Colour in design and marketing
Often faced a situation where my clients ask for a specific color to use in their logo.
My answer points them to understand the criteria of picking the right color according to the psychology of color in branding. In marketing, advertising, branding every color has a different meaning and communicates different messages. As a designer my aim is to solve a problem and find a solution that must work. Color emotionally influence your consumers. In this article I want to resume the meaning of the most used color. You can also find more, about this interesting topic, in numerous educational YouTube videos provided by companies like The Marketing Heaven.
Get creative logo color inspiration and choose the right logo color schemes that can help establish your brand identity.
• Logo Color Meaning
Learning the hidden meaning behind logo colors will help you choose the right color that can convey your brand concept better. Red is a universal color of passion, love, energy and power. The yellow color is often associated with joy, happiness and optimism. Green inspires a sense of nature and freshness. And blue evokes a feeling of calmness, intelligence and trust.
• Logo Color Combinations
Use colors that work best together to perfect your logo design. If you are looking for suggestions for color palettes, you can try the popular color combinations like yellow & red, black & red, blue & white. The complementary color combinations are also a great choice, such as blue & orange, yellow & violet.
• Gradient Logo Color
The gradient colors are commonly used in logo design. Adding gradient effects on your logo will definitely make it eye-catching and stand out from the others. And it is easy to make a gradient logo with our simple logo maker, since any color transition can be completed only by a few clicks.
Simple And Logical – Design Studio – Pantone and CMYK colors
CMYK Color
If you remember learning about primary colors in grade school, you have a good start for understanding how CMYK works. CMYK stands for cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (the “k” comes from the word “key,” a printing term). You can mix these four colors to get an array of secondary and tertiary colors like violet, orange, and just about every color from your kindergarten crayon box. However, the one pitfall of CMYK is that different brands of ink tend to have color palettes that vary from each other. If you’re using different printers for your branded materials, your colors may not be 100% consistent.
Pantone (PMS) Color
Unlike CMYK, Pantone uses a standardized color reproduction system referred to as the PMS color process (Pantone Matching System). Each Pantone color, or “spot color”, has a unique identification number.
This system allows you to take your Pantone color to any printer on the planet and have your project come out with exactly-matching hues. And if you’re a brand that relies heavily on a very specific color (think “Home Depot Orange,” “Coca-Cola Red”, or “Barbie Pink”), you can see why Pantone would be invaluable.
The only down side to the PMS system is that your options are slightly more limited than CMYK. Because Pantone has a predetermined set of colors, you’ll have to work within their system. In other words, you can’t create any color and translate it flawlessly to Pantone. Instead, your color-picking process is more like when you visit the paint section at the hardware store. You select from a range of shades available to you, and an employee mixes that exact shade for you to take home.
RGB Color
As we mentioned up top, RGB uses three colors (red, green, and blue) in different combinations to create every color of the rainbow. On computers, TVs, and mobile devices there are small dots of light in your screen that emit different amounts of red, green, and blue. Your eyes interpret these mixtures as different individual colors. RGB uses a subtractive color mixing process to create all colors, where RGB together makes white and the absence of red, green, and blue makes black.
Red │ 
It symbolizes power, desire, strength, domination, and passion, but also moves to work and success. Red colour stimulates the appetite and attracts attention. However, due to its intensity, it should be used in moderation and harmonized in communication – e.g. use for new products or promotions, because it awakens in us a sense of “urgency”, so in a way it makes us go to “action” as soon as possible, in this case, shopping.
Yellow │ 
Everything that is happy is almost always yellow. We associate it with the sun and light, which is, like red, a colour that increases the feeling of excitement. On social networks, colour is highly visible because it attracts our eyes more than any other colour on the spectrum. The wavelength of yellow is incredibly long, which makes it one of the most powerful psychological meanings. Yellow is a cheerful, fun, optimistic and uniquely bright colour with the potential to lift the mood. Yellow means happiness, positivity, energy, optimism, memory, honour and loyalty. It is an excellent choice for the kitchen because it stimulates the appetite.
