Color Theory - Choosing Your Website Colors
Angela Nielsen
Is the choice of colors for your website and print materials
more than just a matter of personal preference? Does it really
matter what color choices you make? Will your audience really
feel differently because of the color combinations? The answer
to all these questions is Yes, Yes, and Yes!
Color is considered emotional, because variations evoke
different emotions in people. We all know that green is the
color of money, but did you also know that green can symbolize
greed, envy, and jealousy? The colors you choose will have a
direct effect on how the public perceives your company or
product. This can be complicated by the fact that our use of
color on the web is now limitless: technology allows us to
create millions of color combinations. So how do you choose?
This brief article will make it simple to understand the basics
of choosing colors.
It’s important to understand that every color has a positive
and negative set of emotions associated with it, what I call
the “color meaning”. It’s this meaning that will affect your
customer’s emotional response to your company, brand or
product. So when choosing color schemes for your website, or
any other media type, you need to make sure you’re presenting
your company or product with a color that will most likely
entice the audience to choose your company or product.
Take a quick break, and go look in your lunch room,
refrigerator, or kitchen cabinets at the products we purchase
from the grocery store. What color do you see the most of?
Chances are, you’re seeing red, and lots of it. Just glimpsing
into my cabinets, now that I know I’m looking for it, I seem to
be thrown in to a world of red products. Chef Boyardee,
Kellogg’s, Lipton, Carnation, Ragu, Aunt Jemima, Nestle, Betty
Crocker, Orville Redenbacher’s, Heinz, Pam, all of these brands
are jumping out at me with red in their labels. Why? Red is a
very “hot” color, and very emotional as well. In studies, red
actually has a physical effect on people, increasing their
heart rate and causing blood pressure to rise. Red grabs our
attention, stirs us to action, and thus is a very powerful
color for product packaging.
All colors fit into three categories; cool, warm and neutral.
While you can select all of your colors from the same category,
it is often possible to achieve a more powerful effect by
introducing a color from one of the other groups. Let’s take a
look now at how colors work together, and what each color may
mean to the viewer.
Cool Colors
Blue, green, purple, turquoise and silver are cool colors. Cool
colors tend to have a calming effect on the viewer. Used alone
however, these colors can have a cold or impersonal feel, so
when choosing cool colors, it may be wise to add a color from
another group to avoid this.
Blue Color Meaning.
Positive: tranquility, love, loyalty, security, trust,
intelligence
Negative: coldness, fear, masculinity
Green Color Meaning.
Positive: money, growth, fertility, freshness, healing
Negative: envy, jealousy, guilt, disorder
Purple Color Meaning. (purple is a combination of blue and red,
so it is found in both the warm and cool categories)
Positive: royalty, nobility, spirituality, luxury, ambition
Negative: mystery, moodiness
Turquoise Color Meaning.
Positive: spiritual, healing, protection, sophisticated
Negative: envy, femininity
Silver Color Meaning.
Positive: glamorous, high tech, graceful, sleek
Negative: dreamer, insincere
Warm Colors
Red, pink, yellow, orange, purple, and gold are warm colors.
Warm colors tend to have an exciting effect on the viewer.
However when these colors are used alone they can
over-stimulate, generating emotions of anger and violence. When
choosing warm tones, adding colors from another group will help
to balance this.
Red Color Meaning.
Positive: love, energy, power, strength, passion, heat
Negative: anger, danger, warning, impatience
Pink Color Meaning.
Positive: healthy, happy, feminine, compassion, sweet, playful
Negative: weakness, femininity, immaturity
Yellow Color Meaning.
Positive: bright, energy, sun, creativity, intellect, happy
Negative: coward, irresponsible, unstable
Orange Color Meaning.
Positive: courage, confidence, warmth, friendliness, success
Negative: ignorance, sluggishness, superiority
Purple Color Meaning. (purple is found in both warm and cool
colors)
Positive: royalty, nobility, spirituality, luxury, ambition
Negative: mystery, moodiness
Gold Color Meaning.
Positive: wealth, prosperity, valuable, traditional
Negative: greed, dreamer
Neutral Colors
Brown, tan, ivory, gray, black and white are neutral colors.
Neutral colors are a great selection to mix with a cool or warm
palette. They are good for backgrounds in a design, and also
tend to tone down the use of other more overpowering colors.
Black is added to create a darker “shade” of a primary color,
while white is added to create a lighter “tint”.
Black Color Meaning.
Positive: protection, dramatic, serious, classy, formality
Negative: secrecy, death, evil, mystery
Gray Color Meaning.
Positive: security, reliability, intelligence, solid,
conservative
Negative: gloomy, sad, conservative
Brown Color Meaning.
Positive: friendly, earth, outdoors, longevity, conservative
Negative: dogmatic, conservative
Tan (beige) Color Meaning.
Positive: dependable, flexible, crisp, conservative
Negative: dull, boring, conservative
Ivory Color Meaning.
Positive: quiet, pleasantness, pureness, warmness
Negative: weak, unstable
White Color Meaning.
Positive: goodness, innocence, purity, fresh, easy, clean
Negative: winter, cold, distant
You may be asking, “What is the right color combination for my
business website?” While there is no absolute “right” color for
your website, you need to understand your target audience, and
consider their response to colors, not your own. If your end
goal is for them to choose your company or product, then your
color palette must appeal to them. There are overall factors
that indicate what your audience may or may not like.
The basic target audience factors to consider are age
differences, class differences, gender differences and overall
color trends.
Age difference is a key factor that should not be ignored. If
children and adolescents are your target audience, then they
prefer bright, primary colors like red, blue, green and yellow.
However, if your target is older adults, they would prefer more
muted or darker colors, along with colors from the neutral
color group.
Class difference is another key factor in choosing colors.
United States research has shown those in the working class
prefer colors they can name like blue, red, green, etc. Those
that are more educated tend to prefer more obscure colors like
taupe, azure, celadon, salmon, etc.
Gender preference is an obvious factor in choosing your colors.
Men tend to prefer cool tones like blues and greens, where women
prefer warmer tones, reds and oranges. If you have an audience
of both men and women, consider mixing some colors from the
warm and cool palettes that would appeal to both men and women.
Last but not least are color trends. By definition, a trend
means “current style”. Choosing currently popular colors may
work well for some types of websites and products, but if you
want to present longevity and stability, then popular colors
may not be the best direction for you. Instead, you may want to
consider more traditional colors that stand up over time.
Choosing color is more than just picking what feels good to
you, it is about creating a response from the viewer. By
knowing your target audience and the effect that different
colors can have, you gain a greater ability to determine what
colors will work best for your audience.
One final note on color. Viewers on the web can use different
monitors, different browsers, and different operating systems.
It is nearly impossible to ensure that your colors come across
the same on every computer as well as in print. Don’t be overly
concerned with the differences on varying computers, but do try
to be consistent. Whether you’re creating a color palette for
your company, a brand identity, or product colors, consistency
is key. Use the same colors throughout all your marketing
efforts to create familiarity with your company or product.
Consistency will help instill trust with your viewer.
About The Author: Angela Nielsen is President of NIC Media
Group, an award-winning web development company located in San
Diego, California. To find out more about Angela Nielsen, and
NIC Media, visit http://www.nicmedia.com
or call them direct at
888 NIC Media. Copyright 2005 by Angela Nielsen and NIC Media
Group
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