Have You Ever Thought About How Colour Affects Your Brand?

Colour plays a massive part in how you’re perceived. No matter what you provide, knowing colours and what they symbolise will help you to connect with your audience more strongly, often without them even realising it – sneaky!

But what EXACTLY does this mean for marketers?

It’s good to know that in it’s simplest terms, colour equals emotion, which means certain colours will encourage certain actions. Of course, from a design perspective, colour will help you to either stand out (good), or blend in (bad). It helps your audience to see what you want them to see.

Understanding colour in every sense gives you more control, and this is important because poor use of colours can actually be detrimental to your brand.

For the purposes of this blog post, we’re diving into the emotional and psychological side of colour, and learning what meaning different colours hold.

Red is all about attention. Wherever there is red, that is where the eye is drawn to – that’s why you see it used a lot on buttons that will lead to some kind of conversion. It invokes very strong emotions, and as such should be used sparingly, as too much can be deemed alarming and aggressive.

Next up, we have orange, and this gives a sense of creativity, enthusiasm and success. It adds fun to whatever it’s sprinkled on. It catches the eye in a similar way to, but isn’t quite as commanding so you can afford to be more heavy handed with it should you wish to do so.

Perhaps yellow is more to your liking? When you think of yellow, you think happiness and positivity, and a touch of yellow in your content is a good thing. However, like with red, too much can cause problems, as it is also a warning colour, best demonstrated by those poisonous dart frogs you’d see in the rainforest.

Speaking of forests, we shall now move onto green. Green signals growth and health, and has strong connections to nature and money. That’s why you see it used a lot by environmental and conservational organisations. It can also relate to envy, so just be mindful of that if you’re thinking of incorporating green into your designs any time soon.

Now onto blue, which symbolises stability and trust, perhaps because it is so closely tied to the sea and sky. Because of this, you tend to see it used to highlight guarantees that brands make to their customers. Be wary of using it too generously though, because it can be seen as cold, meaning it won’t harbour connections well.

Purple is a royal colour, and as such has strong links to power, luxury and wisdom. You see it used a lot with premium brands to highlight their quality. Whilst this is generally seen as a plus point, just bear in mind that some believe too much can also signify arrogance, which can be a big turn-off for people.

Finally, we move onto black and white, the staples of all colour palettes. Black is associated with power and sophistication, and is often used to maintain consistency amongst themes, whilst white is linked to purity, goodness and humility, AND because white is the sum of all other colours combined, is also underpins all of their qualities.