The Ultimate Guide: How to create a strategic color system-Color Associations

Yellow

It shines with optimism, enlightenment, and happiness. Shades of golden yellow carry the promise of a positive future. It also instills energy, as well as spark creative thoughts. It is also attention grabbing and can represent caution.

Men usually perceive yellow as a childish color, which it is (think of kid’s toys and clothes).

Yellow is also viewed as being spontaneous and unstable.

Effects

• it stimulates mental processes and the nervous system.

• It also encourages communication and activates memory.

In summary, yellow is associated with optimism, enlightenment, happiness, sunshine, positivity, energy, attention-grabbing, playfulness, spontaneous, unstable, joy and warmth.

Green

It means grass and grows. It has close and distinctive ties to nature, the environment and all things to do with great outdoors. It is the color most visible to the human eye than most colors and is second only to blue as a favorite color.

Pale, softer mint green often promotes ideas of youth, inexperience, and innocence while deeper darker greens draw out the notion of success, wealth and money.

Vibrant lime green shades promote energy and playfulness and deeper olive greens are seen as representing strength and endurance.

Effects

• It soothes, helps balance emotions by alienating depression, nervousness and anxiety relaxes mentally as well as physically, offers a sense of renewal, self-control, and harmony.

In summary, the color associations of green are nature, growth, wealth, money ,freshness,  health, Eco-friendliness, balance, youth ,success, inexperience, innocence, harmony, self control,  go, hope, strength, endurance, prestige and healing.

Blue

It is seen as trustworthy, dependable and committed. As the color of ocean and sky, it is perceived as the constant of our lives.  

It is popular with financial institutions like Barclays bank and social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn because of its message of trust and stability.It is also popular for promoting products related to cleanliness like detergents, air, and skies like airlines and water and seas like cruise lines and bottled water.

Avoid this color in creating logos and food packaging in a restaurant because blue suppresses appetite.

Blue is the most preferred color by men and it is the most favorite color of humans.

Effects

• Calms and sedates

• Cools

• Aids intuition

In summary, blue is associated with trust,stability, sky, coolness, productivity, communication, loyalty, masculinity, confidence, authority, calmness, dignity, serenity, cleanliness and success.

Purple

It embodies the balance of red’s stimulation and blue’s calm. With a sense of mystic and royal qualities, purple is often well liked by very creative and eccentric types and is the favorite color of adolescent girls.

It is a very rare color in nature.

Effects

• Uplifts

• Calms the mind and nerves

• Offers a sense of spirituality

• Encourages creativity

• Stir up feelings of nostalgia

Pink

It is mainly the color of females, thus a feminine color. It evokes feelings of innocence and delicateness.  But, bright and vibrant shades of pink often evoke a bold and modern appeal. Bright pinks are youthful, fun and exciting while vibrant pinks have the same energy as red. They are passionate and sensual without being too aggressive.

Softer pinks, which you create by toning down the passion of red with the purity of white, are associated with romance and the blush of a young woman’s cheek.

Overall, it is known for its friendly and light-hearted nature.

Effects

• Brighter pinks like the color red stimulate energy and can increase the blood pressure respiration, heartbeat, and pulse rate. They also encourage action and confidence.

• Pink has been used in prison holding cells to effectively reduce erratic behaviors.

In summary, pink is associated with femininity, romance, friendliness, innocence, delicateness, gratitude, gratitude, and youth.

Red

Has more personal associations than any other color. Recognized as a stimulant, red is exciting and the amount of red is related to the level of energy perceived.

Red draws attention and using an intense red as an accent can immediately focus attention on a particular element.

It is the color of fire and blood. so it’s often associated with energy, war, danger, and power but also passion, desire,  and love.

It is an emotionally intense color, has very high visibility and is often use to grab viewers’ attention, like clearance sales and buy now buttons.

It mostly used by food industry brands like Coca-Cola, McDonald\’s since it stimulates appetite.

Effects

• Increases enthusiasm

• Stimulates energy and can increase the blood pressure, respiration and heartbeat and pulse rate.

• Encourages action and confidence

• Provides a sense of protection from fears and anxiety

• Stimulates appetite

In summary, red is associated with love, danger, action, excitement, appetite, confidence, energy, attention-grabbing, passion, blood, war, power, desire, aggression and drive.

Orange

It is a close relative of red and sparks more controversy than any other hue. There are usually strong positive or negative associations to orange and true orange generally elects a stronger ‘love it” or hate it” response than other colors. Fun and flamboyant orange radiates warmth and energy.

Like yellow, it is associated with joy, sunshine, and playfulness. You often find it used in logos to stimulate emotions or even appetites.

Effects

• stimulates activity

• Stimulates appetite

• Encourages socialization

In summary, orange is associated with fun, creativity, youth, appetite, lightheartedness, warmth, joy and playfulness.

Brown

It is a color found in nature. It indicates utility and used in logos or brands related to construction and law due to its simplicity, warmth, and neutrality.It is used to represent earth and goes well with green.

In summary, Brown is associated with earthiness, neutrality, roughness, simplicity, seriousness, subtlety, warmth, depth and utility.

Black

It is authoritative, powerful and elegant. Because it can evoke strong emotions, too much of it can be overwhelming.

Black represents a lack of color and emptiness.

It is the classic color for clothing favored by luxurious brands like Chanel because it makes the wearer appear thinner and more sophisticated.

It’s often associated with intelligence, but it’s also associated with evil and grieving.

Effects

• Makes one feels conspicuous

• Provides a restful emptiness

• It is mysterious by evoking a sense of potential and possibility.

In summary, black is associated with death, sophistication, elegance, power, authority, formality, mystery, seriousness and tradition.

Grey

It is the color of intellect, knowledge, and wisdom.  It is perceived as long-lasting, classic and often as sleek or refined.

It is a color that is dignified, conservative and carries authority. Gray is a perfect neutral, which is why designers often use it as a background color.

Effects

• Unsettles

• Creates expectations

In summary, gray is associated with intelligence, knowledge, wisdom, conservation, dignity, and authority, classic and sleek.

White

It projects purity, cleanliness, and neutrality. Doctors don white coats, brides traditionally wear white gowns and a white picket fence surrounds a safe and happy home.

Effects

• Aids mental clarity

• Encourages us to clear clutter or obstacles

• Evokes purification of thoughts and actions

• Enables fresh beginnings

In summary, white is associated with purity, hope, cleanliness, expectation, and peace.