Meaning of Colours

RED

Danger
Urgency • Passion • Heat • Love • Blood

Red is often associated with the heat of the sun and fire. It is considered a high-arousal colour often stimulating people to take risks. It is shown to stimulate the senses, raise blood pressure and it may arouse feelings of power, energy, passion, love, aggression or danger.

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, 'Lady in Red', 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.

Psychological Association: Physical

Positive: Physical courage, strength, warmth, energy, basic survival, ‘fight or flight’, stimulation, masculinity, excitement.

Negative: Defiance, aggression, strain.

Personality and Emotions
Evokes strong emotions • Encourages appetite • Increases passion and intensity • Red symbolises love

Marketing
Increases heart rate • Used by restaurants to stimulate appetite • Creates urgency often seen in clearance sales • Used for impulsive shoppers

Politics
Represents Communist or Socialist parties worldwide • Used by Republicans in the USA

Company Logos

YELLOW

Caution
Warmth • Cowardice • Brightness • Optimistic • Youthful

Yellow is often associated with the heat of sun and fire and is considered a high-arousal colour. It may stimulate feelings of optimism and hope or cowardice and betrayal

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 – 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.

Psychological Association: Emotional
Positive: Optimism, confidence, self-esteem, extraversion, emotional strength, friendliness, creativity
Negative: Irrationality, fear, emotional fragility, depression, anxiety, suicide

Personality and Emotions
Increases cheerfulness and warmth • Causes fatigue and strain on the eyes • Makes babies cry • Stimulates mental processes • Stimulates nervous system • Encourages communication

Marketing
Represents optimism and youthfulness • Used to grab attention of window shoppers • Shows clarity

Politics
Represents Liberalism

BLUE

Notice
Truth • Dignity • Power • Coolness • Melancholy • Heaviness

Blue is often associated with the coolness of the sea and sky. It has been shown to calm the senses and lower blood pressure. It may stimulate feelings of trust, security, order and cleanliness

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.

Psychological Association: Intellectual
Positive: Intelligence, communication, trust, efficiency, serenity, duty, logic, coolness, reflection, calm
Negative: Coldness, aloofness, lack of emotion, unfriendliness

Personality and Emotions
Associated with water and peace • Most preferred by men • Represents calmness and serenity • Curbs
appetite • Known as a cold colour • Perceived as a constant in human life • Increases productivity • Most used colour for offices

Marketing
Often used in corporate business because of productivity and non-invasive • Causes sense of security and trust in a brand

Politics
Represents Conservative parties worldwide • Used by Democrats in the USA

Company Logos

ORANGE

Warning
Warmth • Fire • Sunshine • Light • Autumn

Orange is often associated with the heat of the sun and fire and is considered a high-arousal colour. It may stimulate feelings of energy, balance and warmth

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.

Positive: Physical comfort, food, warmth, security, sensuality, passion, abundance, fun
Negative: Deprivation, frustration, frivolity, immaturity

Personality and Emotions
Reflects excitement and enthusiasm • Shows warmth • Warns of caution

Marketing
Signifies aggression • Creates call to action - Buy, Sell, Subscribe • Found in impulsive shoppers • Represents a friendly, cheerful and confident brand

Politics
Orange is the national colour of the Netherlands and its royal family

Company Logos

GREEN

Safety
Nature • Health • Cheerfulness • Environment • Money • Vegetation

Green is often associated with the coolness of leaves. Often associated with nature, health, good luck and jealousy

Green is the color of nature. It symbolizes growth, harmony, freshness, and fertility. Green has strong emotional correspondence with safety. Dark green is also commonly associated with money.

Green has great healing power. It is the most restful color for the human eye; it can improve vision. Green suggests stability and endurance. Sometimes green denotes lack of experience; for example, a 'greenhorn' is a novice. In heraldry, green indicates growth and hope. Green, as opposed to red, means safety; it is the color of free passage in road traffic.

Use green to indicate safety when advertising drugs and medical products. Green is directly related to nature, so you can use it to promote 'green' products. Dull, darker green is commonly associated with money, the financial world, banking, and Wall Street.

Dark green is associated with ambition, greed, and jealousy.
Yellow-green can indicate sickness, cowardice, discord, and jealousy.
Aqua is associated with emotional healing and protection.
Olive green is the traditional color of peace.

