-holed as a society now, so we don’t need to be restrained by archaic traditions that date back many centuries. Except, however, in this case they don’t. Until around a hundred years ago, in fact, neither pink nor blue was regarded as a gender-specific colour.
For some, the vibrancy of a bright pink wall can be stimulating to the mind and inspirational to the imagination. Personally I’m not convinced about that, but I do know that Rosy Towers is a great place in which to work creatively. Looking around me as I write this, I can see an awful lot of pink, including Post-it notes, glasses, pens, notepads, tissues and more. If there’s ever going to be a cure for colour-blindness, working here could provide the apple-falling-on-the-head moment.
Pink has been used in attempts to create a certain atmosphere in rooms elsewhere as well. Sports teams have been known to paint the opposition’s dressing rooms in this shade to make players more passive and less dynamic, while in some instances the holding cells in prisons are pink in a bid to take the aggression out of the atmosphere.
Thankfully, I’ve never felt as though I was in jail during my time at Rosy Towers. If anyone suggests we should start wearing suits with arrows on them, however, I’ll start to worry.
