The Fundamentals of Colour Psychology: For Logo
Last week, we spoke about different mistakes that people make while creating their logos. This week, we built on understanding the different colours that you can use for your logo and how they affect the perception with it.
Let us understand the fundamentals of colour psychology for logos –
Understanding colour psychology
While colour is everywhere, each colour has a different effect on you and your brain. For example, red may make you feel passionate and yellow might feel uplifting. The way you and your brain perceive and are impacted by each colour is the study of colour psychology.
First, we need to understand what is colour? Colour is the way our eyes and brain perceive light waves of differing lengths. The different wavelengths on that spectrum make up the variety of colours we perceive.
Colour psychology is the study of understanding how you may be impacted by a certain colour. This can range from your socio-cultural associations and your primal nature. This leads to certain actions and certain preferences.
Branding and Colour
Similar to choosing the right logo or name for your brand, choosing the right colour is just as important. Today, we are confronted by hundreds of different ads every single day. In times like these, its important to choose colours that are in tune with the industry you are working in. The association that the customer has between your brand and the industry is an unconscious clue about what you do.
While choosing your logo refer to some of the questions below –
- Is my brand traditionally masculine or feminene?
- What’s the tone of my brand? Playful or serious?
- Is my brand luxurious or affordable?
- Is my brand morder or classic?
- What is the age of my brand? Is it youthful or mature?
- How lound or subdued is my brand?
These will help you choose the right brand colour for your brand.
Common colour association
Red
Red is the warmest colour schemes and is a favourite for buttons to grab attention. Red screams fire, passion, desire love and is bold enough to stand out. Red is also a popular choice for logos that are masculine and passionate.
Furthermore, you may also find food brands to have red in their logos eg mcdonalds, bugerking, etc as it signifies hunger and makes you want to indulge. It is also found in several country flags.
Yellow
Yellow is generally seen as an uplifting, summery and happy colour. It is a vibrant colour that makes you feel warm and cheerful. It boosts mental activity and generates muscle growth. Using this colour in propositions helps add a little shine to a place. However, make sure you moderate how you use i because too much yellow makes people feel impatient and fear.
Green
Green is a soothing colour filled with several associations. It signifies safety, growth, fertility and enviornment. Since a lot of nature is green it does have a calming and healing effect on us too. We also see several different shares of green as the human eye has a wide spectrum for the human eye.
A popular logo with green is whatsapp.
Blue
Blue is the colour of the ocean and the sky. It is a soothing and relaxing. It stands for freedom, intuition, imagination and peace. It encourages people to be peaceful, loyal and confident. However, different blues seem to have different effect. While lighter blues are brighter, darker blues are much more formal and corporate-like. If you’re using blue in your logo make sure it is in moderation and not too much as that can feel negative and self-centered.
Purple
Purple is a colour that is luxurious, creative, Spiritual and hints at wealth. It is a colour that truly should passion, power, nobility and ambition too. Including purple in your logo shows a luxurious and elegant look and feel. It gives a sense of sophistication. It has a fiery attribute to it.
Black
Black or lack of black are both highly visible. The lack of colour is the colour black. It signifies strength, maturity, authority, elegance and more. However, too much black in a logo can become very gloom and feel aggressive or evil. Black is a great way to add a bit of mystery and sophistication to your black. However, too much of it might have a negative effect.
Conclusion
Colours and branding go hand in hand. Which is why understanding the fundamentals of colour psychology is very important when you are choosing your branding. Understanding the effect of every colour on people and the associations with is important. This is why you must work with experts when you’re building your brand. Branding is not a place to reduce your costs.
Whether you’re looking for the complete branding of your brand or just the logo contact us at www.alickreative.com to get professionals to help you with it.
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