Over the years there've been many psychological studies of the recall affects using color in your advertising. The boil it down to raw numbers color advertising raises recall rates up to 42%. A significant number if you want your marketing piece to stand out. Using 4 color brochures, catalogs, and postcards is an extremely successful strategy for savvy marketers.
To start out you should know a little bit about color theory
Sir Isaac Newton recognized that color was related to light. In grade school you should have learned about color theory and the color wheel. When you combine colors together you get different colors. For example when you combine red with yellow you get orange. When you combine blue and red you get violent. When you combine yellow and blue you get green.
There are two color spaces
They are RGB (red, green, blue) mostly used for computer monitors, digital light projection, digital photography, and televisions. The other space is CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) this is what commercial printers use to create full-color images with ink on paper. When designing for commercial printers it is best to create your artwork to be used in four color process.
The psychology of colors and what they mean
Red
Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is linked with danger, determination , energy, power and strength, as well as desire, love, and passion. Red is a very emotional color. It enhances the human metabolism, it raises blood pressure, and also increases respiration rate. It is very highly visible, one of the reasons we use red as on traffic lights, in on fire trucks and equipment. In heraldry red is synonymous with courage. Red is also found in many national flags.
Text and images in red brings them to the foreground. It is used an accent color to encourage people to make a rapid decisions. Red is a perfect color for 'Buy Now' or 'Click Here' buttons on the Internet. Advertising uses red to suggest erotic feelings (red lips, red nails, good roses, red-light districts, 'Lady in Red', etc). Red is widely used to indicate danger (high voltage signs, traffic lights). The color red is commonly linked with energy, so you can use it when promoting cars, energy drinks, and items related to sports and high physical activity.
Pink signifies romance, love, and friendship. It denotes feminine qualities and passiveness.
Dark red is linked with anger, courage, leadership, longing, rage, vigor, and willpower.
Brown suggests constancy in stability it also symbolizes masculine qualities.
Reddish-brown is linked with the harvest and fall.
Orange
Orange combines the happiness of yellow and the energy of red. It is linked with pleasure, sunshine, and the tropics. Orange signifies attraction, creativity, determination, encouragement, enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, stimulation, and success.
Orange is a very hot color which means it gives the sensation of heat. However orange is not as forceful as the color red. Orange has an invigorating effect to the human body and increases oxygen supply and stimulates mental activity. Studies have shown that orange is very highly liked with young people. Orange is also the color of citrus fruit, and associated with healthy food. Orange is also the color of harvest and fall. In heraldry orange symbolizes endurance and strength. Orange is very highly visible and can be used for promoting food and toy products.
Gold suggests the feeling of prestige. Gold means illumination, wisdom, and wealth. Gold often indicates high quality.
Yellow
Yellow is the color of sunshine. It's associated with energy, happiness, intellect, and joy. Yellow has a warming effect it arouses cheerfulness, stimulates mental activity, and generates muscle energy. Yellow is often linked with food. Bright, pure yellow is a real attention getter. This is why taxicabs are typically painted in yellow. Yellow text on white text is very difficult to read unless using red or black as outlining color. In heraldry, yellow indicates honor and loyalty. Later the meaning of yellow was connected with cowardice and weakness.
Use yellow if you want to suggest pleasant, cheerful feelings. Yellow is a great choice to promote children's products and items linked to leisure. Men usually perceive yellow as a very lighthearted, 'childish' color, so it is not recommended to use yellow when selling prestigious, expensive products to men -men typically will not buy a yellow business suit or a yellow Mercedes. Yellow is an unstable and spontaneous color, so avoid using yellow if you want to suggest stability and safety.
Green
Green is all around us and the color of nature. It symbolizes fertility, freshness, growth, and harmony. Green has strong emotional connection with safety. Dark green is also commonly associated with money.
