What is the meaning of grey?

The meaning of grey is often seen as a very neutral, calm, quiet color that is lacking in energy. Some common properties of the color grey include:

• Boring
• Calm / Quiet
• Conservative
• Lacks energy
• Neutral
• Decay / Decline
• Drains physical body

Color psychology suggests that the color grey is very boring and conservative. In fact, color psychologists go as far to assert that when there is too much grey it is dreary, tedious, and passive, without life and even draining to the physical body.

Like the color white, grey should not be used as a predominant color in interiors. People need sensory variety and this includes color. Monotony only induces anxiety, tension, fear, and distress.

Grey is also associated with industry and man-made materials like concrete and metal.

On a more positive note, grey is considered an intermediate color (consisting of both black and white equally). Therefore, grey can be used to initiate a process that transforms thought into action.

The meaning of the color grey as described in “The Herder Dictionary of Symbols: symbols from art, archaeology, literature and religion” is as follows:

“Grey consists equally of black and white, it is the color of mediation and compensating justice, as well as of intermediate realms (e.g., in folk belief it is the color of the dead and of spirits that walk abroad). In Christianity it is the color of the resurrection of the dead and of the cloak that Christ wears as judge at the Last Judgment.”

What is the meaning of grey in graphic design and fashion?