we're going to be discussing the meaning of color in design and how you can use color to change perceptions subconsciously. So studies show that a product's color has 60 to 80% influence over a customer's purchasing decision. So that just goes to show. How much of a really big deal choosing a color is and why you shouldn't just choose a color arbitrarily because you like it.
You really need to do your research on what types of colors go
with what you're trying to sell, and what types of colors have influence over
different types of perceptions. What is their meaning? What are the
connotations that people feel? Or infer whenever you get a certain color or a
certain item in a certain color.
Red
So let's first begin by talking about red you can see some
really famous brands that have red as a major part of their design. Red gives off
the feeling of something very aggressive, so you'll see red a lot. In a car
type of advertising. So you see that there for fiat. and fiat really has kept
red as a very iconic part of their logo.
other car companies nowadays have kind of maybe moved away from
red a little bit as far as the actual color of their logo. but. Cars like
Honda,,, started out with a red logo, and now, now really they have
kind of more. Just get away from the red, but that was something they started
with.
You also see energy, so that's, a really great way to show
energy. Red's a really powerful color. Red's also provocative, in that you
see. You know, we associate red with, a color that really evokes a lot of
emotion
we also see red in situations where attention is being called
to something so cautious.
so red is very attention-grabbing Red is also very sexy.
That's what we think of when we think of a color that says sexy.
You think of red. , you remember the scene in the. The lady
with the red dress. That's just the iconic idea of what sexy means in red. ,
and you see it a lot in food advertising too.
I think probably a lot of that is due to the fact that it is.
Energetic and attention-grabbing. so we see it so, so often in food logos. ,
and as you can see, a lot of other varied types of logos use this color. It's
the second most popular color for a logo, in fact.
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| What do colors mean in logo design |
Purple
Purple. You can see there are not as many examples of purple
logos here because purple isn't used quite as often because it has a pretty
specific meaning.
Purple has a feeling of royalty. So we do see, the Cadbury and
the Hallmark really having that idea of the royalty kind of going along with
it, especially in Hallmark with the Crown.
but we also see. With purple nostalgia, which I really get the
nostalgic feeling from, the La Lakers logo because it still has a very retro
feel to it.
They've had that logo, for quite a while. , so I really get the purple nostalgia. Connotation there.
you also get mystery, which I think
comes across pretty well for the sci-fi logo and spirituality.
A lot of religious iconographies you'll see depicted with
colors of purple a lot of the time because of that link to royalty as well.
Blue
We also have blue. Now blue is the most popular color for a
logo, and there's a good reason for that. A lot of the meaning of blue is very,
very positive connotations. so trustworthy is one of the first. Things that
come to mind whenever you think of Blue.
And so it's a great color for most companies. Most companies
wanna be seen as trustworthy.
Blue also is a symbol of security. So we see blue a lot for things like banks, and things that you want to be secure, like data technology.
we see Blue as a dependable color really synonymous with trustworthiness and security.
Green
we've got Green Next and Green has some similar meanings to
Blue but is a little bit less popular, especially nowadays, I would say,
because green has taken on this meaning of this, kind of movement towards
clean energy. And so there are so many things being used that are green.
but green is a great color for a logo. It depicts wealth. , A
lot of times banks will actually stray away from using green because it is such
a powerful connotation. You don't really see a lot of banks with a green logo
because the first thing you think of a lot of times when you see green is
money.
It's just so obvious of a choice for a bank. , that blue for a lot of banks, is a better choice because that's what they want their customers to think of. They want their customers to think, you can trust us with your money instead of just the money aspect. So we see green a lot of times in reality.
Affluent brands. So we see Land Rover, low cost, and Starbucks here being brands that you associate with maybe being more wealthy.
We also see it for health, which kind of goes along with clean energy, idea, and prestige. Kind of going back to the wealth idea, it's a
great color for a logo that you want to feel.
