Is Magenta a Color?

I stumbled across this interesting article on color yesterday. The main point put forward here is that if a color is not part of the visible light spectrum (seen above) such as magenta or pink, then the color does not actually exist, our brain makes up the color. Now, I am not a scientist or a neurologist, so I have no idea whether what this article says is true, but it made logical sense.

One thing I found fascinating was the experiment they had on there. Take 30 seconds and stare at the magenta circle above and then look at the white space right next to it. You will see a green afterimage circle. According to the article your eye will see the complementary (or opposite) color to the circle, which in this case is green. Fascinating stuff.

We work with color every day here but I must admit I have very little knowledge about the science behind how we perceive color. But for product label designers color is very important and some study of color science can only be helpful when it comes to designing visually appealing labels.