Colours and Chords

Mindfulness was front of mind when we first talked about starting Zhoosh Paints - from the colour creation to the brand personality, and the whole ethos around sustainability and service.

Mindfulness means an awareness of all your senses. Colours and music appeal to different senses, but both impact our mood and both are used around the home. And, unless you prefer to paint in silence, both are a vital part of any decorating project!

When creating our range of water-based paints, we felt that some of the colours we created really evoked the mood of certain types of music.

Some of the paler, pastel tones, for instance, brought to mind smooth listening and easy jazz. The darker colours made us think of impactful rock music, while the more contemporary tones naturally made us think of hip hop, soul or even pop.

We're not the only ones interested in this link; a study by UC Berkeley shows that our emotions can affect the music we hear. Using a 37-colour palette, the  researchers found that people tend to pair faster-paced music in a major key with lighter, more vivid, yellow colours, whereas slower-paced music in a minor key is more likely to be teamed up with darker, greyer, bluer colours (slow rock!).

Some people even experience music in shapes and colours. Chromesthesia is a type of synesthesia in which an acoustic perception actually evokes a visual experience. It’s fascinating!

Whatever the psychological basis, we can definitely see the link between colours and music - and used it for the naming of our paints. We don’t see the point in random, off-beat names - we want our descriptions to simply give you a feeling, and a colour.

It's also why we create the perfect decorating playlist each month!

What do you think?