20 Rules of Design - Rule 2 Colour

Design Rule 2 - Colour...

Continuing on from the first design rule of lines it's hardly worth mentioning how important colour is in design - but it is king to create emotion, passion, atmosphere and every colour in every palette across the world will pull someones mind, memory or emotion.  A yellow jumper on a cold evening, red swimming shorts on a beach.....................that's the drift.  Colour psychology has long been used as strong persuasive tool across all areas of design since time immorable.

Red... 

Lots of famous brands opt for a simply designed logo with a strong colour such as red for example Canon, Coca Cola, CNN - red is far from a neutral colour, its primival, raw and strong.  According to Pantone 'it drives people to take risks' - its also said to stimulate the senses and arouse strong emotional responses.  

Red evokes...

From a personal standpoint...
Stong emotion, Love (red roses), increases passion & intensity and is claimed to increase appetite (perhaps not the best colour to use when dieting)

Branding & Marketing...
Is used in impulse buying, creates a sense of urgency, used to stimulate appetite (think Mc.Donalds), increases heart rate.

Blue evokes...

From a personal standpoint...
Calm and Tranquility

Branding & Marketing...

Fresh, bright and breezy bringing a sense of calm control to the brand - is used for companies such as health and beauty, spa, cosmetics and health.

Blue used to bring to life fresh and breezy days by the beach when using this lotion - strong type punching out the products newness.

Colour Wheel / Colour Theory...

Based on red, blue and yellow is the colour circle well known when working with colour but did you know back in 1666 Sir Isaac Newton created the very first circular diagram of colour.

Primary Colours...

Are the 3 pigments of colour that can not be mixed or transformed by any combination of other colours - none at all but all other colours owe their shades from these.