In the lecture this week we studied colour and how brands use it to convey emotions. We started by looking at the different types of colour systems: CMYK, Pantone, RGB and RAL. We then considered how we would find the right colours for our brand by looking at the different colour schemes using Adobe Colour.
I decided to look further into colour psychology to find the right colour for my brand.
The colour red in western culture represents: Excitement, Strength, Love and Energy. There are loads of brands that use the colour red with most of them being media and news companies such as: CNN, Marvel, Nintendo, Time and YouTube to name a few. Although red is quite an eye catching colour I didn’t feel like it was the right colour to use in my brand as I would think that people would be more drawn to a bank with a less volatile colour.
The colour orange represents: Confidence, Success, Bravery and is friendly. The brands that use orange as their main colour are quite different for example: Fanta, Firefox, amazon and Nickelodeon. Orange is quite a fun and cheerful colour which I didn't think was suitable for a bank brand.
The colour yellow represents: Creativity, Happiness Warmth and energy. Although yellow is a bright and flashy colour a lot of the brands that use it are quite corporate and professional such as: DHL, UPS, Nikon but with exceptions like: McDonalds, Subway and Ferrari.
Green is the colour most linked with nature and health it also represents growth and peace. Most of the brands that use green are quite linked with these values like: Tropicana, Animal planet and Spotify.
The colour blue is the most popular for banks and is quite a safe colour for a brand to use as its the most universally liked colour. The only problem with using blue for a brand is that it can often be seen as boring and mature. The brands that use blue are: HP, IBM, Pfizer, Dell, American Express and NASA. When considering blue for my brand I was quite hesitant as most banks use the colour already which could hurt the brands ability to stand out.
The colour purple is the colour of imagination, wisdom, wealth and creativity. Its often used when businesses want to promote a premium product. Some of the business that use purple are: Cadbury, Ulster Bank, Yahoo, twitch and PBS. I quite like the colour purple in relation to my own brand as I feel like its quite favoured with young people and can also be used in a professional setting.
Looking at colour this week was interesting as I wasnt aware of how colour psychology affects customers choices and how they view different brands. Im now also going to consider how I can choose the right colour for my brand based on these principles.