For the latest post in our series on the meaning and use of color, we’re taking a closer look at the color green. You can read more about the color blue here, and the color red here.

Green is primarily associated with nature and the environment. We talk about “green technologies” meaning, scientific advances that are renewable or environmentally friendly. Green also represents positive values like growth, newness, freshness, fertility, healing, and safety. On the other hand, green also represents a few negative ideas like jealousy (you’ve heard the term “green with envy”), illness, and inexperience (think “greenhorn”).

In the United States, green has a very close association with money (because our bills are mostly green—”greenbacks”), so green is often used to represent financial companies and Wall Street. In the middle east and southern Asia, green has a strong association with Islam.

Because of its association with nature, we often see green used in landscaping and real estate company logos. It’s also a natural for golf courses, natural foods, and nature or travel-oriented companies.

Large companies known for their use of green in their logos and trade dress include H&R Block, Animal Planet, Starbucks, Rainforest Cafe, X-Box 360, and perhaps most famously, BP, which has been accused of “greenwashing” their corporate image to appear more environmentally friendly than they really are (we leave it up to you to decide if this is a fair criticism). Another green logo that you are undoubtedly familiar with is the recycling logo found on plastic bottles and aluminum cans.

A couple of my favorite “green” logos from our gallery:

Click here to see more examples of logos in all colors or to get started on your own logo design project.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 at 8:58 pm and is filed under Color Theory, Logo Design 101. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.