Color Psychology and You

Image from https://www.canva.com/logos/color-psychology-the-logo-color-tricks-used-by-top-companies/

Ever wonder why so many fast-food restaurants have red logos? Why is blue the most popular color? Why do people use purple or black for luxury products? Why do I feel happy when I see yellow?

The answer to ALL those questions has to do with color psychology. Color psychology is the study and practice of how different colors can affect human emotions and behavior. It is derived from two main factors: nature and culture.

Certain colors in nature mean certain things; green is commonly associated with fresh, healthy plants, while red often means “I’m deadly!” or “I taste nasty!”, such as a poisonous tree frog. But color association is also created from culture. In China, red is connected with luck and wealth. Black is associated with mourning…but not in Ethiopia, where the main mourning color is white. Purple and blue cloth was almost exclusively for royalty because those colors so expensive to make. And so on and so forth.

Color psychology is a very important aspect of graphic design. Good designers learn what certain colors mean within cultures or common usage, so they know which colors are best for a particular audience or message.  We are trying to tap into the customer’s subconscious mind, so they respond emotionally or physically to our message without even realizing it.

Below I have compiled a list of common colors and the emotions or reactions (good and bad) they are associated with. Which one is your favorite?

RED: This is one of the “Fast Food Three” colors, or colors that many fast-food restaurants use for their logos and branding. That is because RED is a bold and energetic color that can literally make you hungry! Red is associated with love, attention, power, and confidence. There is research suggesting that red is the color our brains process in the shortest amount of time, which is why stoplights, stop signs, and “warning” signs are red. But red is also well-associated with anger, hatred, and aggressiveness.

ORANGE: Another “Fast Food Three” color, ORANGE is an energetic color as well, but with more cheer and optimism than red. Often associated with enthusiasm, friendliness, and fun, orange is a very social or even extroverted color. However, like red, it too is often used for “warning” and “caution” signs and is sometimes connected with immaturity and ignorance.

YELLOW: The last of the “Fast Food Three," YELLOW is not only energetic, but very happy! More cheerful than orange, it is connected with warmth, optimism, and creativity (why yellow light bulbs often represent ideas). Yellow can literally lift your spirits just by viewing it, which is one of the reasons why people feeling happier on sunny days. Pure yellow is also used for warning signs because of its visibility, and it is sometimes associated with sickness and cowardice (“yellow-bellied,” “yellow-livered,” etc.)

GREEN: Now we are getting into the cooler, calmer colors. GREEN is best known for its connection with health, nature, life, and growth. You will see many health and environmentally-friendly companies or products using green in their branding. Green is also associated with money and luck (think St. Patrick’s Day), as well as “go,” “safe,” or “enter” signs. On the other end, as so many Disney villain songs show us, green can also mean corruption or poison.

BLUE: This is literally the most popular color in the world. Calming and soothing, BLUE creates thoughts of peace, stability, safety, and cleanliness. It is also an authoritative color, representing freedom, trust, loyalty, and confidence. This, combined with the difficulty and high price of drying fabric blue throughout history, is why it is called a “royal” color. But it’s not all good; blue is also associated with coldness, sadness, and aloofness.

PURPLE: The most royal of the colors, the words connected to PURPLE reflect it: wealthy, luxurious, noble, wise. As mentioned in my intro, purple dye was pricy and hard to create, so for centuries "royal purple" was not only a color, but a status symbol. Magic and mystery are also associated with purple, which you will often see in descriptions of witches and magicians in books and movies. But there are some not-so-noble emotions of purple: snobbishness, detachment, and extravagance.

PINK: There is interesting history with this color. Although it is currently known as a feminine and youthful color, PINK used to be a very masculine color because it was a paler version of red, which was considered a “manly” shade. Pink shares the same Red emotions of energy and romance, while branching off into its own descriptive words such as delicate, soft, caring, and playful. Unfortunately those same ties to youth can also tie it to immaturity, materialism, and ignorance.

WHITE and BLACK: Queen Victoria was the first to start the WHITE wedding dress trend way back in 1840, and it has continued to this day. White represents purity, cleanliness, and bridal (of course), but it has also developed throughout the years to mean sophisticated and modern. However, that same lack of color can also be interpreted as sterile, emotionless, and empty.

The second of the sophisticated colors, BLACK is known for being powerful, luxurious, and professional. But it is also connected to more painful feelings: mourning, darkness, and fear. In western culture, black is closely associated with funerals and death. I find black to be a curious combination of power and powerlessness, confidence and fear, elegance and evil.

Most companies have at least one white and one black variation of their logo, but black and white together tend to be the main colors of high-end companies such as fashion brands.

Keep in mind, there are no hard-and-fast rules about color usage! Taco Bell, a fast-food restaurant, recently changed their main color to purple. UPS combines brown, which is a very dependable color, with yellow, which is not. Keep your eyes peeled for the branding color choices of certain companies. You will probably find that they chose them for a reason!

I am a big fan of color psychology, and I implemented it into my own personal branding. Take a look at my logo here: what emotions and reactions do you think I am trying to create in viewers and readers? Let me know in the comments!

All the best,

Brittany Becker