What does your colour scheme say about your brand?

As specialist printers, we provide printing solutions to brands all around the World in every colour under the rainbow, but have you ever wondered what your colour scheme says about your brand?

Although colour preference is very subjective, there have been numerous studies into people’s perception of colours, here’s some of the findings…

Image credit: http://www.examiner.com/article/researchers-produce-first-topographical-maps-of-human-emotion

Blue

In a study by Kissmetrics, blue was found to be the favourite colour of both men and women. Blue also has many positive associations, when people think of the colour blue they think of blue skies, clean water and tranquility.

Many brands have chosen blue for their logo including Facebook, Dell and American Express.

Purple

Purple is favoured by females (no males picked purple as their favourite colour) and according to Shirley Willet is most commonly associated with leadership and power.

Green

Green is often seen as a calming colour and indeed according to Colour Wheel Pro green symbolises harmony and safety and is a restful colour for the human eye to look at. Brands with green logos include Starbucks, Land Rover and BP.

You may want to avoid yellow-green though, as that’s apparently associated with sickness, cowardice, discord, and jealousy.

Red

Red has actually been found to have a physical effect on people, just looking at the colour red can raise blood pressure! Red has very different connotations in different cultures – in the west it often means anger or danger, whereas in China it’s the colour of prosperity and happiness.

The strong emotions evoked by the colour red may be the reason it was picked by companies like Coca Cola, Virgin and Time for their logos.

Yellow

Yellow has been chosen by some of the most valuable brands in the World for their logo (like Ferrari and Mcdonalds) and according to Marie Claudia Cortes yellow evokes positive emotions like happiness and joy, plus makes people feel lively and energetic.

Black

Is a formal colour often associated with power, luxury and elegance, so it’s no surprise it’s chosen by brands like Clinique, Tiffany and Co and BMW.

Orange

In the Kissmetrics study orange was the colour most participants associated with being ‘cheap’ or ‘inexpensive’, it was also the colour both genders picked as their least favourite.

Despite this orange has been found to be associated with joy, determination and ambition, which is perhaps why it’s still a popular logo colour, used by businesses like Firefox and Esty.