A big part of our design processes is color theory. Color theory, whether you know it or not, surrounds us, both in man-made design and architecture or in the natural world. Color theory is used when deciding which colors to use together and how they affect human emotion and desires. Each color has a unique effect on a person's mind.
Red conveys a sense of danger or urgency. For example, stop signs, traffic signals and brake lights use the color red. The color red jabs our mind and alerts us. This is why so many people choose red in their signs. Whether selling a plot of land, showing directions or, often times, advertising food, red is a favorite.
Orange conveys caution and competition. Many road signs that are warning us of road work or construction are orange. Similarly, the color of traffic cones and road workers' vests utilize the affect of the color orange. Additionally, I think everyone can name at least one sports team that bears the color orange. It is a long-time favorite color of competitiveness and athleticism.
Yellow is a color that is deemed the most eye-catching color. It is also used for cautionary signs on the road. Additionally, it is used in caution tape, traffic lights and the middle lines on the road. Many people use the color yellow with black to make their designs pop and catch the average human eye.
Green promotes feelings of calm and quiet or a feeling of action. Paler and more subtle greens are used in areas that are looking to calm the environment, such as coffee shops or spas. On the other hand, in the cases of traffic lights, directional signs and website buttons, green is used as a prompt to take action. Whether driving your car forward or purchasing an item online, green gives you the go-ahead. (It is also the logo color of you favorite sign shop, right?)
Blue is a symbol of cleanliness and freshness. Many doctor's offices, dentist's offices and medical centers use the color blue to convey a sense of cleanliness to their patients. Even their uniforms are often blue. Many dental hygiene products, such as toothpaste and mouth wash use this color in their branding to convey freshness.
Purple has historically represented royalty, power and peace. Even still today, prestigious colleges and companies use the color purple to instill a feeling of superiority and respect in the human mind.
There are other colors not in the rainbow that have psychological meaning too:
White - Purity, cleanliness and clarity.
Black - Professional, powerful and strong.
Grey - Industrial and modern.
Brown - Natural or historical.
Beige - Calming and quiet.
Pale Colors - Refreshing and joyful.
(Beige and pale colors are colors that have really surged towards the top of the color choices in the last couple of years.)
An excellent way to organize colors according to their primary make-up is the popular Color Wheel pictured blow.
The color wheel organizes the colors into Primary, Secondary and Tertiary colors. As you can see above, the primary colors, red, yellow and blue, form perfect triangle if you were to draw a line connecting them. In between the primary colors, you will see orange, green and purple, our secondary colors. They are made up of mixing the primary colors with each other. And then our tertiary colors are the slight differences between primary and secondary colors. Even more shades can be made by mixing side by side colors until you have a perfect, circular gradient.
Color Harmonizing is the practice of matching colors together in order to make the design suitable to its use and aesthetically pleasing. Using the color wheel again, below are just a few of the possible patterns used to harmonize colors. These patters can be rotated to choose different colors.
Thank you for taking the time to read more about how Wilson Signs and Graphics utilizes colors to best suit the needs of our customers. I hope you enjoyed this fun post, because I sure did (I'm obsessed with color theory.)
If there is anything about the sign industry or about our business that you would like to know more about, comment on this post and we can definitely fill you in.
Goodbye!
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