In this 4-part how-to series, we compiled a list of the twelve (12) most used colors and emotive guidelines for each. Remember, none of these emotional responses are objectively fixed to any given color regarding the psychology of color, context, and culture matter.
Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet.
- Paul Klee.
We will begin with the primary colors, red, blue, and yellow, and finish this first article by looking at a mix of two primaries and their associated psychological meaning and emotions.
We will develop the warm color and cool color in subsequent articles.
We will start with the Primary Colors to
Set the Foundation for all the Articles about
The Psychology of Colors in Branding, BD, Marketing, Sales, and Services
The Color Psychology of Warning Red
The psychology of color influences our choices and perceptions; for example, dark red is a warning that says stop, danger. After years of signage that tells us to stop, we have become conditioned to see red as "danger," but not all reds are dangerous.
We have become conditioned to see RED AS DANGER and EXCITEMENT.
For example, many architects abbreviate their company names in red, SBD, or HLN; the color's type of hue and tone combined with its vibrancy, lightness, and quantity may excite us with power, passion, and energy.
Expert Tip: Use red in your logo to add a touch of excitement. For example, VENUS Lingerie could up the excitement by adding a touch of red to the words VENUS as an example.
A red dress, a red laced teddy or chemise, excites both the wearer and the observer with sexually charged tension, with the promise of passion and the energy of sex. Yes, sex sells. Watch Mad Men or GoDaddy commercials. Red triggers stimulation, appetite, and attraction.
The Psychology of the Primary Color Red
Red is a Primary color and is often associated with:
- Associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination, passion, desire, and love.
- Enhances human metabolism, increases respiration rate, and raises blood pressure.
- It attracts attention more than any other color, at times signifying danger.
The Color Psychology of Calming Blue
In contrast to vibrant reds, blue is associated with calm serenity, trust, empathy, and knowledge. Thus, blue evokes feelings of calmness and spirituality and security and confidence.
Color and Consumer Purchases
Blue: People often describe blue as the color of stability and safety. Driving a blue car or SUV might indicate that you are dependable and trustworthy.
- Stevens Gans, MD. Color Psychology: Does It Affect How You Feel?
If I ask you to visualize a tranquil scene, you might imagine a great deal of blue laced with green. This may take the form of a still body of turquoise and blue water, lapping softly against a white sand beach under the shade of a fresh green coconut palm all sheltered under a brilliant blue sky laced with fluffy white clouds.
The Psychology of Blue is why we go on Holiday to Exotic Islands in the Caribbean.
Or
A Calming Lake that we can see Ourselves Retire to
The Psychology of Blues, Fresh Greens with a touch of grey in Branding and Website Design
Image Source: © Content Branding Solutions | Wind River Wealth Advisors, Branding, Logo, Graphics, Content, and Website Design and SEO by contentbrandingsolutions.com
In this Branding Refresh and Website Design for Wind River Wealth Advisors, we wanted to tell Wendy's story so her targeted clients could get to know, like, and trust her. So check out her site and contact us to tell us how well we did.
Expert Tip: Use color in content creation to build visual equity and brand identity that tells your story. Remember People Buy People The Know Like and Trust. All professionals should build rapport to make Sales.
Thoughtful and still, primary blue represents a sense of inner reflection and calm that is associated with:
- Security and trustworthiness.
- Calm, peaceful serenity.
- Blue is the color of professionals and trustworthy institutions.
- Non-threatening, conservative, and traditional.
- Peaceful, flexible, and imaginative; they are natural romantics and nurturers.
Blue can be icy, suggest distance, or even cold, with a hint of sadness.
Expert Tip: Shoppers on a budget tend to be influenced by navy blue and teal. This is evidenced by the typical color schemes found in large department stores and retail banks.
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Check out the Book launch page https://contentbrandingsolutions.com/tips-to-live-a-healthy-lifestyle-secrets-to-physical-mental-and-spiritual-wellness/ to see how fresh, healthy colors look.
