Colour Psychology and how it impacts your business

Colour Psychology

Colour and colour psychology plays a massive role in our day to day life, it influences us in our decisions and impacts our mood. When it comes to designs and branding it is important to choose your colour carefully and stick with it. Research shows that colour helps people recognise your brand by up to 80%.

Although there are many ideas and perceptions about what colours mean, studies have shown that different colours invoke different reactions, therefore it is important to understand what each colour represents to be able to choose the right colour palette for your audience.

In layman terms, colours on the warm end of the spectrum such as red, orange and yellow are said to be warm and happy compared to the cooler side of the spectrum with its blues and greens, which are associated with health and serenity. Colour enables us to make these associations, therefore altering our perception of a brand.

Here is a quick overview of each colour.

Red – Warm, exciting, urgent.

Orange – Creative, warm and enthusiastic.

Yellow – Optimism, clarity, happiness.

Green – Health, peaceful, growth.

Blue – Calming, strength, tranquil.

Purple – Grandeur, Royalty, Mysticism.

Pink – Feminine, love, passion.

Black – Professional, credible, pwerful.

White – Clean, pure, clinical.

Colour Wheel

In addition to understanding colour psychology, it is important to understand what colours work well together. The colour wheel is the perfect way to understand which colours compliment and harmonise with each other.

Colours that sit opposite on the colour wheel are the best suited colours to compliment each other such as, red and green, orange and blue, purple and yellow. The two colours that sit either side of your chosen colour are colours that harmonise, a perfect example would be blue, teal and green.

If your brand is multi national or worldwide then it is important to understand what certain colour represent in various countries. For example did you know that in some countries black is the colour of danger instead of red?

Want to read more? Come explore our Christmas Colour Palette post where we go through some festive colour options.