Warm Colors - : Red, Orange and Yellow Are Next To Each Other On The Wheel and

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olor plays an important role in brand identity—it draws consumers to

products, stirs emotions and has a huge impact on brand


recognition. Warm colors can evoke different emotions than cool
colors and bright colors can create different feelings than muted
colors. It all depends on how the psychological effects of color are
being used.

Colors can make us feel happy or sad… they can make us feel
hungry or relaxed. That’s why it’s important to understand
the psychological effects colors might have on an average person, or
your client’s target audience. Let’s take a closer look at how color
impacts our emotions and behaviors.

Warm colors

Red, orange and yellow are next to each other on the wheel and
are all warm colors. Warm colors often evoke feelings of happiness,
optimism and energy. However, yellow and orange can also slightly
irritate the eyes and red can increase a person’s appetite.

Think about fast food restaurants like McDonald’s or KFC — most of


these places incorporate the color yellow and red. Why? Because
they want people to get hungry and then eat quickly.

Red
Photograph: Cas Cornelissen (via Unsplash)

Red is the warmest and most dynamic of the colors — it triggers


opposing emotions. It is often associated with passion and love as
well as anger and danger. It can increase a person’s heart rate and
make them excited.

If you want to draw attention to a design element, use red. But use it
as an accent color in moderation as it can be overwhelming.
Orange

Photograph: Afroz Nawaf (via Unsplash)

Orange enhances a feeling of vitality and happiness. Like red, it


draws attention and shows movement but is not as overpowering. It
is aggressive but balanced — it portrays energy yet can be inviting
and friendly. Orange is great for a call to action to buy or subscribe
to a product.
Yellow

Photograph: Alexander Shustov (via Unsplash)

Yellow is perhaps the most energetic of the warm colors. It is


associated with laughter, hope and sunshine. Accents of yellow help
give your design energy and will make the viewer feel optimistic and
cheerful. However, yellow tends to reflect more light and can irritate
a person’s eyes. Too much yellow can be overwhelming and should
be used sparingly. In design, it is often used to grab attention in an
energetic and comforting way.

Cool colors

Cool colors include green, blue, and purple. Cool colors are usually
calming and soothing but can also express sadness. Purple is often
used to help spark creativity as it’s a mixture of blue (calm) and red
(intense). If a company wants to display health, beauty or security,
incorporate these colors.

Green
Photograph: Buzo Jesús (via Unsplash)

Green symbolizes health, new beginnings and wealth. Green is the


easiest on the eyes and should be used to relax and create balance
in a design. It is a great color to use if a company wants to depict
growth, security or inspire possibility.

Blue
Photograph: J DuClos (via Unsplash)

Blue evokes feelings of calmness and spirituality as well as security


and trust. Seeing the color blue causes the body to create chemicals
that are calming. It is no surprise that it’s the most favored of the
colors. Dark blues are great for corporate designs because it helps
give a professional feel, but using too much can create a cold,
disengaged feeling. Light blues give a more relaxing, friendly feel.
Great examples are social sites like Facebook and Twitter who use
lighter blues.
Purple

Photograph: Sonja Langford (via Unsplash)

Purple is associated with creativity, royalty and wealth. Purple is


often used to soothe or calm a viewer, hence why it is used in
beauty products. Incorporate purple to make a design look more
luxurious and wealthy or a lighter purple to show romance and
mystery.
Neutral colors

Photograph: Noel Lopez (via Unsplash)

Neutral colors include black, gray, white, tan and brown. In design,
these colors are great as background colors. Use black, gray and
white when using brighter colors. If you are using textures, then
incorporate tan and brown as your backdrop.

It is important to note that colors can be subjective—what might


make one person feel cheerful can make another person feel
irritated depending on the viewers’ past experiences or cultural
differences.

Color is not completely agreed on universally and can appeal


differently to individual countries. Now that you know how colors and
emotions are connected, you can study your target audience and
choose colors accordingly.

