Cymbolism: Colors And Words

If you've ever spent time looking at the names on crayons instead of using them, you know that there is a relationship between words and color. Cymbolism, the color tool, brings that association to the fore with a community driven voting model.

It begins with two sections on the page; on the right Cymbolism asks you to "See the word," under which there is a word and a definition, and on the left it asks "What color you see," under which there is a grid of colors. Vote for the color you think most suits the word with a single click.

Now you may ask yourself how this qualifies as a color tool. The answer is at the end of the page, following your vote. Below the large grid of colors you can see what you - and others - have voted for, by word and color. What this allows us to do is measure how effective some colors are at conveying emotion, and help us brainstorm which colors to use. Let's say, for example, we voted on the word "rococo." Once we've clicked on the word we see a screen that shows us how people voted for the word recently and over time. If we trying to evoke a rococo feeling to our design, we could could now consider the surprising choice of purple alongside the gold colors.

Cymbolism is not a straightforward tool, however. There is no search capablility, and the color grid is limited, but as a resource, or to jump start color selection, Cymbolism can give useful insight into color. To find Cymbolism and applications like it, there is the Listio search colors.