Orange │ 
Represents energy and liveliness while also indicating a friendly approach. We associate it with the sun and fire, and it awakens us with a feeling of enthusiasm. In marketing, it is often used as a call to action and represents young, friendly, relaxed brands. The vibration of the orange colour indicates self-confidence and a new beginning. Orange is associated with creativity and represents change and movement in general. It is why it is convenient to use when we want to draw attention to something new, unique, or limited edition.
Green │ 
A color which immediately reminds you the nature. It represents and communicates peaceful, calm, health, creativity, balance, growth, freshness and prosperity. Green color can be considered mainly positive. Very used in eco-friendly products and brands. It is also used in the night vision because our eyes can discern more shades of it.
Purple │ 
Applies to a soothing colour. It evokes a sense of glamour, mystery, wealth, and arrogance. It seems enigmatic and magical and is associated with luxury, pride, and ambition. Throughout history, it has been associated with ruling families. This colour carries a warm and cold mood, depending on which colour it is combined with. In marketing, purple represents creative and imaginative brands. Lighter tones depict tenderness and femininity, while darker shades are the best choice for luxury brands.
Pink │ 
We associate it with love and romance. It is an elegant and positive colour and is generally considered feminine. It is mainly used in the cosmetics, fashion, and beauty industries because it is considered a gentle and exclusively feminine colour, even for children. Although her tones indicate a friendly, bold, and generally modern style, she deviates from the development of the brand for these purposes.
Brown │ 
It is not convenient to communicate as the primary colour on social networks (unless it directly speaks the brand for the country, plants, food production, etc.). It is helpful to replace it with GOLD, which symbolizes wealth, prosperity, and abundance. Psychologically, the golden colour seems optimistic and cheerful. The colour is undoubtedly glamorous, associated with good times, celebrations, and splendour. However, it should be moderate and used only to highlight keywords.
Grey │ 
First of all, grey color is a mixture of white and black. It is a neutral and timeless color that can be applied for different purposes. Grey is modern color and evokes balance, intelligence and strength. Grey can be lighter or darker, there are many shades of it. It can be also associated with many other color.
White │ 
Universal colour of peace, purity, light, new beginning, characterized as the colour of perfection. Like black, it provides several possibilities, but on the networks, it primarily communicates the basis, simplicity, freshness, and freedom and, in combination with other colours, creates an ideal balance.
Black │
By understanding the psychology of color in branding you can assume the importance of selecting the right one. Is not only about aesthetic but is more about functionality. Your brand talks, communicates, shares, inspires, and color are one of the main source to do it well. Check also my article where I explain the process of designing a logo, from start to end. Choice and application of color in a logo is part of the design thinking. As the italian designer Massimo Vignelli was saying: “If you do it right, it will last forever”.
Combine well! Elegant colour choices attract attention and send a message with compelling visuals.
And in the end
Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that’s easy.What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.Simple And Logical™
2 Responses
The psychology of colour is indeed complex. I have studied it in some depth in a previous career and would just add a couple of qualifiers. 1/ Context and shade are both important. The colours women are not supposed to like are frequently used in various shades for interior decor. 2/ Other studies have shown there to be cultural impacts on preferences 3/ With the exception of yellows for happiness and red to stimulate action or hunger, there appears to be a cycle of colour preference in merchandising as well as in fashion. I concur with all of the advice provided so long as one bears in mind that the specifics are fluid and its important to remain current. Thanks for a very good post on a topic seldom covered !
Hi Paul. Thanks so much for the comment. I completely agree. The specifics need to remain fluid and current. There is also a vast disparity between online and offline interaction and how your brain processes different elements. What may cause friction online may be completely irrelevant offline and vice versa. And yes, cultural impacts wreak havoc on conversion optimization processes and obliterate any notion of “best practices”(a word we hate to use in conversion optimization). Thanks for the in-depth comments. I appreciate it.