The Color of Money

If you are reading from the UK, I apologise for not using our traditional spelling of “Colour”

Have you noticed how many Fast Food Restaurants use colours like Red and Orange?

Apparently it makes up eat up in haste, hence a faster turn around for them at their tables and establishments.

Using color in your advertising is a psychological process and can actually lead to people browsing away from your website and not sticking around even to see if the content is actually any good.

When you start planning a new site, product or service to promote on the world wide web, you really should pay attention to color choices in the background of your site and of the actual product itself.

Do not just jump into using the color purple just because you like it. It is meant (in Western Cultures) to represent Spirituality, Dignity and has a general Royal Connection (picture the Robes of
Times Gone By, and of today).

It is also connected with brain stimulation and problem solving too.

More and more research is being carried out into this powerful connection, and many top brands and Fortune 500 companies invest tens to hundreds of thousands into getting this right in their branding.

So consider it for yourself when you paying a designer to design your next logo, minisite or ecover.

You will also need to consider cultures and where in the world you are targeting your advertising. For example, head over to China, and the color White is represented in death, where cross over to Brazil, and our good friend Purple is the color of death.

Whilst we will refer to “Yellow” in the UK and North America to be perhaps Cowardly, in Greece it would be a color of Sadness and in France one of Jealousy.

You must consider color in your designs, but not only the single color, but the combination of colors. Clashing color will be most off putting to your viewer.

How many sites have you landed on only to leave quicker than you arrived because you cannot read the writing very well, or the color just made you feel ill?

As a final thought, remember that children will respond better to the main primary colors more than they would soft tones and hues. We do not begin to appreciate these subtle changes until our adulthood. Just think to the wooden block toys, and how they are usually made up of the Bright and solid, Green, Red, Blue and Yellow.

Here is a quick reference for you to consider, but I would recommend looking into this subject in more detail when deciding upon your main product and or site design.

They are also linked primarily to North America and the UK.

Black – Authority and Power, plus strength and intelligence (think about those gowns of university students). But be warned. It can also indicate evil, or the bad guy. It is a serious color that brings out strong emotion, so use wisely.

Silver – Heard the Phrase Sterling Silver? Strong Character, Prestige, but equally can be cold and scientific.

Grey (Gray) – Lighter shades can suggest a helping hand, and good as a subtle background on a site. Too bold though and it can be considered boring, over powering, drab or miserable.

Gold – Prestigious, expensive but can also provoke anger if its too yellow!

Red – Sex, Passion, Excitement, speed also used as a warning! Red draws the eye generally above all other colors.

Orange – Hard to get right on the web with screen color, but if used well it can represent fun time, happiness, warmth, comfort and ambition. It is a vibrant color, so do not use to soothe or calm, it represents new beginnings too.

Yellow – Warm, Sunshine, happiness. But can represent cowardly and it can actually make people become angry.

Green – The color of growth (organic), nature and money and abundance. It can also represent wealth, conservative and calming. It can be associated with luck, fertility and envy.

Brown – This is a color of reliability and of course and earth color, so a good representation of strength and stability. Be careful though in India as it represents mourning.

Blue – The most popular color in our society, it comes out top of many polls for peoples favourite color. Belonging, trust, coolness and trust top the charts, but it can also represent coldness and not interested. Associated with wisdom, calm and dependable, used will, blue will
be a winner.

White – Purity will come to mind (white wedding) and also associated with cleanliness (doctors and white coats in hospitals). It is good at being neutral and promoting nothing, but also to
give clean lines and space where color would be perhaps negative. It can also be associated with intelligence. Use white space well and make it your best friend.

The above is a simple guide and represents some ideas to get you started. I would recommend looking further into this before you go crazy with your next color scheme