Hawaii Website Design – Color Psychology: How Colors Influence People

We might not be aware of it but colors can actually influence our minds. Color psychology is about how our minds discern what it visualizes. Although there isn’t much research about color psychology, it is still one of the most interesting topics to talk about.

assorted-color paints

Color meanings can influence the reason why we prefer particular colors over others. Colors can also influence our minds when it comes to decision-making. You might ask, does the color of a symbol make us more inclined to click on it? The answer is yes.

Color psychology has also become an important aspect in web design and marketing. Colors stimulate feelings and emotions. You have to know how certain colors affect people. By knowing this, you can get people to see what you want them to see. You will also be able to influence them by using the appropriate colors. The choice of colors can help people determine what is relevant.

If you don’t know anything about colors yet, I suggest you read about Color Theory to know the basics about colors. Moving on, we will try to see what human emotions can be stimulated by using certain colors.

RED

In color psychology, red is the most intense color and it can stimulate the strongest emotions like anger, passion, and love. It attracts more attention than any other color. You might also want to use it moderately as it also signifies danger. It is said to improve human metabolism, increases respiration rate, and raises blood pressure.

Brands like Coca-Cola and YouTube made the color red iconic. I’ve mentioned above that it improves human metabolism, this is probably why Coca-Cola uses it. When it comes to YouTube, they use red because it invokes excitement to the viewers.

YELLOW

According to color psychology, yellow evokes feelings of happiness, positivity, optimism, and summer. At the same time, it can also stimulate feelings of deceit and warning. When used too much, yellow may have a unpleasant effect on people. The color yellow stimulates cheerfulness, awakens mental activity, and generates muscle energy.

Brands like Ferrari and IKEA use yellow in their branding. The luxury brand, Ferrari, is associated with this feeling of happiness, and a carefree lifestyle. This is probably why many people dream of driving a Ferrari. On the other hand, IKEA uses yellow because buying furniture can signify new beginnings like moving out for the first time or buying a new house. With new beginnings, you tend to experience happiness and optimism.

BLUE

In color psychology, blue is closely tied to the sea and the sky. When you integrate the the color into your branding, your audience will experience feelings of stability, harmony, peace, calm and trust. On the other side, blue also have negative color meanings such as depression and a sense of coldness. The color blue is most commonly used by tech brands like Facebook and Twitter. Other brands like Oral B also uses the color blue to help people correlate the brand with a quality product.

Next, I will talk more about other color meanings in Color Psychology.