I take color for granted. Since I'm more of a web developer than a designer, that makes sense.
You know what I mean-- colors are supposed to have certain meaning and symbology attached to them. Red indicates passion, yellow and black represent danger. The only problem is, the symbology breaks down when you cross cultures. In the western world, white is the color of innocence and virginity and black is the color of death and mourning. In the eastern world, however, white is the color associated with death. You wind up needing a matrix of culture versus color just to "decode" any color symbology a designer might have intended.
Or-- maybe you don't!?
Everyone catches colds. When you have a cold, you tend to sneeze and blow your nose. If the mucus is clear, that's a good sign. But if the mucus comes out with a nasty green tinge that means you've got a sinus infection. Doesn't matter if you are white, asian, hispanic, or Lithuanian, nasty green snot is nasty green snot-- and a sinus infection is what you've got.
Let's say you've been sneezing and blowing your nose a lot, and the sinus cavity has gotten all raw-- you might possibly blow your nose and see hints of red in your Kleenex. Or, worst case scenario, you might get a full on nose bleed and see a lot of red. Again, doesn't matter what race you are, red is red, right? I'm beginning to think we can make an argument for color symbology that might transcend cultural norms, provided we all stick to the syntax of biology.
It's not just the color-- it's the syntax we see those colors in. When I give blood for a medical test, I'm not alarmed or surprised to see red blood filling the vial. And neither is anyone else. It's when we see green blood that people start getting antsy. So, as human beings who share the same fundamental biology, we have an understanding of when we should and when we should not be seeing certain colors. If anything, it seems like we shouldn't be taking exceptional notice of color until it appears in a context that we don't expect to see it.