How to Choose a Color for the Logotype: The Psychology of Colors

How to choose a color for the logotype: the psychology of colors

Do you know that a properly chosen color palette is able to create a visual illusion and affect your psychology? Believe it or not, but philosophers are trying to understand the nature of this phenomena in the field of chromatology for the last two hundred years. Thanks to their extensive research, we have enough information to understand, which color is going to be more attractive in the logotype of a given company. We can easily understand if it’s going to cause the required emotions and motivate the customer to perform the desired action.

How does it work?

Colors can affect the human on both psychological and cultural levels. They are able to cause various connections and emotions, which define our approach to color. Depending on these factors, we can choose if we like the color or not. In order to understand the nature of such color assessment, we need to discover the trick hidden behind the color:

Temperature

There’s a reason to divide the palette into cold and warm shades. The human doesn’t only associate colors with specific temperatures. For example, in similar conditions, the human will feel warmer in the red room and colder in the white room, while just looking at the respective colors.

Weight

Different objects will look heavy and massive in one color while being light and fresh in others. Yes, that’s the game of the human brain. However, this interesting effect allows us saying that the color is responsible for the weight change at least in the psychological aspect of this issue.

Space

Another illusion that can be created with a proper choice of colors is the effect of space expansion or reduction. This is nothing but a trick. People are aware of it, but still, they are amazed every single time they face it.

Texture

Sometimes one may feel the texture of the material or an object in a specific color right on the screen. This happens because the color palette is divided into smooth, shaggy, soft and matt shades. At the same time, such division is strictly associative.

Acoustics

You know colors, which are usually cold ‘screaming ones’, don’t you? Those are bright shades, mostly from the warm segment of the palette. On the contrary, soft and pale shades are usually cold calm ones. Just try to think about this incredible range of connections and rules, which looks more than natural for us, doesn’t it?

Let’s talk about each of the colors

Additionally, in the context of designing a new logo, the main color chosen for the logotype is not as simple as it seems to be. In other words, it can be used as a background for corporate documents, stationery materials, uniform and so on. In other words, this color will be widely used in the process of your company branding. You need to discover the psychological features of each color in order to find a shade that is going to correspond with all your requirements.

Tasty red

The screaming red color will highlight your logotype in the mass of others because the waves of red color can be easily recognized by the human eye. As a result, a person recognizes it much faster than any other color. The red color is usually connected with such contrast things as love, anger, and luxury. The most interesting part is the fact that this color can easily increase hunger, passion, and the will.

Blue winner

More than 40% of people on Earth prefer this color. It affects the mind of the human in the right way, soothing it and bringing you confidence. Furthermore, it stimulates the activity of the brain and opens your creative potential. “Similarly to the desired object that is trying to fade away, we look at the blue color not because it wants to reach us, but because it attracts us to follow it”, Johann Goethe.

Confusing yellow

The yellow color is considered the most positive and lively one, but it’s not as clear as it seems. In Greece, people related yellow color with richness and gold, while Tibetan monks considered it the key symbol of modesty. We are talking about the friendliness of yellow color, but this shade was the main sign of betrayers at the beginning of the current era. Similarly to red, yellow color can increase the feeling of hunger. However, unlike red, yellow color supports concentration and leads to better working results.

Green balance

During the process of colors division into warm and cold shades, the only green color will stay neutral. This color is the sign of the balance created from two opposite shades: red and blue. This balance is able to please our eyes, making us patient and giving us a required burst of energy.

Orange fidelity

Orange color is more popular in sunny Asia than in grumpy Europe. However, the entire world considers it a positive and energetic shade. This color represents trust and fidelity. In Ancient Rome, future wives used the orange veil to show these important qualities. A bright and friendly logotype that has to make your customer trust you requires an orange shade.

Violet secret

This is the color of magic and mystery. Violet color represents noble people and luxury. However, the effect of this color on a human can be totally unpredictable. Violet color can be a great source of inspiration that leads to creativity and philosophic thinking. It calms people down, preventing unwanted decisions and actions.

Pink antidepressant

There’s a reason for the fact that pink color is considered a harmless one. It turns out that pink acts as a visual antidepressant. For example, while studying in pink classrooms, kids are more open to contact. At the same time, pink offices of psychologists allow discovering the real problem and eliminate depression. In other words, pink is the color of childish carelessness and limitless kind.

Versatile black

In fact, black color is the lack of color that is directly related to the following things: magic and routine, elegance and shyness, classic and modern, luxury and simplicity, passion and modesty. If you need to make a truly versatile logotype, the black color will be the perfect solution for the task with no doubts.

Multicolored white

As we know, the white color appears when we mix all available shades. As a result of their waves reflection, while color can visually expand objects and places. This color represents peace, kindness, innocence, clarity, divinity, and freedom.

How to choose a color for the logotype

We have to confirm that this choice is one of the complex ones. However, it’s not enough to use the knowledge about the effect of the color on human psychology to make a choice. There are several ways to check if the chosen color is the most appropriate one for the logotype.

Analyze competitors

One needs to know everything about the actions of the competitors no matter what. Such analysis will provide you with precious information and will keep the tone. This rule shall be used in the process of corporate color selection. Just take a look at the logotypes of the competitors, and discover the most popular color combinations.

Color has to correspond with the company

It’s simply impossible to choose a corporate color without analyzing your own business. Ask yourself the following questions:

Which emotions are required to make a customer start cooperation with your company?

Are you thinking about patience, confidence, happiness, passion or something else?

Analyze the target audience

Don’t forget to analyze the target audience: sex, age, nationality, profile, and so on. Try to understand the key reason to become your customers and understand their expectations. You need to fulfill the desires of the target audience whenever it’s possible, including the moment of the corporate color choosing.

Bottomline

Do you know the best color combination for the logotype? Now you need to use each of them in the real conditions. You can try some of the online services like Logaster to create a logo and test colors.

Try to understand the features of each shade of the color palette in order to make your corporate branding a competitive advantage and not a weakness. Combine colors and never ignore interesting combinations.

About the Author

Leave a Reply