Dec. 2005 -- HP and NCH have presented the world’s biggest festive card to Her Majesty, the Queen.
Together with the NCH, the Children’s Charity, HP created the eight-foot Festive Card out of 500 seasonal images and personal greetings from all over the UK.
For the first 10,000 photos sent to the Festive Card website, HP has donated £1 to the NCH’s Keeping Families Together Project. The NCH’s 500 projects around the country are making this festive season a little more special for disadvantaged kids.
Royal footmen carry the giant Christmas card into Buckingham Palace.
NCH is the largest voluntary sector provider of services to children, young people and families in England. Over 80 per cent of the UK population live within 10 miles of an NCH project.
Eve Bazely, Fundraising Manager at the NCH, called the Festive Card “a fantastic and generous initiative by HP, with a sentiment that mimics our own. Through this generous donation, HP will help our Keeping Families Together project and help families with disadvantaged children to make the most of the holiday season.”
“Kids within our projects don’t tend to receive cards and our hope is that with HP, we can re-awaken the nation’s interest in warm, family-orientated, festive messages,” Bazely added.
Norman Richardson, HP Consumer Go To Market Manager, UK+Ireland, praised the people who donated images to the Festive Card website: “The British public have acted on the true spirit of the holiday season by sharing their most colourful and creative photos with us. Perhaps more importantly, by giving us a snapshot of their colourful memories, they have helped us help the NCH.”
The Queen’s card is a rainbow of colour. Why do such colours make us feel “festive”?
HP wants to know. After all, HP cameras and printers enable consumers to capture, print, share and store digital colour pictures.
So HP commissioned colour psychology expert, Dr David Lewis, to carry out psychological and physical tests at his Colour Clinic. These revealed that exposure to different colours can temporarily raise and lower IQ and physical strength.
"Exposure to different colours affects the brain in a very powerful way, influencing the level of electrical 'gamma' waves in the frontal area" says Dr Lewis "This links directly to a person's mental and physical performance whilst exposed. Different groups of colours clearly have very different effects".
"Warm" colours such as red and yellow were found to have the greatest "catalyst" effect on mental performance. Average IQ testing scores under red light were the highest (86% for word questions, 90% number questions) followed by under yellow light (70% for word questions, 64% for numerical questions).
"Cool" colours such as blue and green acted to calm brain activity, with IQ test scores amongst those exposed to blue light dropping to 40% for number questions and 50% for word problems. Green was the worst for IQ, with scores under this light falling to below 30% for all questions.
Strength tests also revealed that "warm" and "cool" colours continue to have varying effects on people. Red and yellow were both found to increase the strength of grip in the volunteer's non-dominant hand while decreasing that of the dominant one. But blue and green had the opposite effect, increasing the strength of the dominant hand and reducing that of the non-dominant one.
If colour can make you stronger and smarter, who not go for it?
Over two thirds (67%) of Britons polled by HP say life in Britain is too “grey” and want to see more colour on things from clothing to city buildings. Four in five (79%) young people aged 16 – 24 are fans of colour.
But an equal number of Britons said they weren't brave enough “to experiment” with colour. The main reason was feeling too reserved (44%). Men were shown to be greatest colour cowards - less than one in four men felt confident in using colour (27%) compared to over a third of women (37%).
It appears that the flood of fashion, DIY shows and continental attitudes promoting colour have not overcome traditional British reserve. However, Jonathan Ross pulled one back for men when he was voted British Colour Ambassador for his brave use of colour in the way he dresses.
"Our research into colour proves that it is a very powerful force, which often goes unrecognised,” says Norman Richardson, HP Consumer Go To Market Manager, UK+Ireland. “Hopefully Britons will now see that getting more colourful is worth it - after all brightening up Britain starts at home!"
Newcastle is, according to HP’s survey, the most colour-confident city in Britain. By contrast, Liverpool was found to be the most colour-shy.
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