Coloring the Relationships

Colors hold a large amount of meaning for relationships throughout the series of How I Met Your Mother. I am going to focus on two specific colors that are opposing on the color wheel: yellow and purple. Yellow appears many times throughout the series in forms like the yellow umbrella. Purple, on the other hand, is a little more subtle in its use but is most notably seen in relation to Robin and the purple giraffe. To look at the meaning color holds for the main relationships in the show we will analyze the use of yellow during relationships, purple during relationships, and the effect that the combination of the two colors has when used in coordination during a relationship.

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Color is one way of looking at visual rhetoric. According to Wolfe, "Color sets tone, defines time, demonstrates difference, and supports the narrative movement.  In short, color functions with rhetorical force"(Wolfe, 2008, pg. 3). The colors in How I Met Your Mother illustrate the tone of the relationship during a specific time. The color also helps to differentiate between different types of relationships. 

Looking first at the yellow. There are the two obvious "yellow people" in the show: Ted and Tracy. These two are so closely associated with yellow that it would be ridiculous to try to tear them apart from the color. Not only do they have the yellow umbrella, Ted owns a little yellow school bus and many of the big moments for him happen in a yellow cab. Tracy has a very brightly colored room
and apartment with yellow everywhere. Because both Ted and "the mother" are so closely associated with yellow, we can only assume that yellow in parallel is associated with true love and good timing.

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When Ted is going through his various relationships he can never quite find his yellow match. A great example of this "color"ful illustration is when Ted proposes to Stella with an orange kangaroo. Though, on the color wheel we can see that orange is very close to yellow, it is not the same or even the opposite, so, we can very clearly tell that Stella is, therefore, not Ted's soulmate (we can also do the same connection with the blue on the blue french horn). One other person we clearly see color differentiation with is Robin.

Robin is going to be found to be the opposite of yellow in the series, purple. Purple is used to indicate a lack of romance or just a lack of romantic connection. One of the first episodes where Ted and Robin start their relationship is going to be "The Purple Giraffe" (S1E2), which kicks off the sea of

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purple. Ted and Robin are often seen in conflicting colors. When the couple is seen in coordinating colors, the colors are purple.There are several times where Robin wears something that is purple and yellow striped or polka dotted, but she never is fully committed to the yellow and is, again, not Ted's soulmate at the time.

The episodes where we do start to see Robin wearing yellow are those where Barney and her are linked. In "The Leap" (S4E24), Robin wears yellow to the party and the hospital where she finds out that Barney is in love with her. In "Glitter" (S6E9), Robin wears a yellow skirt in Space Teens and Barney ends up helping Robin and Jessica Glitter reconnect. "The Slutty Pumpkin Returns" (S7E8) is when the gang finds out that Barney is part Canadian (Ay?) and Robin is wearing a yellow blouse during this reveal. Robin wears the yellow raincoat and Barney and her reminisce about how terrible it could have been if they had hooked up in the cab (yellow cab by the way) in "Disaster Averted" (S7E15). And, finally, Robin is wearing another yellow blouse in "The Drunk Train" (S7E15) when she and Kevin break up (which is her last boyfriend before she marries Barney).

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One of the biggest color moments in the show is the entirety of season 7. The gang wears a lot of purple throughout the season ranging from Robin's dress in "The Best Man" (S7E1) to the whole gang wearing it in "No Pressure" (S7E17). In "No Pressure," the whole gang wears purple and there is almost no yellow to be seen throughout the entire episode until Ted decides to move on from Robin. The first yellow seen all season (except in the ducky tie) is with the sea of yellow umbrella's outside of Ted's door.

The yellow and purple that surround Ted and Robin throughout the series make some bold arguments about their relationship and the other relationships they are in. The color is used to illustrate their differences and their ability to still be good for each other. After all, complimentary colors are great for accent pieces, but just don't make a perfect match.

References

Wolfe, D. (2008). The Ecological Jeremiad, the American Myth, and the Vivid Force of Color in Dr. Seuss's The Lorax. Environmental Communication, 2(1), 3-24. Retrieved April 1, 2016.