What feelings and emotions do colors evoke in you? Let us know in


the comments below.

The author

Allison S. Gremillion
A Louisiana native, Allison moved to San Francisco and became the first Community Liaison at
99designs. Over the years, she established and lead several designer teams focused on
supporting, educating and motivating 99d's global community of designers to reach their fullest
potential. She loves advocacy work, design, psychology, and making real connections with
humans all over the world.
Color has a great impact on every human and of course it contributes a lot in mood
changes or how one feels .

Here is a list of 10 colors and there effect on us. Have a look

1. Red

Red stimulates and excites the brain. It is associated with power, passion, and energy,
or it might also be associated with danger or aggression.

When it is combined with other colors, red elicits different responses. For example, red
and green represent Christmas and can evoke a range of emotions associated with that
holiday. It has the same effect when combined with white in some Eastern cultures.

2. Orange
Orange is a stimulating color that elicits feelings of excitement, warmth, and
playfulness. It has the same energizing quality as red but is more muted, which can
bring about a sense of comfort and creativity.

When paired with black, orange represents Halloween as it’s celebrated in Western
culture. This can evoke variant emotions such as delight or fear, depending on the
viewer.

3. Yellow

Yellow draws attention and stimulates positive emotions. It is associated with hope
and optimism, but it can also communicate cowardice and dishonesty. In the Hindu
religion, yellow is a sacred color.

4. Green

This color is often calming and cool. It can represent good luck, health, nature, and
renewal or rebirth. Green can also communicate jealousy and envy.

It can even have different meanings across cultural lines. For instance, green is not a
successful color in China or France. However, it draws out investors in the Middle East
who associate it with money.

5. Blue

Blue improves concentration because it calms the mind. It can be sedative and calm or
sad. Psychological associations with the color blue include trust and security,
cleanliness, order, and technology. IBM was nicknamed Big Blue among international
technology markets. Many banks have blue logos to evoke a feeling of trust in their
customers.

6. Purple

Purple is calm and soothing like most cool colors. It is associated with spirituality,
royalty, and mystery. Purple can also symbolize cruelty and arrogance. There are very
few elements of nature that are purple.

7. Pink

Pink is a calming color that signifies vulnerability and safety, as opposed to the
aggression of red. Pink is often associated with femininity in Western cultures.

8. Brown

Brown is warm and restful, but it can also be depressing. Combining brown with
orange, yellow or gold reduces its depressing quality. Brown symbolizes earth,
endurance, and reliability. Brown is a successful packaging color for food in the U.S.,
but it has the opposite effect in Colombia.

9. Black
Black is depressing and associated with death, unhappiness, and fear. It can also
signify elegance and sophistication, power and sexuality. Many Western cultures use
black to signify death, but in clothing or packaging it represents wealth, elegance, and
sophistication. Black clothing has long been the unofficial uniform of sophisticated
New York City dwellers.

10. White

White is cheerful and can be associated with sunlight when combined with red, yellow
or orange. It represents purity and innocence, but can also be associated with sterility
and death. Cultural responses to white can be quite different. In the U.S., it is used for
weddings to symbolize purity, while in many Eastern cultures, it signifies death.

How Color Can Be Applied

Different shades of color can also affect the emotions. Combining colors also change
how they are perceived. In general, too much bold color can be irritating, even if it is a
typically calming color. The best uses for the emotional responses to color are subtle.
You may not remember what color the walls are in your favorite restaurant, for
example, but you know you feel relaxed when you eat there.

Color is not only used to infuse emotion into advertising, it is also used in the decor of
public buildings to evoke the preferred emotions in patrons. Pale green is often used in
prisons to calm inmates. You won’t find a prison room painted red because there is no
desire to inflame excitement, anger, or aggression in that setting.

Hospitals were traditionally all white to signify the cleanliness and purity. More
recently some relaxing cool colors are incorporated to reduce the tension created in
some by an antiseptic atmosphere. Soft warm shades of pink and yellow might even be
used to cheer the patients.

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