We are surrounded by millions of colors everyday, and each one of them evokes an emotional response within us, whether conscious or subconscious (sometimes referred to as color psychology. Have you ever noticed that stepping into a room with blue walls makes you feel calmer? Or when surrounded by large amounts or red you feel aggressive or hungry? Both of these are examples of emotional responses to the colors around you.
Every color is related to an emotion or specific activity in the brain. For example, purple stimulates problem-solving brain activity, while yellow sparks creativity. So, in addition to the aesthetic components of visual compositions, colors actually inspire your emotions. It is especially important to consider this when designing a business system, marketing materials, logo or environment for your customers or prospective clients. Using the wrong colors or wrong color combinations can be detrimental to your business. Clients may feel disconnected from your company if the color(s) used are neutral to the viewer or worse, off-putting.
Here’s a quick list of how each color makes people feel:
Black: authority, intelligence, evil, seriousness, seduction, mystery
Blue: (blue is the most universally liked color) calm, trust, dependable, mature, cool/cold
White: pure, clean, (in some Eastern countries white is the color of mourning)
Gray: practical, solid, old, depressed
Red: attention getter, energy, love, aggression, hunger
Pink: (pink is the most calming of all colors), sweet, soft, safe, love
Green: growth, youth, learning, money, calming, envy, luck, fertility, generosity, peace
Purple: royal, fake/artificial, mystery, wisdom, dignity
Yellow: happiness, creativity, optimism, (too much can cause aggression)
Orange: energy, warmth, ambition, new dawn
Brown: reliability, stability, natural
Want more info? This is the first in a series of color focused blog posts from Miss Details Design.