Faber Bernard Birren was an American author, historian and consultant on color theory [1]. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, on September 11, 1900, to artistic parents, Joseph P. Birren, a successful landscape painter and a native of Luxembourg, and Crescentia (Lang) Birren, who was a skilled pianist and had two siblings. He is credited as the originator of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) colors. He consulted for the private, public, and governmental sectors and has also been credited as having established the profession of color consultants in 1936. Birren married Wanda LaVerne Martin who was supportive of her husband’s endeavors, and they had two daughters, Zoe and Fay. Birren was not an institutional academic, however, together with his wife he conducted a significant amount of research on the subject of color, and organized and made it accessible to a wide public. Faber Birren died on December 30, 1988, in Stamford, CT, USA.
Birren attended the Art Institute of Chicago while in high school and then studied color theory at the University of Chicago, planning to emulate his father [2]. Having conceded that he fell short on artistic talent, he left the University after two years but did not lose the interest in color that he had developed while studying the subject under Walter Sargent. He began working for a local bookseller and publisher in 1921 at the printing and graphics end and started to collect books on color and to write on the subject. In 1929, he set up a shop in his native Chicago. When the Depression came, he moved to Manhattan, 500 Fifth Avenue where his office kept sales records on color trends in paints, wallpapers, textiles, plastics, home furnishings, etc., and his business flourished and became an industrial color consultant [1]. Businesses desperate to stay alive were willing to apply the art and science of color trade. This was the period in which The Saturday Evening Post covers, formerly black and red, went polychromatic and Technicolor was born. He provided consultancy to various businesses on the use of color. He was interested in all aspects of color including color theory, masterworks by the most noted color theorists, human perception and experience of color, ancient philosophical views on color, religious connotations of color, applications in art, and the latest scientific discoveries pertaining to color. He collected over 600 books on the subject.
In 1971, he established a depository at Yale University’s Art and Architecture Library together with an endowment for books on color. The “Faber Birren Collection” has grown from his initial donation of 177 books into one of the most comprehensive collection of its kind in the world, with over 2000 items.
71.1 OSHA Colors
Birren was a prolific author and published several books on color including Principles of Color, Color Perception in Art, and Creative Color. By the time of his death, he had written some 250 articles and 28 books [2 revised editions, and 3 Colorizer color charts]. These works are widely used for color education in art in the United States and abroad. Additionally, he resurrected and republished the largely forgotten works (sometimes at his own expense) of Jakob Le Blon (1725), Moses Harris (c. 1769), Michel-Eugène Chevreul (1854), Thomas Sully (1873), Edwin Babbitt (1878), Ogden Rood (1879), Albert Munsell (1921), and Wilhelm Ostwald and Johannes Itten. He also contributed to Lanier Graham’s The Rainbow Book (1975). He began publishing articles on color in 1924; his first book Color in Vision was published in 1928 [2]. In 1934, he established his own company and worked as an industrial color consultant, advising clients on the psychological effects of color on safety, employee morale, productivity, and sales [3]. The Story of Color, from Ancient Mysticism to Modern Science (1941, revised 1963) was a brave and pioneering attempt to piece together, in chronological order, many centuries of humans applying color in myths, arts, therapy and sciences into an inexpensive and readable text [4]. Birren’s History of Color in Painting (1965, a large-format book of 370 pages), is another pioneering attempt to chronologically link together the principal milestones in the evolution of color in the fine arts [5].
Birren was interested in the relationship between color, perception, and emotions and had strong opinions on the matter. In one of his books, Color Psychology and Color Therapy [6], he noted that, compared to emotionally responsive individuals, introverts are affected less by colors and concluded that human perception of color, and not the colors themselves, influences human feelings, thoughts, and emotions. In another book, entitled Color and Human Response [7], Birren discussed the historical influence of color on human life. He noted that while color had many symbolic religious and societal uses in ancient times, its psychological importance persisted in the modern times in homes, offices, schools, and even hospitals. He then made recommendations for certain colors to be used in different spaces in order to achieve the appropriate desired effect. His recommendations included the functional use of color, especially in hospitals and schools such as changing wall and interior colors to reduce visual fatigue, and using bright colors on machinery to reduce accidents [3]. Birren was a firm believer in the therapeutic effect of bright colors on the mentally troubled and thought they distract attention from the self. He noted that violent criminals can be calmed, at least temporarily, by confinement in rooms painted cerise, but said there are hues to be avoided such as yellow-green since it has connotations of sickness. However, he also noted that chromatic taste is personal and highly subjective [8].
Tints, tones, and shades of colors