Yellow
Now, yellow is our next color. We have. And you can see that
yellow is also very attention-grabbing.
yellow is seen as a very positive color, a very happy color. We
get light with yellow, so a lot of times you'll see that for things that are
wanting to be depicted as something that you kind of look towards.
warmth is also associated with yellow. Motivation is associated
with yellow. And creativity. So I see a lot of the idea of you know, in
Sonic and the Cheerios, the idea of the food aspect being positive and
trying to have that very unassing and inviting color of yellow as part of
theirs.
Orange
We've also got orange. And orange is a very interesting color.
It really reflects the vitality, so you'll see it in different types of brands.
It's almost, I would say orange is seen almost as kind of an
alternative type of color because it's a great mix between yellow and red. So
you get a lot of those differences. Connotations kind of from each and meeting in
the middle.
Orange is seen as fun. So you have the sophistication of red with the fun, really playful, and maybe even younger feel that yellow has playful again.
really coming through in
like the Nickelodeon logo. The PTO one we see down. exuberant. That is a great
way to describe Orange.
Brown
So our next color is brown. And brown isn't really used very
often and part of the reasoning for that is that brown has some really specific
meanings and connotations as well. We see a lot of these candies, and logos
because we have that strong association.
Association with chocolate. , but Brown also has an earth-like
feel, which I think is a lot of why we see it in, Louis Vuitton, because of
the leather feeling that they are going for.
We get a very natural feeling with Brown. Simplistic. So it
feels a lot of times like that is a very basic color. You know, you kind of
think of the color of dirt.
It seems very simple. , but also brown is the color of durability, which I think is very interesting and kind of shows why maybe UPS chose to have Brown as part of their
logo colors in that they are saying
that they kind of. Connote this sort of durability in the service that they're
providing.
Black
Black is a very common color for logos, and we see it for a lot of different types of logos.
In the first part of the
design phase when you're designing in black you'll design something and then you might
realize, you know, this, doesn't really have a color that makes a lot of
sense for it, so let's leave it black and white.
that's gonna be the most neutral a lot of times at least in
certain cultures. Now, we'll, what we'll come to find is that it's. In some
cultures the meaning of it is, but a lot of these logos are black and
white.
And because of that, we're able to kind of have a balance
there so we can see that black means prestige.
So we definitely get that from Georgio Armani value is
denoted by black timelessness and sophistication, but also death. Now that is a
Western cultural perception as we'll learn in a moment.
White
Now we also have white and white in Western culture, which again,
shows purity, nobility, clean.
And soft are some different meanings for white. And you can see
some of the different logos that we're maybe more used to seeing as white. But
again, , it's a black-and-white type of thing. A lot of times it's one of those
very reversible types of things. So when you'll see this, , a lot of times it's
going to maybe be one color or the.
Now let's talk really quickly about western versus eastern
perceptions. So in the Western world, white is linked with purity and
innocence. Red is linked with anger, and black has that negative death
connotation.
in some scenarios, a lot of times in fashion, especially black
is gonna be perceived as, something that's good, but whenever.
Have it in a certain context. Black is seen as, oh, you know,
maybe that's a little bit scary. In Eastern culture, you don't see that in
eastern culture.
White actually has the link to mourning and death, not black.
Red is actually linked with happiness. So a lot of, you know, in Chinese
culture you see so, so much red and yellow also.
So those are both linked with happiness, whereas red, Uh, anger in Western culture. we, don't have a negative view of the color black in Eastern culture the way that we do here as much. So that's something to keep in mind when you're choosing those colors, , especially if it's a polarizing type of service that you Working for that company.
it might be something that you don't wanna choose a color that's going to be just black or just white at least primarily, green is regarded as one of the safest colors to use in both markets, and blue also has a pretty universal meaning. So green has been used a lot in technology brands.
We also learned that it's a very. It's, it's used quite a bit
and part of that is just because it is such a safe color to use in both sides
of the world. So I think for our logo
