Saturday, February 27, 2010

The Psychology of Color

I've noticed that some people have fancy and colorful blogs. Mine is pretty basic. I was thinking of spicing it up with a little more color. I love color and enjoy learning how it affects emotions and marketing. (Yes, I enjoy learning how to manipulate people.) As a public service, I will be sharing some information on this topic that I researched several years ago. Here is a list of some popular colors and what subtle messages are often associated with them.

Blue-Calming, tranquility, sky, water, purity, loyalty, and stability. You'll notice I use blue in Chaka's world to put my readers into a trance and make them hang around my pages longer. Okay, maybe it doesn't work after all.
Black-Elegance, sophistication, evil, death, mourning, authority, power, and the night. I chose this theme for The Movie Guy despite many people not liking to read against a black background.
Purple- Royalty, nobility, mystery, magic, and sophistication. When I hear the word purple, for some reason I always think of Prince.
Red-Hot, dangerous, passion, courage, energy, sexy, intensity, speed, and love. Fire engines, Valentines, power ties, and sports cars come to mind.
Green-Money, environment, nature, organic, growth, fertility, youth, and safety. This color has been riding a huge popularity wave recently and I'll bet the other colors are jealous.
Yellow-(Yellow doesn't show up on a white background, but you know what it looks like.) It represents sunshine, happiness, optimism, energy, being light hearted, and cowardice.
Silver-Maturity, intelligence, security, and old age.
Orange-Sunshine, warmth, endurance, harvest, and the Fall.
Pink- Femininity, innocence, and freshness. It has a tranquilizing effect. Some teams paint the opposing team's locker room pink.
White-The only color that shows up worse on a white background than yellow. It represents purity, cleanliness, sacredness, and sterility.
Brown-Labor, simplicity, earth, outdoors, reliable, and being genuine.

I'm sure you've hear most of these before, but once you are more aware of what these colors represent, it is interesting to see how professional decorators and marketers utilize color to reach and influence people.

5 comments:

Kristina P. said...

I think my blog color accurately represents my blog. Very calming, soothing, and serene. ;)

Lisa said...

I am blue and purple with a tinge of yellow. That makes my blog has, let me see..water, sky, sophistication with a little optimism and energy.

My background is white, so, uumh this tough, ok I choose sacredness.

Check it out to see if your research is correct or not:)

Lisa said...

One more colour I missed. Green, light and dark, so..ok true, there is environment and nature.

Eric said...

If your blog background pulsed through all of the brightest colors like an Olafur Eliasson exhibit, what would that say about it all?

MikkSolo said...

I'm a BLACK person. Not the color of my skin.