Color has been an important aspect of marketing for decades. Whether using a logo maker or working with a professional designer, it’s important to understand how shades and hues can affect your audience’s perception of the business. While each person relies on their own experiences to create color associations, there are still many aspects of the concept that can help influence potential customers. Here is a quick look at the different messages colors can convey.
The Emotional Rainbow
The idea behind color theory is simple. Certain colors can generate different emotions in the viewer. Research has suggested that personal experience trumps this concept, but that may only be in specific instances. In general, a color will evoke a particular feeling regardless of an individual’s history. For example, the color green is associated with the beauty of nature, the power of growth, and the stability of finances.
The kinds of emotions that each shade instills are based on context. While a candy company may flourish by creating brown iconography with a logo maker, the marketing team for a cleaning company may want to avoid its association with dirt. Many of the colors that people interacted with in their youth make a comeback as a way to build brand awareness. Depending on the shades and hues used, the emotions that coincide with each color include:
Black
You only need to say the term “black tie” to understand what kinds of feelings are brought about by this bold color. Black is often associated with prestige and power. Brands including Gucci, Prada, and Coach often reproduce their emblems in stark black and white to exemplify their opulent products. Black also echoes the high quality found in companies such as Sony and Audi as well.
Red
When creating branding with a logo maker, companies may want to choose red to indicate strength and power. With the color evoking images of blood and fire, fear of danger is an appropriate emotional response. In addition, roses have tied the color with romance and sexuality as well, since red also suggests passion and romance as well.
Orange
Like its namesake fruit, this color brings forth ideas of warmth, relaxation, and tropical venues. This also ties branding to fun and excitement, such as in the Nickelodeon and Harley Davidson. Even the Amazon logo can be easily identified by the bright orange arrow-shaped smile affixed to all of its shipping containers!
Yellow
Electric and exciting, the color yellow is often associated with warm, positive feelings. It is also the first color the eye recognizes, explaining why cautionary road signs and school buses are painted in those hues. Since 90% of quick decisions about brands are based on color, choosing yellow is a great way to get spotted before the competition.
Green
In America, “greenback” has been used as slang for cash, a concept that has made it into marketing the world over. TD Bank has taken the idea to heart with their logo, while companies such as Whole Foods and Tropicana look to be associated with the color’s feelings of freshness and the natural world.
Blue
The business world loves blue. It evokes a strong feeling of dependability and calm, to the extent that some hospitals even paint their walls in those shades to help their patients relax. Companies including IBM, Hewlett Packard, and Vimeo all leverage these emotions to create unique iconography that builds confidence in their brand.
Purple
For a long time, the color purple represented royalty due to the high cost of indigo dyes. As the concept of noble majesty has waned, today it engenders more of a sentimental and nostalgic feeling. Other companies have used purple in their logos to express a sense of creativity and imagination, while Mattel’s Barbie logo uses that color to combine those ideas into one product line.
White
From wedding dresses to fresh restaurant linens, white is the color of purity and cleanliness that everyone can quickly recognize. While white alone doesn’t make for an attractive image, choosing the right associative colors with a logo maker can marry these concepts with other feelings to create a more complex representation of the company’s ideals.
Why Logos Matter
A logo provides a first impression of your company to potential customers. Studies have shown that the human brain often makes a purchasing decision before the conscious mind realizes it. Crafting a recognizable logo that engenders certain feelings about your brand is an excellent way to build a loyal customer base. Marketing your image is essential to creating a loyal and lasting customer base, and by using a great color scheme your business can paint a picture of its strengths and values that everyone can identify with!