Use Flow, Form, and Function with Color Psychology
to
Create a Winning, Design, Brand, or Website
The Color Psychology of Brilliant Yellow
Bright, cheerful, and intense an attention grabber, "She is so brilliant, so bright." In this case, vibrant Yellow is associated with increased mental capacity and suggests that the girl is intelligent in this particular visual adjective.
"How wonderful yellow is. It stands for the sun."
- Vincent Van Gogh
Yellow is the brightest color of the spectrum. Yellow symbolizes fresh ideas, creative projects, or new business initiatives. The psychology of yellow and color symbolism in design and marketing is associated with optimistic, uplifting, and illuminating brilliant products and services.
When yellow is mixed with deep dark calming blue and a hint of red heat from the sun, ice-cold with a touch of mint, it is both eye-catching, mouthwatering, refreshing, and exciting. It's time for you to refresh your Brand!
The classic image of a bright yellow bulb with the words IDEA suggests brainstorming. Studies have shown that Yellow can enhance mental activity and heighten awareness and energy levels.
Yellow is the Color of Creativity
The brightness of this primary color unclogs mental blocks and encourages people to seek new perspectives by abandoning the dull grey ways of looking at the world; this is particularly true in the morning soft yellow light.
Cat Steven's song Morning Has Broken evokes the beginning of a new day, the sunlight born of the new light, and the connection at the moment to the creator.
Morning Has Broken
Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the world
Song by Cat Stevens
You may think of yellow as the color of the rising sun when you are the most alert, insightful, and analytical.
I am at my most literary creativity in the morning; I see it as a chance to create a new day, a fresh start, the words and ideas flow of the page. But, don't just take my word for it; studies have linked yellow with increased activity of the left side of the brain, which is the powerhouse of rational, logical, idea, and analytical thinking!
I find this particularly interesting as creativity, images, and the arts are right-sided. I imagine words and images in my mind intertwining both in a dance of light and color, so perhaps I mix both sides. What do you think?
Color and Consumer Purchases
Yellow: According to the experts, driving a yellow vehicle might mean that you are a happy person in general and perhaps a bit more willing than the average person to take risks.
- Stevens Gans, MD. Color Psychology: Does It Affect How You Feel?
Yellow symbolizes the brilliant sun, joy, and happiness. Yellow is
- Associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy.
- Produces a warming effect, arouses cheerfulness, stimulates mental activity, and generates ideas.
- Bold Yellow is an attention-getter. Whether it is a pot of gold, a ripe banana, or a big yellow taxi, bold Yellow says, "'look at me."
- Bright Yellow is used in images to depict fresh ideas, creative projects, and new business initiatives.
- Lemon Yellow with a dash of lime green is refreshing.
- Inspirational, creative thinking.
- Sunflower Yellow indicates honor and loyalty.
Sunflower Yellow will brighten your day.
The Color Psychology of Green the Combination of Two Primary Colors
We associate light green with nature, fresh, wholesome food, and produce; we are conditioned to react without even knowing why. Pavlov's theory applied to humans; for example, if we see food eaten in a TV commercial, we feel hungry and crave food.
The color of nature is green. Green represents health, freshness, purity, growth, and of course, vitality. Gentle, refreshing, and relaxing, green represents the connection between us, the quiet moments in our lives, and nature. So people escape the concrete jungle and the hustle and bustle to connect to the peace and tranquility of nature.
In nature, light creates color. In the picture, color creates light.
- Hans Hofmann.
Green symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility.
- Considered beneficial to the mind and body.
- Slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect.
- Strongly associated with tranquility and calmness.
- Used to symbolize piety and sincerity.
Take a look at this chart. Use it to develop your color pallet for your brand; think about the impact of color on marketing and the importance of color in advertising.
Image Source: The Psychology of Color © Content Branding Solutions | contentbrandingsolutions.com
Color and its uses are essential elements of brand Imagineering and classic branding and marketing for your website development and design. Color, along with the images and copy, needs to tell the story and create the look for the first impression. The choices you select will become your branding color Pallet.
