NEWS & UPDATES

July 1, 2008 In By Advent

Choosing Colors for Your Branding and Display Design

Color is a very pow­er­ful tool that should be used and lever­aged effec­tively in your brand­ing, mar­ket­ing, and dis­play design. It sur­rounds us every day and effects us psy­cho­log­i­cally and phys­i­cally. The major­ity of infor­ma­tion that we absorb is through our visual sense. Yet we rarely stop to con­tem­plate why and how it accom­plishes its effects.

Expe­ri­en­tial Mar­ket­ing is about con­nect­ing con­sumers with brands in per­sonal and mem­o­rable ways. There­fore, it makes sense to always con­sider color choices as an inte­gral part of any Expe­ri­en­tial Mar­ket­ing campaign.

The sci­ence of color is quite com­pli­cated and beyond the scope of this arti­cle. How­ever, I would like to briefly touch on some of the more philo­soph­i­cal and cul­tural ideas asso­ci­ated with color and why they mat­ter to mar­ket­ing. The sym­bol­ism and psy­chol­ogy of color can be sub­jec­tive and depen­dant on many variables.

Color sym­bol­ism and color psy­chol­ogy are cul­tur­ally con­structed link­ages that vary with time, place, and cul­ture. In fact one color may per­form very dif­fer­ent sym­bolic or psy­cho­log­i­cal func­tions at the same place. Color sym­bol­ism is a con­tentious area of study depen­dent upon a large body of anec­do­tal evi­dence but not sup­ported by data from well designed sci­en­tific studies.

Wikipedia — Color sym­bol­ism and psychology

Con­sid­er­a­tions When Choos­ing Color Palettes for Your Brand or Campaign

• Who is your tar­get audi­ence and what is their age, gen­der, class, etc?
• Where, geo­graph­i­cally, is your tar­get audi­ence from and where will your event be held?
• When will your project launch and what are the cur­rent or fore­casted color trends?
• How do you want to make your audi­ence feel dur­ing their experience?
• What impres­sion do you want to leave your audi­ence with after their experience?

Have you thought about how the use of color might help you achieve your desired result from the tar­get demo­graphic or audi­ence? The appeal and mean­ing of color is dif­fer­ent for dif­fer­ent gen­ders. Men and women usu­ally do not dif­fer on dark or light col­ors, but women are more prone to pre­fer softer col­ors. Men often grav­i­tate towards bright or bold col­ors. Chil­dren, teen-agers, and adults usu­ally have sep­a­rate dis­tinct color pref­er­ences and inter­pre­ta­tions of color as well.

Equally impor­tant to the age and gen­der of your demo­graphic when choos­ing color is their loca­tion and cul­ture. Geog­ra­phy plays a major role in the mean­ing of color and what cer­tain col­ors sym­bol­ize. For exam­ple, in west­ern cul­ture white is often asso­ci­ated with purity or clean­li­ness. On the other hand, in cer­tain Asian cul­tures white is often sym­bolic of mourn­ing or death.

The time period of your mar­ket­ing cam­paign is impor­tant because color trends change from sea­son to sea­son and year to year. If pos­si­ble, think ahead to when a cam­paign will launch or when the event you are involved in occurs. Future color fore­casts can be found by study­ing fash­ion, inte­rior design, and graphic design industries.

When you know who your audi­ence is and the time of your event you can then think about how you want to make your audi­ence feel while attend­ing and what impres­sion you want them to leave with. Do you want to calm them? A sooth­ing blue might help. Maybe your want to excite them. Think Yel­low. Yel­low is often per­ceived as an ener­getic color asso­ci­ated with the spring sea­son and youth­ful age.

Color research can eas­ily be achieved by pok­ing around on the inter­net, vis­it­ing a book store, or sim­ply tak­ing a walk out­side. Pay par­tic­u­lar atten­tion to mag­a­zines and fash­ion. They are cur­rent and often set or cre­ate color trends. For a more uni­ver­sal and last­ing color palette look to nature. Nature never goes out of fash­ion or style.

In the end you may not be able to please every­body or pick the per­fect color scheme for your Expe­ri­en­tial Mar­ket­ing cam­paign or project. How­ever, going the extra mile, doing some research, and mak­ing the best deci­sions pos­si­ble should pay off in the end and help pro­vide your audi­ence with a more mem­o­rable experience.

Color Resources and Articles

• Color Trends for 2008
• Sherwin-Williams 2008 Color Forecast
• Happy Blue Year: 2008 Color Trends
• Adobe Kuler
• Color Mat­ters

Authored By Advent

Advent partners with organizations to help them visually express differentiation.