When you walk into Floral Frontier, a modest floral studio on 79th Street and State Line, there is no overwhelming smell of fragrant flowers like most other floral studios. But there are colors that speak to people, that tell stories or subconsciously influence emotions.
The studio creates both dried and fresh floral arrangements that explore the science of colors and textures. Floral Frontier uses color psychology, a new color science theory that suggests specific colors and their frequencies have a physiological and psychological impact on feelings and behavior. One study found that the four psychological primary colors—red, blue, yellow and green—relate, respectively, to the body, mind, emotions and the essential balance between these three.
A color can change someone’s mood from sad to happy, from confusion to intelligence, from fear to confidence. It can actually be used to “level out” emotions or to create different moods.
“It’s so wild, the impact of color and the power of color,” Jami Block, owner and creative director of the studio, says. “A lot of the people that I aspire to be like or the works of art in the floral realm that I’m drawn to are always because of the color palette—not the composition.”
Block spent time in Los Angeles working on photo shoots and learning the power of floral arrangements. She worked on a Ketel One vodka gig where all the florals were inspired by the notes in the vodka. “I’m trying to go in a more experiential marketing direction with my florals,” she says. “Photo shoots and telling stories with floral arrangements are my passion.”
Block says that in the floral world, there’s been a traditional sense that more is more. “It’s been about putting as many flower types and as many different colors and textures as you can to make the customer feel like they’re getting their money’s worth,” Block says. “For me, I want to know more about what the customer is looking for. Is it a sympathy piece? Is it a celebration piece? Is it for you or for your home?”
People don’t really know the science of color, she says. “Some people think purple is one specific color. In reality, purple is thousands of different colors. Playing off of the mystery and symbolism of purple has been really fun to work on.”
The combinations of complementary colors, on top of the impact of one specific color itself, make that color twice as impactful. “If you pair a sky-blue color, which is something that brings calming, with not a harsh yellow but a buttery yellow that brings happiness and light, the fusion of those two colors is twice as impactful together,” she says.
Floral Frontier puts floral arrangements together with a linear element to bring depth to the arrangement and “the subliminal messages of a more open mind, in my opinion,” Block says. “So when a light-blue color is down deeper in the arrangement and the yellow color is out taller, there’s a very calming effect and a very interesting effect.”
The common knowledge is that certain colors should not go together. “But having an open mind and playing with it, sometimes you get wildly surprised to discover two colors that you assumed didn’t go together that do,” she says. “Those are just those little sparks of joy. I think where this life is just so stressful, it’s those little moments that make this such a healing place to work.”
Floral Frontier wants the business to evolve beyond just the average floral studio, where a customer calls and Block makes their arrangements. “I would love for it to all be color science-based so that, in every arrangement, you can look at the colors that are in your arrangement and understand why they’re in your arrangement,” she says. “It’s more of an ‘I need’ versus ‘I’m looking for an arrangement for my dinner.’ I need your science, instead of I need flowers. It would be about people understanding the power of wellness and using the free tools to live a lighter, more intentional life.
“There are so many lessons that flowers can teach us about how to be softer to ourselves, how to be softer to one another, how to appreciate the small amount of time that we have here,” Block says.
Source: Mental Health of America, “Color Psychology Explained”
The context of color
A single color can have a series of meanings and interpretations to various people in various regions of the world. For example, the people of China see white as a sad color because they wear white when mourning. Some other societies in Europe perceive white as purity, virginity and cleanliness. In Asia, orange is a positive, spiritually enlightened and life-affirming color. In the United States, orange is a color of road hazards, traffic delays and fast-food restaurants. Source: www.journals.sagepub.com/doi
