The Emotion of Color, Buying and Sales Psychology of Colors

Color is at the heart beat of website design. It influences buying decision in the marketplace. That's why you must must factor-in color theory in your sales and marketing promotions of your products, goods and services. If you must have successful advertising campaigns, color psychology must be the nerve center.

If you wish to understand the psychology of color, you must study the role of human brain in color theory and color application. Color appreciation is a right brain function. This is the intuitive part of us that makes unconscious decisions. The subconscious mind is linked to the emotional brain or the limbic system. The emotional brain is also linked to the reticular activating system (subconscious mind) which is the center of the law of attraction in the human brain. This is why color evokes emotion. Color can attract or repel people and their offers.

Sales and marketing boils down to the psychology of color. Color psychology in turn is hinged to color theory. Yes, people have their own color preferences. Men generally prefer subdued colors while women are attracted flashy and bright colors. This is important because more than 80% of buying decisions in the home are made by women.

This brings us to warm and cool colors. Why do we use visual concepts to express feelings? "Warm and cool" are tactile concepts and not visual phenomena. Colors go beyond sensation of sight to emotions of feeling. Warm colors like red, yellow and orange remind us of heat, fire, warning, caution, action and emergencies. Cool colors like blue and green remind us of nature, life, ocean, ice, the sky and heaven.

Research has shown that red headlines pull more orders than other colors. This is because human nature acts faster with caution. The emotion of fear seems to act faster than comfort or greed.

Color Study and Application of Colors in Design, Business and Life

The study of color in design is as complex as the variety of colors in existence. I must start by simplifying a complex subject by going back to the basics--the primary colors. Scientists and artists differ in their definition and application of colors. When scientist talk of primary colors, they are referring to the primary colors of light (spectrum) and not pigment or paint. The primary colors of light are Red, Green and Blue (RGB colors popular with computer and TV screens). On the other hand, when artists talk of colors--especially in print, they are referring to the primary colors of pigment. These are Red, Yellow and Green. This "RYG" colors has been branded as CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black). K stands for Black so as to not confuse it with Blue. Cyan is a nickname for Blue or dark Blue. Magenta is another name for purplish Red.

The difference in these two major color modes is that screens emit colors in form of light when you look at them. Paper (print) on the other hand absorb colors in form of pigment. This is why color mode in print (CMYK) must be different from that of monitors (web design and TV graphics) which must come in RGB color mode. This is how we come to talk about web-friendly colors. This is also the reason why what works on screen does not work in print. The standard resolution for monitors is 72 dpi while the resolution for most print jobs is 300 dpi. Dpi stands for dots per inch. It measures the resolution of your monitor setting. You should not confuse dpi with pixels which is picture elements.

Overall, colors affect the way we live, interact and do business. Look around you and you will notice that our environment is draped in colors. Therefore, the best way to study colors is to study nature.

Art and Design is man's attempt to study nature. So, color study takes us back to appreciation of nature. Color contrast and harmony which is central to design work is prevalent in nature study. For instance, green snakes blend with green grass to escape detection. Look at the leaves of a tree. You'll see green in proximity with yellow and earth brown in beautiful variety.

The closest we come to nature in design is adopt the man-made guide we call color wheel. Color wheel is the heart and soul of color theory, color contrast and harmony in design. Color wheel uses the primary colors of pigment and not light. The three primary colors of red, blue and yellow produce secondary colors when mixed in varying proportions. Tertiary colors are produced when secondary colors are mixed together. Colors that stand opposite to one another on the color wheel are called complimentary colors. Red is complimentary to green. Colors lying close to one each other are called contiguous colors. Black and white are contrasting colors.

As you may well know, there are no black and white originals in nature. Black and white you see is man-made.

This blog is devoted to thoughts and ideas about color. You're welcome to cross-pollinate ideas and post your own comment. The focus here is on the role of colors in website design, graphic arts, business and life. You can explore more about colors by reading the color tutorial ebook.