Ever wondered why some brands are so associated with a single color? Or why some new brands make such a fuss over what color their logo should be? Well, if you are a brand and you haven’t thought about this then you should. Colors not only make things beautiful, but they also add a feeling to it. Human brain perceives every color differently and relates them to certain feelings or emotions.
But, how would you know, what color to choose according to your brand? Well, based on psychological study and research, there is a dedicated field of study called Color Psychology, that could help you. Now, what it is and how colors affect the perceiver is exactly what we will discuss here. So, keeping reading to add colors to your brand and only the right ones!
What is color psychology?
Color Psychology is a branch of study which focuses on studying the effects of different colors on the human brain and how we perceive each differently. Besides this, it also takes into account how each color evokes certain feelings in our brain.
As a brand, color is an important part for you, right from your logo to your website, since 93% of the times, consumers put colors and visual appearance of the brand primary. Choosing the right colors is thus an important part for you. Since you want to convey your brand’s message rightly to the consumer, it’s important that the colors you choose are right too.
In this article, we have mentioned a few colors and the feelings they invoke in the viewer’s mind. Read carefully as this might help you decide the right colors for your brand.
Black
First off on our list, is the most formal color, Black. It might be the darkest, but it surely does convey sophistication. It is a very powerful and authoritative color. Generally used by high-end brands like Puma, Chanel and The Telegraph in contrast with white, black represents the luxury and elegance of the brands. Besides white, black can be used with bright colors sparingly as they add a little energy to the sophistication of the black.
But, black as a color also has some negative effects on the perceivers. It often appears cold and oppressive to the viewer and should be used with caution. Being often related to evil or mourning, it should be strictly avoided by brands related to health in any way. Black is often a great fit for brands relating to fashion or sports.
White
The complete contrast to the black, white color generally represents purity and cleanliness. Used in an iconic way these days, brands often use white to represent a modern look and feel for the brand. White color represents a sense of pristine and simplicity. Brands like Prada, Jaguar and Tesla, use it to exhibit a modern, sleek and calm look.
But, using white as a dominant color for your brand is not that easy. Since white is simple, your logo or website might appear plain or boring. If white is not used with the right colors or is badly executed, it might lead to making your brand look very lazy or lacking personality. It’s important to retain the design elements with white since an inappropriate design might look too loud and a too simplistic design over white background looks distant or empty.
Pink
Often related to femininity, pink is a beautiful and calming color. The reason most feminine brands revolve around Pink is that it invokes a feeling of care, passion, and playfulness. It also helps add content of youth to rather formal brands. Pink is a highly positive color and thus inspires comfort and hope. It is often used by brands like Cosmopolitan, Barbie, and Enamor in a creative and innovative way.
But, using pink for your brand excessively might as well convey flippancy or outrageousness as it is a bright color. So, if you want to use pink for your brand, you might want to contrast the font to colors like black or use the right shades of pink.
Purple
Besides pink, purple is also associated with femininity oftentimes. But, where pink is more playful and quirky, purple has a sense of royalty and superiority to it. Purple is used by a number of different brands in a rather prestigious sense. From Yahoo to Hallmark and FedEx and even Cadbury, all use purple in a very sophisticated sense to give their brand an imaginative and wealthy look.
Besides pink, purple is also associated with femininity oftentimes. But, where pink is more playful and quirky, purple has a sense of royalty and superiority to it. Purple is used by a number of different brands in a rather prestigious sense. From Yahoo to Hallmark and FedEx and even Cadbury, all use purple in a very sophisticated sense to give their brand an imaginative and wealthy look.
Blue
Blue is one of the most liked colors among all sorts of people. Blue is the color often used to depict wisdom, trust, loyalty or serenity since it has a very calming effect on the mind. From social media brands like facebook and twitter to brands like PayPal, Samsung and even Nivea use this color to infuse a sense of trust for the brand. Blue is the color of reason and is very helpful when used to show trust or tradition.
Since blue is a cool color, it is not necessarily fit for food brands, as it suppresses appetite. Also, using blue color for fun brands is not a very good idea as the wrong shade might cause the brand to appear very unfriendly, cold or emotionless.
