In the 17th century, English scientist Sir Isaac Newton observed that when white light passes through a prism, it separates into all the visible colors.
Colour psychology is the study of colours and their impact on human behaviour.
Despite the theory of colour psychology being complex and a lack of research in this area, this concept has earned a significant interest in the fields of art, marketing, and design.
According to Emerald Insight, “Colors can contribute not only to differentiating products from competitors but also to influence moods and feelings—positively or negatively—and therefore, to attitude towards certain products.”
For instance, people may associate red with danger or love, green with calmness, and yellow with happiness.
Understanding the psychology of color can be valuable when choosing brand colors. Choosing the colour means that one gets to decide what their audience sees and how their audience feels.
Red Colour Psychology
The colour red is a bold colour associated with excitement, passion, danger, and action. It has a powerful presence and enhances human metabolism and boosts human appetite. It is a go-to color if you want to get people’s attention. Red is often the colour used by fast-food brands, for sale announcements, and used for the ‘click here’ buttons found on the internet.
Blue Colour Psychology
Blue, the colour of the ocean and the sky, is soothing in nature and is associated with feelings of peace, calmness, trust, and loyalty. It inspires us to be confident and intelligent, which is why it may be such a popular colour in the corporate world.
Yellow Colour Psychology
Yellow is a bright and highly visible colour, associated with feelings of warmth, happiness, positivity, and cheerfulness. One may choose to use yellow as a background colour for their content or logo because of its ability to stand out.
Green Colour Psychology
Green is predominantly connected to nature while also representing life, fertility, new beginnings, health, and generosity. It is also connected with money, ambition, and banking. It is a dominant colour in the natural world and hence, makes for an ideal background for any kind of design, providing a balanced, rich, and healing feeling to the consumers.
Black Colour Psychology
According to German scientist Hermann von Helmholtz, “Black is real sensation, even if it is produced by the entire absence of light. The sensation of black is distinctly different from the lack of all sensation.”
It is associated with sophistication, elegance and strength, and commonly used in luxury brands.
Even though it boosts confidence, it is associated with a feeling of emptiness, thus embodying an air of mystery and power.
White Colour Psychology
White is associated with feelings of purity, innocence, cleanliness, beginnings, and safety, and represents coolness and simplicity.
In marketing and branding, white is mostly used to create contrast. It can be used to project the absence of colour or neutrality.
Colour is a powerful tool that can convey the right message. It plays a significant role regarding human behaviour and different colours evoke different feelings. However, everyone experiences colour differently. Furthermore, a colour’s meaning and use may vary depending on socio-cultural factors. For example, white is one of the primary colours in a Western wedding but it is a colour worn to funerals in the East. Hence, it is best
to be careful when choosing a colour for one’s brand and logo and one must test which colours work best with their content.