How Colour Communicates Meaning

Let’s consider what each colour represents in the ‘real world’. Then we can make informed design decisions that ensure we appeal to our target audience.

1 IT AFFECTS YOUR MOOD

Most of us have a favorite colour or prefer some colours over others. This is because can affect our moods so we surround ourselves in the colours that have a positive impact on our mood.

Red can boost your energy, yellow often makes people feel happier, and blue is proven to bring down blood pressure and slow your heart rate which is why it is often associated with being relaxing. If you combine the happiness of yellow and the relaxing feel of blue you get green, a very pleasing colour for many people.

Mental health units are known to use pastel tones on their walls so that patients feel calm, happy, and relaxed. Walls that are beige with a pink tint combined with mint green floors are a popular combination as it is said to create a soothing, harmonious and calm area. At the other end of the spectrum, literally, schools tend to user bright colours that appeal to children.

2 COLOURS COMMUNICATE INVISIBLY

Yellow – warm, exciting, happy

Blue – deep, peaceful, supernatural

Green – peace, stillness, nature

White – harmony, silence, cleanliness

Black – grief, dark, unknown

Red – glowing, confidence, alive

Orange – radiant, healthy, serious

3 COLOURS HAS CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

Different colours mean different things in different places..

• In western cultures black is a colour of mourning
• Purple for example is a colour of mourning in Thailand.
• In Japan however it is a colour of honour, with white the colour of mourning
• Red in the west represents danger, love, passion
• In India it is a colour of purity, in China it is a colour of good luck and in South Africa it is a colour of mourning
• Yellow represents courage in Japan, mourning in Egypt and hope in the West

4 RELIGIONS CAN BE LINKED TO COLOURS

As with politics, colours are representative of certain religions. Some examples of these colour/religion associations are:

• Green is considered to be the holy colour of Islam
• Judaism is represented by the colour yellow
• In Hinduism, many gods have blue skin
• White is linked to peace across many religions

5 AGE AFFECTS A PERSON’S COLOUR PREFERENCES

Colour expert Faber Birren carried out many studies into this area and in his book Color Psychology and Color Therapy; he states that for both genders, blue and red “maintain a high preference throughout life”. He found that yellow is popular with children but as become move into adulthood it shows less popularity. Birren found that “with maturity comes a greater liking for hues of shorter wave length (blue, green, purple) than for hues of longer wave length (red, orange, and yellow)”

Another factor that influences people’s colour preferences is that throughout their life there will be social and cultural changes and this can directly impact on their favorite colours.

Colour is a complex subject with many strands and it has the power to subliminally convey values and stories. 

“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for.”