‘Power and Identity’ is the title of a book chapter I’ve written for ‘A Cultural History of Color: The Modern Age’. Edited by Sarah Street and Anders Steinvall; Series editors, Carole Biggam and Kirsten Wolf, to be published by Bloomsbury, London in 2020/2021.
The chapter explores some of the ways that color is used as a form of code intended to convey meaning linked to identity, persona, presence and power within a broader lexicon of visually-based signifiers has a long tradition and dates back to pre-literate cultures.
The chapter examines this topic across a number of sectors: Politics, Branding and Marketing, Architecture, Literature, Cinema, Fashion Design and Social Media.
In the political area, strong, saturated colors and individual style can definitely help to convey strength of character, courage and confidence – personal traits that are important and advantageous in politics. This is evident in Angela Merkel’s approach to fashion. Merkel has a notable preference for a certain style of jacket in different colors; typically a three-button jacket in a variety of saturated colors and fabrics to suit the occasion. Merkel’s preference in this respect is so well known that Dutch designer Noortje van Eekelen created a Pantone-style color chart featuring an array of Merkel’s jackets. Damian Gayle wrote an article ‘Fifty Shades of Angela Merkel’ which was published in the Daily Mail on 19 July 2012. You can read the full article here. Merkel uses a formulaic approach to color and fashion that suits her, adds to her identity and supports her role as leader of one of the most powerful countries in the world.
The use of color to convey a sense of identity is also evident across social media. Two accounts that are featured in the book chapter include Ricky Aloisio (@aloisio.ricky) and Hannah Mirbach (@hannamirbach), both of whom granted permission to include posts from their Instagram accounts as illustrations in the chapter ‘Power and Identity’.
Power and Identity in ‘The Cultural History of Color: The Modern Age’. Edited by Sarah Street and Anders Steinvall; Series editors, Carole Biggam and Kirsten Wolf, Bloomsbury, London. For more information go to this website
For more information about Bloomsbury’s Cultural Histories series go to their website
