EMOTIONAL IMPACT OF COLOR CONTINUED

BLUE - Constant, quiet, serene, dependable, reliable, trustworthy, committed, cool blue is the most popular color and is strongly associated with sky and water. On the positive side, depending on the intensity, blue is constant, encourages intellectual activity, calms the mind, or stimulates thought. On the reverse, it may appear cold or unfriendly. Inspiring confidence, blue is an ideal color for corporate identities, web sites, packaging, and products where these messages are important. Restful and calm, humans are soothed and replenished when viewing blue. Darkening any color moves it closer to black and gives the color power. Deep navy blue is very serious and is the most powerful of all the blues giving instant authority and credibility to any business. However, concentrated and over-abundant black can look ominous. Therefore, navy blue is a more friendly and approachable color. Do you want to add a completely new dimension to your color scheme? Brilliant, electric blue is dynamic and dramatic, expressing exhilaration. Periwinkles are warm and playful, carrying undertones of purple that bring in some of the energy of red. Teal blue is rich, unique, and definitely an up-scale hue, pleasing to the eye and combining well with many other colors. If you are looking for a color appropriate to both men and women, teal is it as it is equally appealing to both genders.

GREEN - Soothing, nature, refreshing, fresh, healing green is at the center of the spectrum and offers the widest range of choices and is the most restful to the eye. "Mother" blue green always elicits pleasant responses representing the best qualities. Combined with white, blue-green is cool and clean with an underlying element of warmth as if you are floating in warm, tropical waters with the sun shining down so you can see the ocean floor below. Blue-greens and aquas are first-rate choices for packaging or the colors for personal hygiene products or beauty products as they are flattering to every skin color. Associated with nature, consumers respond to mint greens (refreshing and fresh), bright greens (grass, first buds of spring, and renewal), emerald greens (elegant), and deep greens (stately tall pines, refreshing scents, and the silence of the forest, money, prestige, security, feeling safe). Trustworthy deep green is an excellent choice for promoting banks, lending institutions, and other businesses where prestige and/or security are considerations. Yellow-greens relate well to gardening/floral motifs. However, vivid yellow-green is associated with nausea and illness. Kids and adolescents love bright yellow-green simply because adults hate it making it a good selection for kid or adolescent related products or services. Although chartreuse is trendy, it does get people's attention and works very well in capturing the eye. Olive green is a color that does not rate well unless combined in an interesting, complex way and then only appeals to upscale buyers. If yours is a food industry, use typical vegetable colors; spinach, lettuce, broccoli, etc. Because we are accustomed to those colors, they are not offensive unless you happen to dislike a specific vegetable. Use vegetable greens for food service, dining areas, or packaging "healthy" foods. Seafoam greens are non-invasive, cooling, and calming to consumers.

PURPLE - Regal, spiritual, elegant, mysterious purple is a complex color preferred by creative and eccentric types. Purple is an enigma that has many meanings—from contemplative to regal to sensual, depending on the background or cultural heritage of the consumer. It is a combination of the excitement and sexuality of red and the tranquility of blue. The result: conflicting forces that need handling with care and daring. It is a polarizing color. People either hate it or love it. It is also the hardest color for the eye to discern. Purple, in its more radiant intensities relates to spiritual, New Age philosophies and speaks well for products involving newness or cutting edge technologies. Many people view deeper royal purple as regal and majestic especially in the European market or for people of European backgrounds or sensibilities. Grayed undertones give more sophistication and subtlety to the color. Watered down purple becomes softer, sentimental, nostalgic, and genteel. Think of Lavender tints in terms of as delicacy, refinement, sweet tastes, and sweet scents especially floral scents. Grape and purplish berry shades are associated with sweet, fruity tastes. However, some shades of Lavender make people physically ill and should not be used in anything related to food stuffs or food services.

NEUTRALS - Timeless, natural, classic, quality, quiet neutrals or monotones are achromatics—literally without color. Beige, gray, and taupe impart the psychological message of dependability. Identified with durability, time, and antiquity neutrals are solid, enduring, timeless, and classic. Think in terms of the Rock of Gibraltar or ancient monuments or the sands of time. Neutrals lend these qualities to products and environments. Use these colors whenever the message is one of durability, permanence, or dependable performance whether it is for interiors, packaging, clothing or other products or services. Regarded as "safe" and non-offensive, they do not date a product or service because they will always be in style. However, there are many nuances to neutrals due to their undertones, which can radically shift the temperature and change the psychological impact. Warm gray is never serious but cool gray is calm and collected. Warm sandy beige is friendlier than cool white. The most non-committal of all colors is light to medium grays. These grays are the most neutral of all neutrals and are highly recommended for work surfaces where color matching is taking place as they are non-competitive with other colors and highly recommended as buffers between bright colors to reduce intensity of brilliance. Deepen grays with more black and they take on the black's power and presence. However, charcoal grays are never threatening or overpowering as total black sometimes is, especially in living environments, clothing, or packaging. Silver gray is a futuristic, techno color connected to minimal, spare, and sleek imagery.

WHITE - Lightweight, pristine, pure, bright, innocent white implies purity and simplicity. The human eye sees white as a brilliant color so it works well for contrast, in signage, in point of purchase, in packaging, or any other usage that catches the eye. However, pure white can cause glare and optical fatigue. When a message needs to give a sense of clarity and cleanliness, white is the obvious choice. White is often used in infant products, and products involving hygiene and health. White is the absence of color in terms of dyes and pigments. However, Sir Isaac Newton discovered in his experiments with prisms that white light contains all the colors of the spectrum while black had none. Unrelieved white can create starkness without any sense of warmth or welcome. Symbolically, pure white is absolute minimalism, the clean paper against which all other colors may contrast. It is the ultimate contrast to black. However, in print, packaging or product design white can give a generic non-descript impression unless enhanced with smart graphics and/or a bit of another color. Warm off-whites are friendly especially when the undertone is from the warmer colors. Creamy whites are delicious and vanilla white suggests light, pleasant scents and tastes.

BLACK - Powerful, mysterious, strong, classic, elegant black is associated with magical mysteries of the night. The opaque, powerful, after-dark soul of black is seen in every product category as sophistication and style. Consumers perceive black as powerful, dramatic, elegant, and expensive. In food packaging, consumers will pay more for a black "gourmet image." Too much black, however, sometimes gives the feeling of something ominous as in some cultures it is associated with mourning or the Mafia or the occult. All black interiors can look foreboding without other colors to relieve it. Packaging, signage, and advertising should never be completely black as the message would be somewhat lost to the consumer. Appearing a heavy color, black gives the message of strength, power, potency, and longevity. The weight of the color makes it a good choice for appliances or equipment or any product that needs to tell consumers it is solid and durable. Black and white is the classic combination of strength, clarity, power, and purity. Although black is powerful and classic, it is not necessarily trustworthy. It is important to identify the message of your business in relation to your targeted market demographics and choose your color scheme accordingly. Do no make the mistake of choosing based on your personal preference.

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