Psychological Association: Balance
Positive: Harmony, balance, refreshment, universal love, rest, restoration, reassurance, environmental awareness, equilibrium, peace
Negative: Boredom, stagnation, blandness, enervation
Holiday Associations: Green is also the colour of St. Patrick’s Day

Personality and Emotions
Constitutes health and tranquility • Symbolises money • Denotes nature • Alleviates depression • Workers in a green environment have fewer stomach aches • Used in night vision • Represents new growth

Marketing
Used to relax in stores • Associated with wealth • A sign of fertility • Once the colour of wedding gowns in the 15th century

Politics
Connected to Environmentalists

Company Logos

PURPLE

Wealth • Royalty • Sophistication • Intelligence

Purple is generally considered a low arousal colour. It may stimulate feelings of spirituality, mystery, royalty or arrogance

Purple combines the stability of blue and the energy of red. Purple is associated with royalty. It symbolizes power, nobility, luxury, and ambition. It conveys wealth and extravagance. Purple is associated with wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, mystery, and magic.

According to surveys, almost 75 percent of pre-adolescent children prefer purple to all other colors. Purple is a very rare color in nature; some people consider it to be artificial.

Light purple is a good choice for a feminine design. You can use bright purple when promoting children's products.

Light purple evokes romantic and nostalgic feelings.
Dark purple evokes gloom and sad feelings. It can cause frustration.

Psychological Association: Spiritual
Positive: Spiritual awareness, containment, vision, luxury, authenticity, truth, quality.
Negative: Introversion, decadence, suppression, inferiority

Personality and Emotions
Shows royalty, wealth, success and wisdom • Kings wore purple robes

Marketing
Often used in beauty or anti-aging products • Used to soothe or calm • Represents a creative, imaginative wise brand

Politics
Used for royalty but hardly used in modern politics

Company Logos

BLACK

In color psychology, black’s color meaning is symbolic of mystery, power, elegance, and sophistication.
In contrast, the color meaning can also evoke emotions such as sadness and anger. Many fashion retailers have used black in their logos. Black is also a popular color for text as it’s an easy color to read.

Positive: Sophistication, glamour, security, emotional safety, efficiency, substance
Negative: Oppression, coldness, menace, heaviness

Black is associated with power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery.

Black is a mysterious color associated with fear and the unknown (black holes). It usually has a negative connotation (blacklist, black humor, 'black death'). Black denotes strength and authority; it is considered to be a very formal, elegant, and prestigious color (black tie, black Mercedes). In heraldry, black is the symbol of grief.

Black gives the feeling of perspective and depth, but a black background diminishes readability. A black suit or dress can make you look thinner. When designing for a gallery of art or photography, you can use a black or gray background to make the other colors stand out. Black contrasts well with bright colors. Combined with red or orange – other very powerful colors – black gives a very aggressive color scheme.

Company Logos

WHITE

White represents purity or innocence. ... Some of the positive meanings that white can convey include cleanliness, freshness, and simplicity.

The color white often seems like a blank slate, symbolizing a new beginning or a fresh           start. On the negative side, white can seem stark, cold, and isolated.

White

White is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity. It is considered to be the color of perfection.

White means safety, purity, and cleanliness. As opposed to black, white usually has a positive connotation. White can represent a successful beginning. In heraldry, white depicts faith and purity.

In advertising, white is associated with coolness and cleanliness because it's the color of snow. You can use white to suggest simplicity in high-tech products. White is an appropriate color for charitable organizations; angels are usually imagined wearing white clothes. White is associated with hospitals, doctors, and sterility, so you can use white to suggest safety when promoting medical products. White is often associated with low weight, low-fat food, and dairy products.

Positive: Hygiene, sterility, clarity, purity, cleanness, simplicity, sophistication, efficiency
Negative: Sterility, coldness, barriers, unfriendliness, elitism

Company Logos

GREY

In color psychology, grey represents neutrality and balance.
Its color meaning likely comes from being the shade between white and black.
However, grey does carry some negative connotations, particularly when it comes to depression and loss. Its absence of color makes it dull.

Positive: Psychological neutrality
Negative: Lack of confidence, dampness, depression, hibernation, lack of energy

Company Logos

BROWN

Some of the key characteristics associated with brown in colour psychology include: A sense of strength and reliability
Brown is often seen as solid, much like the earth, and it’s a colour often associated with resilience, dependability, security, and safety. Feelings of loneliness, sadness, and isolation

Positive: Seriousness, warmth, Nature, earthiness, reliability, support
Negative: Lack of humour, heaviness, lack of sophistication