Green
Green is the most soothing color for eyes. Often related to nature and natural stuff, green is a very relaxing color. It represents life and health and is thus ideal for health-based brands or for organic or natural brands. Besides this, green also represents prosperity and can also be used for banking and finance. Green is mostly used by brands like Animal Planet, Starbucks, John Deere, and Himalaya.
If not used with the right colors or designs, the green known for its freshness can also start looking bland or stagnant. Green is not fit for brands looking for a simplistic style as it might lead them to look boring and even weak or debilitating.
Yellow
Associated with sunshine and hope, yellow color represents the epitome of positivity. This color delivers a sense of happiness, warmth, and optimism to the viewer. Being a bright color, it highly supports extroversion and is used by a number of different brands like DHL, Mcdonalds, Nikon, and even Amazon. Yellow can also represent power but only when used in contrast to dark colors. You can use yellow to appear as a brand that is creative and yet intellectual. Our own brand logo is yellow.
Being too extrovert, yellow might cause your brand to look irrational and should thus be used carefully. Though a bright color, in color psychology yellow, also represents caution or anxiety and should thus be used vigilantly. It represents strong positive emotions which are often offset with logistical challenges.
Orange
The color of the sun. Orange is mostly related to warmth. It is a bright color that represents courage and confidence. If you are a fun non-corporate brand or a brand that wants to appear very fun, you should definitely use orange, since it not only depicts friendliness but also adds energy to the designs. On the other hand, if you are a corporate brand who believe in innovation and want it to be represented in your logo, Orange is your ideal color, From kid’s fun channel like Nickelodeon to brands like Mozilla Firefox, Norton Hall Estates and even Harley Davidson use orange color dominantly to represent a sense of fun or rebellion.
On contrary, a very bright shade of orange can give a look of deprivation or ignorance instead of fun. Also, many people often relate orange to being very mediocre or ordinary. If you are deciding to use orange as a dominant color for your brand, you might want to select the contrasting colors carefully.
Red
The strongest color of the spectrum, red is also the most attention-seeking color. It represents strong emotions both positive as well as negative. Having the longest wavelength, it often drives attention towards itself easily. Red represents power and fearlessness and thus brands who have a legacy or have a dominant position over others in the market, often use this color to appear bold and powerful. When used in contrast to other colors like black or white and at times bright colors like yellow, red color helps create a rather interesting effect in your logo design.
It also encourages appetite and is thus used widely by popular food brands like Kellogg’s, Eatright or Coca-Cola. Besides this, entertainment brands like Pinterest, YouTube or Netflix and also brands like Virgin, Levi’s, canon, etc. also use red primarily.
As red depicts strong emotions, it also represents a sense of danger or warning. It is often related to emotions of anger, aggression or defiance so it should not be used excessively but kept exclusively for certain parts of the website like the call to actions.
Conclusion
Though according to color psychology, each color represents a set of positive and negative emotions, it should be noticed that the meaning of each color varies highly with every individual. The gender, viewpoint, and values of the audience is a major cause to perceiving or relating certain emotions to certain colors. The emotions related to each color as mentioned above are general to most people and only given for you to understand color psychology easily. There are no set rules for the use of colors for your brand, but it’s important to understand what color will be successful in representing your brand the way you want it to.
For more classic and prestigious brands dark colors are often good as they depict sophistication. Likewise, for more fun brands, bright colors of higher wavelength are preferable as they capture attention and for modern brands, plain black and white do wonder.
This article was supposed to help you understand the influence of colors on a brand’s marketing. If you want to understand the concept better, here are a few reference links, where you can look for more information.
https://walnutfolks.com/project/logo-designs/
https://www.slideshare.net/JenniferJanviere/color-psychology-ss
http://www.arttherapyblog.com/online/color-psychology-psychologica-effects-of-colors/#.XCmy21wzbIU
We hope the post was helpful for you, and if you need professional help in marketing your brand and make a unique identity for it, we are here to help you. Drop your questions in the comments section below or mail them to us and we will surely get back to you as soon as possible.
