The Science Behind Color
LOGO DESIGN PROCESS • COLORS
Color plays a big part in graphic design. The colors used in a design can set a mood or drive home a point. Color can demonstrate strength or compassion, weakness or fear. It is important to consider the message you want to portray when selecting the base colors in your own logo design. Choose wisely and half your marketing job is done. Make a poor choice and you will regret the mistake. You can always change it later but it helps to get it right first time as this will save you money in the long run.
Logo Design Color, Business Types and Qualities
Let's take a look at some colors that you could consider for your logo design and explore some of the hidden meanings. Where a color is listed, like red for instance, this refers to red and it's close shades like dark red and light red or deep red etc. It does not specifically refer only to the shade of red shown below in the chart.
Red
Red is the color of fire and blood, so it is associated with energy, war, danger, strength, power, determination as well as passion, desire, and love. Red is a very emotionally intense color. It enhances human metabolism, increases respiration rate, and raises blood pressure. It has very high visibility, which is why stop signs, stoplights, and fire equipment are usually painted red. In heraldry, red is used to indicate courage. It is a color found in many national flags. Red brings text and images to the foreground. Use it as an accent color to stimulate people to make quick decisions; it is a perfect color for “Buy Now” or “Click Here” buttons on Internet banners and websites. In advertising, red is often used to evoke erotic feelings (red lips, red nails, red-light districts, etc). Red is widely used to indicate danger (high voltage signs, traffic lights). This color is also commonly associated with energy, so you can use it when promoting energy drinks, games, cars, items related to sports and high physical activity.
Light red represents joy, sexuality, passion, sensitivity, and love. Pink signifies romance, love, and friendship. It denotes feminine qualities and passiveness. Dark red is associated with vigor, willpower, rage, anger, leadership, courage, longing, malice, and wrath. Brown suggests stability and denotes masculine qualities. Reddish-brown is associated with harvest and fall.
Blue
Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven. Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness. In heraldry, blue is used to symbolize piety and sincerity. You can use blue to promote products and services related to cleanliness (water purification filters, cleaning liquids, vodka), air and sky (airlines, airports, air conditioners), water and sea (sea voyages, mineral water). As opposed to emotionally warm colors like red, orange, and yellow; blue is linked to consciousness and intellect. Use blue to suggest precision when promoting high-tech products.
Blue is a masculine color; according to studies, it is highly accepted among males. Dark blue is associated with depth, expertise, and stability; it is a preferred color for corporate America. 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, tranquility, understanding, and softness. Dark blue represents knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness.
Orange
Orange combines the energy of red and the happiness of yellow. It is associated with joy, sunshine, and the tropics. Orange represents enthusiasm, fascination, happiness, creativity, determination, attraction, success, encouragement, and stimulation. To the human eye, orange is a very hot color, so it gives the sensation of heat. Nevertheless, orange is not as aggressive as red. Orange increases oxygen supply to the brain, produces an invigorating effect, and stimulates mental activity. It is highly accepted among young people. As a citrus color, orange is associated with healthy food and stimulates appetite. Orange is the color of fall and harvest. In heraldry, orange is symbolic of strength and endurance. Orange has very high visibility, so you can use it to catch attention and highlight the most important elements of your design. Orange is very effective for promoting food products and toys.
Dark orange can mean deceit and distrust. Red-orange corresponds to desire, sexual passion, pleasure, domination, aggression, and thirst for action. Gold evokes the feeling of prestige. The meaning of gold is illumination, wisdom, and wealth. Gold often symbolizes high quality.
Yellow
Yellow is the color of sunshine. It's associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy. Yellow produces a warming effect, arouses cheerfulness, stimulates mental activity, and generates muscle energy. Yellow is often associated with food. Bright, pure yellow is an attention getter, which is the reason taxicabs are painted this color. When overused, yellow may have a disturbing effect; it is known that babies cry more in yellow rooms. Yellow is seen before other colors when placed against black; this combination is often used to issue a warning. In heraldry, yellow indicates honor and loyalty. Later the meaning of yellow was connected with cowardice.
Use yellow to evoke pleasant, cheerful feelings. You can choose yellow to promote children's products and items related to leisure. Yellow is very effective for attracting attention, so use it to highlight the most important elements of your design. 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 since nobody will 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. Light yellow tends to disappear into white, so it usually needs a dark color to highlight it. Shades of yellow are visually unappealing because they loose cheerfulness and become dingy. Dull (dingy) yellow represents caution, decay, sickness, and jealousy. Light yellow is associated with intellect, freshness, and joy.
After deciding on your logo design colors you will need to make sure that the colors work well together. You do not wnat to clash your colors in the logo because this might put people off. You need to make sure that the colors work well together because this will be more pleasing on the eye. Your logo will look more balanced and clean if the colors work for each other.
To select some complimentary colors, designers use color wheels and matching swatches. These are tools that produce scientifically proven color combinations that compliment one another. These color tools can be expensive but a free online one can be just as powerful for you as a “do it yourself” option. A very good one that we point clients to can be found here: Color Wheel. This link will launch a new window in your browser that contains an interactive color wheel. Use this color wheel in conjunction with the color chart and qualities and you will come up with a color combination that represents your business in the best light possible.
Please do not worry if you are a complete technophobe or if you just do nott feel confident using these tools. LogoDesignJuice are experts in logo design color and will produce your logo with the colors that best represent your business.
