Colour is quite arguably the most important component of a project's finished design. Whether you're working on packaging, a logo, or a company's entire identitiy, colour plays a fundamental role in the process. When successfully used, colour will grab a person's attention, and evoke a range of emotions within them. Colour can also be linked to a company directly, and form the basis of their identity. IBM blue, anyone?
Even when simply in black and white, the choices behind a project's colour palette plays a significant part of the design process. Designers know well just how much a colour palette that's incongruent with the message they're trying to communicate can ruin the entire design. When envisioning a finished design, it's always good to first think of the emotions you wish to evoke in the audience, and thus select an appropriate palette.
As an example of the various emotions colour can evoke in a person, consider the two most "sentimental" times of day; the sunrise and sunset.
They are both "transitional" times of day. They are a time where either dark changes to light, or light changes to dark. A beginning and an end - and the colours reflect this perfectly.
During a sunrise, the sky is awash with a soft but bright and lively blues, as well as the yellow of the sun peeking over the horizon. Soft pinks reflect off of the clouds. These colours serve to refresh us, awaken us, and make us feel "alive" for the day ahead. Sunrises provide us with the energy, optimism, and feelings of life.
Sunsets, on the other hand, evoke much different emotions. A sunset is the end of the day, and feels warm and tender. It's a relaxing time, with oranges, yellows, and reds ruling the sky, and so feels very loving and passionate.
Just seeing these two pictures of sunrise/sunset can evoke the same emotions as the actual event does (albeit to a lesser degree), because we recall the event when presented with these colours. Colour acts as an anchor, that is, a trigger for conditioned stimulus.
It isn’t just these colors that act as anchors. All do. For example, the color red can convey love, passion, anger and danger. Green can convey wellbeing, nature, envy or wealth.
As a designer, knowing what colors evoke what emotions and communicate what ideas to an audience is an absolutely crucial skill. What follows is a few colour combinations, as well as how they’ve successfully been used in various projects to communicate a message.
Reds
Another color that instantly grabs our attention and doesn’t let go, red is a color that sparks ideas of love, passion, heat and danger.
Red is classically the color of love, and is used in abundance around such holidays as Valentines Day. Love hearts, red roses and red ribbons and bows are all well-known symbols of romance.
In contrast, red can also be used as a symbol of danger or warning. Notice the stop signs, traffic lights, and other items scattered throughout our lives all colored red warning us of a dangerous situation. It is also the color of the Matador’s cape, used to entice the bull into a rage, as well as the color of blood – which humans have a naturally withdrawn response to
Yellow is a very energetic and bright, welcoming color. It is associated with the day and summertime. For these reasons, it’s not surprising that yellow is a color synonymous with happiness.
It is also said to being exposed to the color can spark creativity, and thus has become associated with it. Think of the yellow lightbulb hovering above the cartoon character’s head when he/she gets a bright idea.
Oranges
When yellows and reds are mixed, oranges occur. It retains the energy and welcoming of yellow, while keeping the heat and passion of red.
It is a very warming and tender color, and can be fiery but not overwhelming.
Blues
Bright Blue
Bright blue is a very common color in our everyday lives. It can be refreshing, such as the bright blues present at sunrise on the coast. It is soothing, cool, and pleasant.
Medium Blue
It’s funny, how a simple change in tone can change the mood of a color instantly. A slightly darker blue can convey the winter, coldness, feelings of loneliness and depression.
In western culture, blue alone is symbolic of sadness – ‘I’m feeling blue today.’
On the other hand, as brighter blues transition into navy blue, their use takes can take on a more professional and corporate tone.
Navy Blue
Navy blue usually suggests formality, authority, and tradition. It is widely used in the corporate sector, as the color instantly builds trust in an individual. It is a sensible, working, and ‘proper’ color.
Think of the classic navy blue business suit, or the blue of the Oxford University logo.
Greens
Green has a few different meanings associated with it. In the West, it is commonly representative of money, wealth, affluence and capitalism, due to the color of United States banknotes.
Green is also synonymous with nature, and is now used widely as a term referring to environmentally friendly produce or practices. It is commonly used as the base color for ‘organic’ themed works, and is also a symbol of health.
Green can additionally be used to symbol the ‘go-ahead’, such as when used in traffic lights, or as the color of a ‘tick’, meaning ‘correct.’
Aqua / Turquoise
When a light green is mixed with a light blue, it produces a very cooling or refreshing tone, much more so than when the colors are used individually.
It reminds of peace, calm and still, and thus it is seen used frequently in the logos for therapeutical companies. The color tone pleasantly asks us to relax.
Black / Darker Shades
Black is a color very useful for attracting attention, and commanding respect. It is simple and bold, and speaks of class, richness and honor.
A simple splash of color against a black or dark background is instantly attention grabbing, and stands out from a crowd. Many have used a basis of black to create an attitude of class, and it is used as the basis for many respectful projects.
Black is timeless. It will always be used. There really is not much else to say – the color black can do the talking for itself.
Rich Tones
A rich tone is a color moving closer to black. Because of this, it can evoke not only the emotions associated with the original color, but also command the respect tied in with black.
A richer red can accent the feelings of passion and desire. A richer green can evoke stronger responses to nature and the environment.
Pastel Tones
Pastels are tones that move closer to white. They have a light, airy essence to them, and are laced with a sense of calm and relaxation.
They have a soft, delicate essence to them. They can be used well for portraying elegance, and also speak both of youth, yet have a nurturing quality to them too.
Colour is an important aspect of an image. It evokes the audiences emotions, and gets them involved within the piece. When thinking about the different emotions you wish to bring forth in person, be sure to pick particular colour in order to do so. For even more inspiration, you can refer to specific images, or scenes from movies, etc., whose colour palette you can take inspiration from.
