Color Psychology
Color is a very powerful psychological tool. Many of us are not aware of how certain colors effect us mentally. Color is a very important factor in branding products or services. Websites, print collateral and video interfaces, all utilize color graphics for logos, designs and interfaces. A simple shade of red could stimulate a positive message or generate an aggressive state of mind. Color triggers emotions, which are an important factor in decision-making.
A consumer’s brain responds to colors by triggering emotions. There are specific physical responses documented by science, yet varied color responses can be learned through cultural differences, personal beliefs and subjective meanings. Take a bull for example. Why does a bull charge when it sees a red flag? Because to the bull’s brain, the color red means “Go”. A human’s primal response to the color red is also “Go”, yet in the case of traffic lights, our culture has taught us that red means stop. Red is an intense action color that, through cultural conditioning, emotionally motivates a person to stop their vehicle. General scientific aspects of color psychology such as this can help marketers choose the right colors for branding a product or service in print, video and Internet .
For a corporate website dark backgrounds, especially black, should be avoided. Dark backgrounds are effective in producing drama, power and luxury, but this is not typically the message a corporation wants to broadcast. Colors that promote “purity”, “reliability”, “trustworthiness”, “quality” and other such positive values are typically more effective for the average business website? Unless a mystic atmosphere is inline with your product or service, a “Twilight Zone” look and feel should be avoided.
Light backgrounds are commonly used to produce visually appealing and well organized web design layouts. Sophisticated web designs often employ light colors with dark hue accents. They commonly use simple web page interface layouts dressed up with with genre relevent design themes utilizing unique professional quality graphics.
Logos employ powerful, recognizable colors that capture attention and appeal to the senses.
Blue logos often successful because blue is the favorite color of a majority of people. Gazing at the clear blue sky triggers the body’s production of chemicals for relaxation. Business logos, financial logos and official logos use blue to suggest dependability and honesty.
Green is an organic color and is perfect for the hospitality industry, food industry and ecology.
Red is a very intense, hot color. It can be overwhelming, especially in web site design. However, Coca-Cola effectively uses red, and with a good design, their message reaches the targeted audience faster than with other colors. That’s because red is the color of energy, movement and excitement.
Although each audience and industry can often be associated with particular colors, there are instances when one color may be successfully deployed in contrast to color psychology applications.
Color theory defines how colors can be combined to produce the most visually appealing result. Using color selection theories such as Analogous, Complimentary, Triadic, etc., help produce a symbiance between different colors used within a composition.
Sampling colors from photographs or images used in the design is a common color theory method to create the best color combination in a particular composition. Because photographs are so effective in connecting with a consumer’s emotions, creating a color pallette sampled from the design’s images is often foolproof.
