Color plays an enormously significant role in how we perceive the world. Colors in the natural world inform us of the status of the weather, the season of the year, the time of day, the ripeness of grains, fruits, and vegetables, even potential threats and dangers. Color, in the realm of business / organizational identity, promotion, and packaging plays a similar, informative role — it can signal the nature and status of your enterprise, the relative cost and quality of your services or products, and for whom your services/products are intended to serve.
A General Rule of Thumb for Choosing Colors
Setting aside for the moment how specific hues are associated with broader categories of information (e.g., green = environment, blue = clean, etc.), a helpful heuristic in picking colors can be given as: pure, saturated, primary and secondary colors (red, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, violet) are indicative of everyday, commonplace products and services; muted colors are indicative of refined, exclusive products and services. In other words, if your services/products are geared to a broad demographic, bright saturated colors are appropriate. If your products/services are geared to a more exclusive, wealthier demographic, subdued muted colors are the way to go.
Color Association
As mentioned above, certain colors are associated with broader themes. It’s important to make sure your color choices don’t contravene the nature of your business enterprise or organization’s mission/purpose. An Italian restaurant or pizzeria, for example, would be working against conventional perception if they were to choose colors in the blue or teal areas of the spectrum for their branding and marketing/promotional materials. A landscaping business could work with browns/greens/yellows; pinks, violets, and purples less so.
Consistency
Whatever colors or range of colors you choose, make sure to apply those colors consistently in all of your identity, promotional, and packaging materials.
If you have any questions about Colors for Identity, Promotion and Packaging, give us a call at 330-597-8560. We’re happy to help you get the most out of your printing project.
Photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi
