Web Color
Web ColorThe psychology of color
Color psychology is a field of study that’s devoted to analyzing the emotional and behavior effects produced by colors and color combinations. E-commerce web site owners want to know which color will make their web site visitors spend more money. Home decorators want to know which color will transform a bedroom into a tranquil Zen retreat. Fast food restaurant owners are dying to know which color combination will make you want to super-size your meal. As you can imagine, color psychology is big business ~ Beaird, J. (2007). The Principles of Beautiful Web Design
Color Associations
- Red:
- stimulation, exciting, dramatic, passion .. a very rich color
- Orange:
- active, energetic, not as passionate as red though. Happiness, sunshine, enthusiasm, and creativity.
- Yellow:
- Highly active, highly visible; happiness and energy. The original orange and lemon-lime flavors of the sports energy drink Gatorade are still the best-selling of the brand’s products. Too much yellow can also be overpowering.
- Green:
- Associated with nature. Very soothing color that symbolizes growth, freshness, and hope.
- Blue:
- Symbolizes openness, intelligence, and faith. Found to calm people, but can reduce appetite - maybe due in part to the rarity of blue in real food. Blue has also be seen as a symbol of bad luck and trouble. This emotional color connection is evident in blues music and in the paintings of Picasso’s depression-induced Blue period.
- Purple:
- Royalty and power. One of the least commonly used color.
- White:
- Clean, perfection, light, purity.
- Black:
- Often seen as negative, it can also be a color of power, elegance, and strength.
Classic Color Schemes
- Monochromatic:
- The monochromatic color scheme uses variations in lightness and saturation of a single color. This scheme looks clean and elegant.
- Analogous:
- Complementary:
- The complementary color scheme is made of two colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel. This scheme looks best when you put a warm color against a cool color, for example, red versus green-blue. The complementary scheme is intrinsically high-contrast.
The analogous color scheme uses colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel. One color is used as a dominant color while others are used to enrich the scheme.
Web Color Reference Links
- Color Schemes
- Designing with Colour pt.1
- Designing with Colour pt.2
- Designing with Colour pt.3
- Color Usage Examples