Color Psychology 101

Max­i­miz­ing col­or psy­chol­o­gy — the under­ly­ing mean­ing of col­or — will ben­e­fit you in all the ways you use it, from brand­ing, where col­or choice is crit­i­cal, to mar­ket­ing and graphics. 

This is the first in our three-part series on Col­or Psy­chol­o­gy, which we cre­at­ed to serve your best use of color’s many under­ly­ing influ­ences. The series con­tin­ues through March, unwrap­ping three often veiled aspects of col­or. Once you under­stand them, it will change the way you see every­thing and empow­er you to use col­or to your high­est advantage!

Color Psychology 101

1. Don’t Pick Color Based on Visuals Alone 

When first approach­ing col­or, we tend to pick what we like, which can be influ­enced by any­thing from what’s trend­ing to tra­di­tion­al col­or the­o­ry (ie: com­ple­men­tary or con­trast­ing). But that means the focus is on the visu­al appeal alone when there are so many more active ele­ments to uti­lize!  Take a look at how col­or impacts each of us in ways we may not ful­ly realize:

Rec­og­nize some of the above facts from your own expe­ri­ence as a con­sumer?  Be strate­gic in your use of col­or to inten­tion­al­ly impact your or your client’s brand, prod­uct, or service. 

2. Color Communicates More Than Copy

Peo­ple reg­is­ter col­or well before copy… or even shapes or a design! Sta­tis­tics sug­gest 80%  of brands are iden­ti­fied by col­or alone. If asked what brand they asso­ciate with a col­or, most peo­ple will say the same thing! For exam­ple, red con­jures up the Coca-Cola logo, blue, the Face­book cube, green points to Whole Foods, among oth­ers, and so on.  Col­or is key to reach­ing your customers.

3. Color Consistency is Critical in Branding

Because col­or is reg­is­tered more pro­found­ly than any oth­er ele­ment, the more con­sis­tent­ly you use your brand col­or, the more you will build your brand recog­ni­tion. And that’s the crit­i­cal build­ing block to every­thing else you work so hard to accom­plish. Our full series will cov­er the key points you need along with our Free 2020 Col­or Trends Guidebook.

4. Download the Color Trends Guidebook

Our annu­al Guide­book is packed with infor­ma­tion to pro­vide an even deep­er dive. The fresh year is a per­fect time to do this work! 

Since col­or use is a huge aspect of suc­cess­ful­ly brand­ing, mar­ket­ing and grow­ing your busi­ness, you cer­tain­ly have ques­tions. We’ve got answers.  Let’s talk and make 2020 the year you crush your goals!

Com­ing Next Month: Col­or affects how we feel, and that makes it a pow­er­ful tool. Are the col­ors you’re using com­mu­ni­cat­ing what you intend? Look for the next post in our Col­or Psy­chol­o­gy Series on How Col­or Evokes Emotion.