Before You Chose A Brand Color Pallet
You should ask yourself and your team the following questions to determine your brand's mission, vision, values, and goals.
- What is your brand's Mission: XYZ… identifying your mission will tell you who your target audience is and their demographic
- Knowing a target demographic will help with the selection of colors
- How will your Mission solve your Target audience needs? How will feeling smarter, healthier, happier, or more secure help your customers?
- What is the Vision of Success? How will success look like for you and your customers?
- Values: Is your brand Innovative? Fun? Trustworthy? Inspirational? All four?
- What are Your Brand goals: Do you want customers to be healthier, earn more money, feel happier, etc.?
When creating a brand color pallet, logo, or website look, different colors have different meanings – cultural, instinctual, universal, and more – and can stimulate other people in different ways. Read this 4-part How-to Guide to Color Symbolism in Media, Marketing, and sales.
Visitors might not notice the impact of using the right colors (although they might if the colors break the mold, so to speak), but trust me when I say; subconsciously, they will notice when the wrong colors are used.
Make Sure Your Color Choices Convey The Right Message About Your Business Or Organization
Conclusion to Part 1 Primary Colors
Choosing colors for your brand and color pallet, including logo media or website, is more than just a matter of personal preference – the choices do matter. A good deal of psychology goes into making color choices that convey the right message about your business or organization.
Mere color, unspoiled by meaning and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways.
- Oscar Wilde
I'm not saying that web designers should over-analyze their color choices. But they do need to keep in mind that this aspect of design can significantly impact a website. Web designers want to make the correct recommendations to clients because they ultimately want to give them the best website possible.
Want to Know more about Color Psychology to Get the Competitive Advantage
Read the 4-part how-to guide to Color Symbolism in Brand IMAGINEERING. We share how it affects Your Brand voice, visual identity, and equity; from logos to website design, BD, marketing, sales, and services, we start with answering what color psychology is and how the primary colors influence your emotions, choices, and perceptions.
A 4-part series of Color Symbolism in Brand IMAGINEERING and how it affects
Your Brand Voice, Visual Identity, and Equity,
from Logos to Website Design, BD, Marketing, Sales, and Services
A 4-part How-to Guide to Color Symbolism in Media, Marketing, and sales
Part 1 Primary Colors - The Psychology of Primary Colors in Branding and Marketing
Part 2 Warm Colors - The Psychology of Warm Colors in Branding and Marketing
Part 3 Cool Colors - The Psychology of Cool Colors in Branding and Marketing
Part 4 Neutral Colors - The Psychology of Neutral Colors in Branding and Marketing
Discover Brand Imagineering
Your brand Colors and What They Mean to Your Customers
Your Brand Voice, Visual Identity, and Equity
In this 4 part, how-to-guide, we share the best ways to find and select your brand color pallet with the twelve (12) most used colors and the emotions to create your branding color scheme from Content Branding Solutions.
We show proven expert tips to consider when using color in content creation and marketing and sales copy, websites, website design, book covers, logos, download, and sales buttons to get you the results and benefits you and your brand deserve.
We provide Expert Tips That have value, with proven benefits for you to consider when using color for logos, website development, design, book covers, marketing graphics for social media, LinkedIn, Twitter, Meta (Facebook), etc.
References for Part 1 Primary Colors
The Psychology of Primary Colors in Branding and Marketing
Complete Guide to Color in Design: Color Meaning, Color Theory, and More By Alex Clem | June 19, 2018.
Elliot AJ, Aarts H. Perception of the color red enhances the force and velocity of motor output. Emotion. 2011;11(2):445-9. doi:10.1037/a0022599
Thorndike AN, Sonnenberg L, Riis J, Barraclough S, Levy DE. A 2-phase labeling and choice architecture intervention to improve healthy food and beverage choices. Am J Public Health. 2012;102(3):527-533. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2011.300391
Color is vibration like music; everything is vibration.
- Marc Chagall.
