Color to Get Your Message Across
Color is an integral part of Web Design just as is layout and functionality. A good Website design will have the use of colors to achieve a purpose, and the purpose will depend on what the website is intended for.
Websites are predominantly visual media, they lack the emotion that smell and sound can give so the the emotion of the user or audience must be targeted by the use of color and graphics.
For centuries artists have been using color to evoke emotion. Marketing uses color very cleverly to evoke emotions for selling products or services, and so a cleverly designed website should also use the power of color to trigger the emotions you wish to target.
Color and Emotions
The use of color in design can be subjective. Different colors can evoke different emotions depending on things such as personal preference, cultural background, and past experiences.
Below are some colors and the emotions they are generally perceived to evoke. Keep in mind that this a generalised perception as different colors can have different effects on different people.
Red: Excitement, Lively, Passionate, Urgent.
Pink: Sensitive, Kind, Sweet, Romantic, Peaceful.
Yellow: Happy, Playful, Optimistic, Spontaneous, Bright.
Blue: Calm, Trustworthy, Regal, Powerful.
Gray: Reserved, Unbiassed, Serious.
Green: Safe, Goodwilled, Generous, Lush.
Brown: Dependable, Loyal, Boring!
Purple: Mysterious, Groovy, Deep.
Orange: Gregarious, Dynamic, Fun.
The Color Wheel
A color wheel is used to represent the basic six colors, the shades in between them and their relationship to each other.
Primary Colors: Red, Yellow, Blue. These three colors are the base colors for every other color on the color wheel. This is why they’re called “primary”. When you mix two primaries together, you get a secondary color. Also note the triangular positioning of the primary colors on the color wheel, and how the secondary colors are next to them. Primary colors are useful for designs or art that needs to have a sense of urgency. Primary colors are the most vivid colors when placed next to each other, which is why you’ll notice that most fast food outlets, for example MacDonnalds, use primary colors in their logos, as it represents speed.
Secondary Colors: Orange, Green, Purple. These 3 colors are the result of mixing the primary colors together. They are located in-between the primary colors to indicate what colors they are made from. Note the the green is in between yellow and blue (the two colors mixed to get green). Secondary colors are usually more interesting than primary colors, but they do not represent speed or urgency.
Tertiary Colors: These are the colors in-between secondary colors like Yellow-Green and Red-Violet. They’re made by mixing one primary color and one secondary color together. There can be endless combinations of tertiary colors, depending on how they are mixed.
Complementary Colors: Red and Green, Blue and Orange, Purple and Yellow. These are the colors adjacent to each other on the color wheel. Complimentary can be misleading as, they rarely look good when used together. They are called complementary because, when used together, they become extremely vibrant and have heavy contrast so they actually complement each other. Complementary colors are useful when you want to high-lite something. For example, if you use a green background and have a red circle on it, the red will jump off the page and be almost blinding.
Analogous Colors: Red and Orange, Blue and Green, etc. These are colors right next to each other on the color wheel. They will usually match very well, but they also create little or no contrast. They’re good for a peaceful serene feeling such as designs and artwork to make your users or audience feel cosy and comfortable.
What Colors Should I Use
This obviously depends on what message you want to get across and the emotion you are targeting. If you observe you will find that most “Hard Sell” type websites or even TV advertisements will use Red, Black and White, to evoke the emotion of urgency, just like News and Sports websites, where as a Gardening or Pet information website or even TV show will use more calming colors such as Green, Blue and Pinks.
So have a think about what emotions you want to stir up in your audience or users, there are many resources including countless Psychology books which explore further the relationship between color and emotion.
© 2011, Enrique. All rights reserved.
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