Green has great healing power. It is the most restful color for the human eye;. Green suggests stability and endurance. Green linked with lack of experience; for example, we use 'greenhorn' as a novice. In heraldry, green is linked with growth and hope. Green, is an opposite to red, it means safety; hence we use green as go on traffic lights.
Use green in ever tightening advertising drugs and medical products to indicate the safety. Green is directly related to nature, so you can use it to promote 'green' products. Dull, darker green is commonly associated with money, banking, financial world, and Wall Street.
Aqua is linked with emotional healing, protection, and water.
Dark green is linked with ambition, greed, and jealousy.
Olive green is the color of peace. Hence the olive branch.
Yellow green is linked with cowardice, discord, jealousy, and sickness.
Blue
Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often linked with depth and stability. Blue symbolizes confidence, faith, heaven, loyalty, trust, truth, and wisdom.
Blue is considered to be beneficial to the mind and body. Blue has a calming effect and also slows human metabolism. Blue is strongly linked with calmness and tranquility. In heraldry, blue is used to symbolize piety and sincerity.
In advertising you can use blue to promote products and services related to cleanliness and cool temperatures (cleaning liquids, water purification filters , vodka), air and sky (airlines, airports, air conditioners), water and sea (sea voyages, mineral water). Blue is opposite emotionally warm colors like red, orange, and yellow; blue is linked to consciousness and intellect. Blue also suggests precision when promoting high-tech products.
Blue is a very masculine color.
Dark blue is linked with depth, expertise, and stability; that is why Corporate America uses blue in many logos.
It is unwise to use blue when promoting cooking and food products. Blue suppresses the appetite. However when you combine them it's
Avoid using blue when promoting food and cooking, because blue suppresses appetite. When used together with warm colors like yellow or red, blue can create high-impact, vibrant designs; for example, blue-yellow-red is a perfect color scheme for a superhero.
Light blue is associated with health, healing, softness, tranquility, and understanding, i.e. baby blue.
Dark blue stands for integrity, knowledge, power, and seriousness.
Purple
Purple merges the stability of blue and the energy of red. Purple is linked with royalty. It symbolizes ambition, luxury, nobility and power. Purple expresses extravagance and wealth. Purple is linked with creativity, dignity, independence, magic, mystery, and wisdom. In heraldry purple is used to signify royalty.
Free adolescent children prefer purple almost 75% to all other colors according to surveys. In nature prurple Is a very rare color.
Light purple is used in advertising promoting feminine products. Bright purple can be used when promoting children's products.
White
In Western cultures the color White is linked with goodness, innocence, light, purity, and virginity. White is considered to be the color of perfection.
White means safety, purity, and cleanliness. As opposed to black, white usually has a positive connotation. White can represent a successful beginning. In heraldry, white illustrates faith and purity.
White in advertising is linked with cleanliness and coolness because it's the color of snow. White can also be used when advertising high-tech products to suggest ease of use or simplicity. When printing white typically is achieved with the absence of ink. When you use white text typically you have a darker background i.e. black or red. This is known as a reverse out. White in advertising can be used for charitable organizations, dairy products, doctors, hospitals, low calorie foods, medical products, and nursing.
Black
Black is linked with death, evil, elegance, formality, mystery, and power
Black is a mysterious color it's been linked with magicians. It also is the color of night and fear. It usually has a negative association i.e. blacklist, black humor, and the black death. However in accounting when you're in the black means you've got money as opposed to in the red which means you're in debt. Black is associated with authority and strength. Blackt is considered to be very elegant and formal i.e. a black tie event. Black in heraldry represents grief.
In advertising Black is typically used for text its easy-to-read and highly visible when on a white or light colored background. That's why in programs like Adobe Photoshop® the contrast control slider goes from black to white.
In conclusion color is a great way to make your marketing piece stand out. Today using color in your publications now is more affordable than ever. You can use desktop printers, color copiers, or if you want a higher quality you can send your four color artwork (which is the way commercial printers print color) to an online color printing company. Iif you wish to save money search for a source for high quality, low cost, four color printing.
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