Check out this great post about the importance of color in design written by Vibrant Marketing Solutions:
What Color Defines You?
What makes a design work? Certainly, the end result must have impact–it must dynamically affect the viewer. It must compel the observer to look further.
We see thousands of graphic images each day. Everywhere we go, someone’s design beseeches us to take notice. In the realm of advertising, design is the foot in the door. If we’re hooked by a logo, a slogan, or a visual presentation, we’re naturally curious. We want to know more.
This is the hallmark of a winning design. A key component of that visual victory is color.
Choice of color tells the world who you are and what you’re all about. Are you bold and brassy, or cool, calm and collected? The colors you use say this about you and your company, product or service.
Color is highly subjective. Your favorite color might be an eyesore to me–and vice versa. But if that color is used with skill and confidence, it can still impress me–and, perhaps, persuade me to hear you out.
As I look around the room where I write this, I note a chaos of colors on a bookshelf. Bright reds, hot pinks and vivid purples leap out at me. These colors seem aggressive, obvious and broad to me. Large areas of these colors might overwhelm a design–and send the wrong message out to the viewer. Yellows of different intensity make a softer but steadier impact. Softer earth tones–golds, ochres, greens, beiges–offer subdued, welcome contrast from the bolder colors on the shelf.
Finally, my eyes settle on shades of blue. Aesthetically and emotionally, blue speaks to me. It is a centering, calming color. But a world of blue would be dull. So would a world of hot pink, bright green or beige.
The interplay of colors–the contrast of hot and cool, of bright and subtle–offers endless choices. I can’t use them all. In fact, the fewer colors I choose, the stronger my design will be. Study corporate logos and products. They typically use one or two colors. Such a confident choice of colors sends a message of stability and reliability. A chaos of color can translate as confusion or uncertainty.
What is your message? How do you want to be seen in the world? Are you bright scarlet red or cool midnight blue? Or are you a little of both? Choice of color plays a major role in your identity. It might be the single most important decision you make in how others will perceive you?
