Feng Shui Colors – Direction #1 – The North.Feng Shui Colors Step #2 – What Color for Which Direction and Why?.Feng Shui Colors – Step #1 – Relation between Elements, Directions & Colors.Keep these few considerations in mind and rest assured your color palette will give meaning to your design. Use colors that are appropriate for your audience, the message you’re trying to convey, and the overall feeling you want the user to experience. Most importantly, when it comes to color, be intentional. Use their existing color palette as a foundation and look to color trend resources like Pantone to build upon it and add a splash of color where appropriate. In most cases, your color palette will be largely based on the brand identity of the client your designing for. Apple is ahead of the simplicity trend as most of their website designs and product packaging are white. Products have literally been going green during the past few years to keep up with the trend of sustainability. Other vibrant colors like bright blues and greens and stark black and white will be popular in 2012 as well as ’70s appliance colors like Harvest Gold and Avocado Green.Ĭonsumer trends like sustainability and simplicity will sometimes influence color trends as well. This description speaks to a tumultuous economic time culturally, and the vibrancy we associate with orange psychologically. In 2012, Pantone named Tangerine Tango the color of the year, describing its choice as a spirited reddish orange which will provide the energy boost we need to recharge and move forward. Pantone and other color trend trackers look to art, consumer products (cars, technology), interior design, celebrities, and fashion to determine color trends past and present. Pantone is widely recognized in the design world as the color authority. If you’re designing for a global audience, keep in mind the context and avoid overt cultural color connotations. Need help identifying the cultural associations of color? Check out this handy visual from David McCandless and .Ī good rule to abide by in any circumstance: design with your audience in mind. For example, in Western, Japanese and Native American cultures, black can represent death but in Hindu and Chinese cultures white often represents death. It’s important to keep in mind the cultural context your color palette will be viewed in. An obvious color combo to avoid in many circumstances is red and green – even around the holidays many people sometimes want to avoid only representing Christmas – and that also has religious connotations. Colors representing national or political groups, colors associated with religions, colors of sports teams, schools or other prominent organizations, and holiday colors can all be considered cultural.įor example, I’ve been told that using yellow and red together looks too much like McDonald’s. There are many aspects of color from a cultural standpoint that should be considered. The best way to make sure your color palette sends the right message is to recognize what feelings your colors might evoke and evaluate them in the context of your design and your target audience. Green can mean sick, red can represent danger and blue might symbolize depression in some contexts. These generalizations don’t always hold true when given context. Some will say green represents nature, red should represent love, and blue is calming. Interestingly, dangerous criminals are sometimes housed in pink cells as studies show certain hues of pink can calm aggression.īut psychological aspects of color are often generalized or oversimplified. ![]() Pink is actually thought to be the most calming of all colors. Red is the only color that will cause a measurable physiological reaction in your body – increasing your heart rate and blood pressure. ![]() Warm colors like red, orange and yellow evoke emotions ranging from feelings of warmth and comfort to feelings of anger and hostility.Ĭool colors like blue, purple and green are often described as calm, but can also call to mind feelings of sadness or indifference.Įffective use of color can send a positive or negative message and even spur sales. Perceptions of color can be subjective, but some psychological effects of color are universal. There are a few things to keep in mind when developing a color strategy: psychology, culture, trends, and above all – context. Whether intentional or not, colors give meaning to design. Research from the Institute for Color Research reveals people make a subconscious judgment about an environment or product within 90 seconds of initial viewing, and between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone. Color is one of the most important design elements, if not the most important.
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