Thursday, April 3, 2014

The Seasonal Types and Personality

How far back does it go to identify appearance, and color harmony, with personality or temperament?  Of course, the Greek's started looking at the humors, thanks to Hippocrates, and also described some aspects of facial types.


Sanguine


Phlegmatic
Choleric

Melancholic
Many of the following author's are mentioned in my Color Analysis Timeline. Also see more here.

Bernice Kenter's Color Me A Season (1979), has a short personality quiz to determine your season, along with draping. And she introduced the idea that eye patterns follow the seasons.  She also introduced using the concept of yin and yang, which creates six categories: dramatic, athletic, classic, romantic, gamin and ingenue.

Suzanne Caygill correlated descriptions of four categories of people, described as the seasons, eventually publishing that in Color: the Essence of You in 1980. Students of her continue her method creating personalized fabric swatch palettes. You can see that in my earlier post on the adjectives assigned to the different seasonal types by various authors.  You can also see this correlation here:


Joan Songer was a student of Caygill, and she founded Personal Style Counselors in 1978, now run by John Kitchener.  PSC describes four personality types with different color palettes, that are customized for each person.

Another student of Caygill, Taylore B. Sinclaire, developed IlluminEssensce with four Tones, which are correlated to four color harmonies and personalities. https://www.illuminessensce.com/

Also in 1980, Color Me Beautiful, by Carole Jackson came out.  This was probably the most popular book, still known today.  Most people think that seasonal color analysis is about color only, but even Jackson's book talked about the personality of the seasonal palettes (though no personality quiz) and she also talked about clothing personality types (dramatic, sporty/natural, romantic, ingenue, and classic).

Jane Segerstrom, describes the personality of four types in her 1980 book Look Like Yourself and Love It.

Color for Body & Soul, written by Naomi Donner of Finland, also involves four types, which she calls Enthusiast, Compassionate, Dynamic and Analytical.  She also gives quite of bit of the history behind her correlations, but she was also a student of Caygill.

Joan Callaway, does an amazing job correlating not only color but various design aspects with personality of the seasonal types, in her book The Color Connection, first published in 1986.

In The Beginner's Guide to Colour Psychology, Angela Wright, covers the four seasons, their color harmonies and personalities.

Jennifer Butler refers to the four seasons as having different essences in her 2007 book, Reinventing Your Style.

David Zyla presents different archetypes that are subtypes within the four seasons in his book Color Your Style, 2011.

In How Not to Wear Black (2011), Jules Standish has a quiz to determine your dominant personality traits, related to the seasons.  She also goes through eye patterns associated with them.

Links to books:

Color Me a Season: A Complete Guide to Find...
by Bernice Kentner , 1979,
Get the new expanded version at:  colormeaseason.com

A Rainbow in Your Eyes: Yes, You Can Find Y... 
by Bernice Kentner 1982 

Tie Me Up With Rainbows: A Guide to Beauty ... 
by Bernice Kentner 1983

Yin and Yang the Inner Story  CD
by Bernice Kentner 1988 

Color: The Essence of You
by Suzanne Caygill 1980 classic

Jane Segerstrom's Look Like Yourself and Lo...
by Jane Segerstrom 1980

Color for Body & Soul: Discover Yoursel...
by Naomi E. Donner 1983

The Color Connection: From a Retailer's Per...
by Joan S. Callaway, 1986, republished 2013

The Beginner's Guide to Colour Psychology
by Angela Wright 1999


Reinventing Your Style: 7 Strategies for Lo...
by Jennifer Butler, 2007


Color Your Style: How to Wear Your True Col...
by David Zyla, 2011


How Not to Wear Black
by Jules Standish, 2011



... but hey, don't listen to me, EXPRESS YOUR TRUTH! Jane


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