Design Fundamentals – Color Psychology – Part 3

Color psychology is the study of how the hues affect the human behavior.

To begin with, if you didn’t check out the previous posts, start by reading:

• The fundamentals of the color wheel.
• The existing types of color schemes.

In this blog post I’m going to show you how the colors are an important consideration for business when you define the brand.
Firs of all, color change our perception and the colors themselves have an effect on our minds.

Color psychology is use by artists, decorators and mainly as a marketing mechanism in many industries. Therefore, by picking the right color in a packaging, the sales of your product will increase. In addition, the colors in the product themselves will also have an effect on sales.

Moreover, think of everything you buy and try to imagine it with a different color… I’m not sure that you will keep on buying it. All marketing strategies use color physcology to define the brading.

Did you ever wonder why Nike logo is black? Why the label from CocaCola is red? Starbucks, McDonals? ….Once you are able to understand the psychology of color you will be able to indentify the meaning of each brand.

Perception is subjective but color effects have universal meaning.

Finally, here is a list of the main colors and their meaning. Be careful, some colors have specific meaning in certain cultures.

 

 

RED

• Associated with passion, energy, love, sex, excitement.
• Action, danger, adventure.
• It is also the most eye-catching color.
• It is use frequently to announce big sales.

 

 

ORANGE

• It is related to fun, happiness, vitality, joy.
• Also associated with creativity, youthful.
• Sometimes used for retro campaigns.

 

 

YELLOW

• The color of the sun is linked to warmth, light, cheerful.
• Other relations are with positive, cheerful, young and optimism.

 

 

GREEN

• Most common relation is nature, the environment, health, refreshing.
• But green is also associated with money & jealousy.

 

 

PINK

• This the girls color. It’s delicate, gentle, soft & romantic.

 

 

BLUE

• It represents trust, reliability, security& responsibility.
• Also associated to freedom, spirituality & dignity.

 

 

PURPLE

• Creativity and uniqueness are related to purple color.
• A mysterious, royal, romantic and sensual color.

 

 

WHITE

• One of the easiest to explain.
• White is pure, clean, innocent.
• Also related to peace, protection, simplicity

 

 

BROWN.

• Not very often used in branding.
• Brown represents rustic, fall, earth.
• It gives a sensation of stability, security and comfort

 

 

GRAY

• A very classic color.
• Gray color is linked to timeless, calm, respect and humility.

 

 

BLACK

• In design represents something classic, elegant, and modern.
• Also serious, luxurious and powerful,
• Black color is associated with authority, tradition & conservative.

To summarize, here is a cool infographic by the Logo Company.
It oulines some of the most important brands colors & how is color psychology related to them.

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