Colour Psychology

Psychology of colour: projecting a professional image with colour
 
When colour is used correctly, it can add impact and clarity to your message and highlight important points. When colour is used incorrectly, it can compromise your message and confuse your target audience.
 
Colour can work for your logo, web site and printed promotional materials in various ways:

• Colour emphasises, highlights, and leads the eye to important points or links
• Colour identifies recurring themes (i.e. titles and subtitles are usually the same colours)
• Conversely, colour can differentiate, such as different colours in pie charts and bar graphs
• Colour symbolises and trigger emotions and associations

Colour selection is a very important element in your corporate or web image, because colours have an effect on your visitors before they begin to read the content of your web site. Thus, it is very important for you to consider your target audience, the psychology of colour, and the corporate image you wish to project before you construct your web site.
 
The interpretation of a colour depends on culture, profession, and personal preference. In general, the colours red, orange, and yellow are “exciting” colours and the colours purple, blue, and green are “calming” colours.

Interpretation of colour is not always a matter of personal preference. For example, in Western cultures the colour white symbolises purity; however, in China the colour white symbolises death.
 
The type of profession you are practicing also influences what colours you will select for your corporate image. The table below shows just a few examples of how the same colours are interpreted in different professions.
 
To summarise;  it is very important for you to consider your target audience, the psychology of colour, and the corporate image you wish to project before you construct your web site, printed materials, and logo. As this is a vitally important part of your marketing, do feel free to take some advice from us first before proceeding. 

RED
Positive: Physical courage, strength, warmth, energy, basic survival, ‘fight or flight’, stimulation, masculinity, excitement.
Negative: Defiance, aggression, visual impact, strain.
BLUE
Positive: Intelligence, communication, trust, efficiency, serenity, duty, logic, coolness, reflection, calm.
Negative: Coldness, aloofness, lack of emotion, unfriendliness.
YELLOW
Positive: Optimism, confidence, self-esteem, extraversion, emotional strength, friendliness, creativity.
Negative: Irrationality, fear, emotional fragility, depression, anxiety, suicide.
GREEN
Positive: Harmony, balance, refreshment, universal love, rest, restoration, reassurance, environmental awareness, equilibrium, peace.
Negative: Boredom, stagnation, blandness, enervation.
VIOLET
Positive: Spiritual awareness, containment, vision, luxury, authenticity, truth, quality.
Negative: Introversion, decadence, suppression, inferiority.
ORANGE
Positive: Physical comfort, food, warmth, security, sensuality, passion, abundance, fun.
Negative: Deprivation, frustration, frivolity, immaturity.
PINK
Positive: Physical tranquility, nurture, warmth, femininity, love, sexuality, survival of the species.
Negative: Inhibition, emotional claustrophobia, emasculation, physical weakness.
GREY
Positive: Psychological neutrality.
Negative: Lack of confidence, dampness, depression, hibernation, lack of energy.
BLACK
Positive: Sophistication, glamour, security, emotional safety, efficiency, substance.
Negative: Oppression, coldness, menace, heaviness.
WHITE
Positive: Hygiene, sterility, clarity, purity, cleanness, simplicity, sophistication, efficiency.
Negative: Sterility, coldness, barriers, unfriendliness, elitism.
BROWN
Positive: Seriousness, warmth, nature, earthiness, reliability, support.
Negative: Lack of humour, heaviness, lack of sophistication.
You also need to consider colours in certain professions:

Be Seen, Be Found, Be Accessible, Be Successful!