Color, without our realizing it, can have a profound effect on how we feel both mentally and physically.
Dr. Morton Walker, in his book The Power of Color, suggested that the ancient Egyptians as well as the Native American Indians used color and colored light to heal. Below are some emotional associations that humans tend to have with certain colors.
These are important to keep in mind in order to create the mood you are seeking.
Blue represents peace, tranquility, calm, stability, harmony, unity, trust, truth, confidence, conservatism, security, cleanliness, order, loyalty, sky, water, and technology.
Blue can "slow the pulse rate, lower body temperature, and reduce appetite." Blue is considered a business color because it reflects reliability.
In China, blue is associated with immortality.
In Colombia, blue is associated with soap.
For Hindus blue is the color of Krishna.
For the Jewish, blue symbolizes holiness.
In the Middle East blue is a protective color.
Black is the absence of light and therefore, of color.
It represents power, sexuality, sophistication, formality, elegance, wealth, mystery, fear, anonymity, depth, style, underground, good technical color.
Green, one of most-often cited favorite colors. It represents nature, environment, health, good luck, renewal, youth, vigor, spring, generosity, fertility.
"Its cool quality soothes, calms, and has great healing powers." It is often worn in operating rooms by surgeons.
Factoid: In China, green hats mean a man's wife is cheating on him!
Orange is a combination of yellow and red. Orange is considered a warm color like red, but to a lesser extent; orange expresses energy. It has luminous qualities and has been used for attention-getting purposes, such as on caution signs.
Orange brings up memories of fall leaves, pumpkins and Halloween. It symbolizes balance, warmth, enthusiasm, vibrance, flamboyancy, and is demanding of attention.
Purple represents royalty, spirituality, nobility, ceremony, mystery, transformation, wisdom, enlightenment. Purple is considered an exotic color.
Factoid: Purple dye was made from the mucous gland of a snail. It required thousands of snails to yield 1 gram of dye causing it to be a color only nobles could afford. Today purple is a trendy color targeting creative types.
Red is the color that we pay the most attention to. It is the warmest and most energic color in the spectrum.
We associate red with love, valentines, danger, desire, speed, strength, violence, anger, emergency exit signs, stop signs and blood.
Red can evoke a fight-or-flight response, raise blood pressure and make the heart beat faster.
Red would not be the color of choice for psychiatric wards, prisons or a hospital.
In China red symbolizes celebration and luck, used in many cultural ceremonies that range from funerals to weddings.
In India red is the color of purity (used in wedding outfits).
White is what we see when all colors come together in perfect balance.
It represents reverence, purity, simplicity, cleanliness, peace, humility, precision, innocence, youth, birth, winter, snow, good, and marriage.
We use white in figures of speech like "pure as the driven snow" or "a white lie." We associate white with the good guy in old western movies.
In Asia yellow is sacred, and imperial.
| Yellow is the color of sunshine and it's a positive, happy color that arouses high spirits. In commercial art, it is the most readable background color for block type or lettering. It is the popular choice for warning signs, direction signs and auto license plates, where the message must be read quickly at a distance. It is a positive selling color in advertising design and packaging. | Violet is a pure spectral hue. It is used to enhance the packaging of certain products in the beauty field. It can represent quality, delicacy and is often feminine. It is considered a color of royalty because it used to be a rare natural dye. Since its symbolism has taken on a specialized meaning, it is not popular in general advertising design. Occasionally, it is used strikingly in interior design accessories. | Red is a hot color, the dynamo whose vigorous energy arouses strong reactions. It is attention getting and leaps out toward the viewer. In advertising and packaging, it can motivate people to buy almost any product. It is also a favorite color for magazine covers. If used in large amounts, it can appear cheap, and people often tire from too much exposure to red. |
| Blue is the cold color. Used alone, it can be the color of silence, tranquility. It is also the respectable, trustworthy color-a favorite for the logos or trademarks of banks, corporations, and insurance companies. In advertising, it is popular color for selling products that emphasize purity and freshness. It is frequently used in interior design and the fashion apparel industry uses no other color as much as blue. | Sometimes called chartreuse, Yellow-green can be a flashy color or a color that reminds people of nausea and medicine. It is not a winning color in the field of commercial design because people have ambivalent reactions to it. The most common exception is advertising and packaging design for lawn and garden products. | Yellow-orange is also found in packaging. It is often used to impart a "touch of class" because it has a gold-like quality. In advertising and publication design, it is seldom used for lettering or title simply because it isn't strong and readable against a white background. An exception is TV title lettering, where yellow-orange can project forcefully against black. |
| As red moves toward violet, it becomes cool. Red-violet is not a popular color in commercial art. When used as a background for black type matter, the type does not read well. | Blue-green is also called aqua, teal blue and turquoise. It is a cool color, a color of freshness that is used to package products such as toothpaste, after-shave lotion, candy mints and other food, and household cleaning products. It has many of the advantages of blue without some of the negative qualities of green. | In the field of graphic design, Red-orange is often used much the same as red. It is a strong color that will print clearly, and it is readable for type or lettering. It combines forcefully with black and white and is good all-round, positive color for advertising, displays and packaging. |
| Blue-violet is a color that arouses many prejudices. There is commonly a male aversion to purple; therefore, in advertising, it is used more often for feminine products, interiors and fashions. It is closely related to violet which is a color of royalty. "Over the years, it has gone in and out of popularity in the garment and interior design fields. | Orange, another upbeat, happy color, combines the energy of red with the sunniness of yellow. it symbolizes many pleasant things, such as fruit ices and Halloween pumpkins. Most people react favorably to orange. It communicates powerfully in advertising and publishing and is especially popular on packages for baked foods. In interior design, it is usually used with restraint. | Green is nature's color, restful and friendly. It can be cool and soothing, harsh and brassy. It is the color of apples, lines and mint. People have strong positive reactions to green. It is not a popular color in advertising, publication design, and packaging. Interior designers use it effectively in light values as a background. |