Color Symbolism: The basics of color psychology
Last week I attended a great class on the psychology of color and how it relates to design. Here’s what I learned.
Before arbitrarily choosing colors for your logo design, you ought to know some of the meanings colors have (at least in the U.S.). Red and orange are action colors, blue is the most liked, green is clean and organic and purple is regal. Here’s a more complete breakdown:
Positives: passion, strength, energy, power, speed, love, fire, masculinity, sex, excitement
Negatives: Danger, fire, blood, aggression, stop
Positives: energy, balance, heat, fire, playfullness, autumn
Negatives: aggression, ignorance, warning, danger, gaudiness
Positives: Sunlight, joy, happiness optimism, summer, hope, wealth
Negatives: cowardice, illness, sissy, weakness, dishonesty
Positives: ocean, sky, harmony, unity, confidence, water, ice, loyalty, conservatism, cleanliness, technology, tranquility
Negatives: depression, coldness, ice, tackiness
Positives: nature, spring, environment, wealth, good luck, vigor, generosity, fertility
Negatives: aggression, envy, misfortune, inexperience, greed, illness
Positives: love, romance, femininity, bubblegum, nurture, warmth, sweet
Negatives: emotional, effeminate, clausterphobic, physical weakness
Positives: sensuality, spirituality, royalty, nobility, wisdom, creativity, wealth, enlightenment
Negatives: arrogance, flamboyance, mourning, profanity, exaggeration, confusion, gaudiness
Positives: quality, classic, timeliness, quiet, safe, enduring, antique
Negatives: boring, dullness, roughness, plain, poverty
Positives: calm, depth, nature, richness, rustic, tradition, stability
Negatives: dirt, filth, heaviness, poverty, boorishness, anachronism, roughness
Positives: reverence, purity, snow, peace, innocence, cleanliness, humility, security, marriage, sterility, winter
Negatives: coldness, sterility, cowardice, surrender, fearfulness, unimaginative
Positives: modernity, power, sofistication, formality, elegance, wealth, mystery, style
Negatives: evil, death, anger, sadness, remorse, mourning, unhappiness, mystery, anonymity, fear
There are many great websites out there with in-depth articles and studies on the effect of color. Some I recommend are Pantone, Color Matters and Color Wheel Pro.