Every designer should know the art of using colors to elicit a desired emotion. Whether it is to create a certain comfortable feel in a bedroom, setting the right tone for a web page, or creating a mood for shops or restaurants marketing materials; choosing the right color palette is as critical a design decision as is the message or imagery.
Regardless of your creative alley, creating emotions with colors starts by understanding basic color theory.
The Color Wheel
All innovation started with the wheel, and all color discussions start there too. The color wheel breaks down of the three primary colors: red, yellow and blue. Next the “overlap” colors are added to the orb: red plus yellow equals orange, yellow plus blue equals purple of violet, and red plus blue equals green. And finally tertiary colors are added by mixing primary and secondary colors together (too many to list, but you get the point) to create the basic color wheel.
Why is the color wheel so vital to understanding colors and emotions? Because to understand the color wheel is to understand color.
First look at the wheel as a whole. One side (the red-orange-yellow half) is referred to as Warm tones. As a group, warm tones project passion, happiness, enthusiasm and energy. The opposite side is of course the Cool tones (blue, green, purple) and gives an overall sense of calm or professionalism.
Dominate Color
Additionally, psychologists have shown that the individual colors invoke unique emotions when used in design. These emotions can be both positive as well as negative. A breakdown of the color wheel with their emotions follows.
Red
- Positive: Passionate, aggressive, important, warmth, power, excitement, love
- Negative: Anger, revenge, attention, lust, aggression, strain
Orange
- Positive: Playful, energetic, cheap, enthusiasm, courage, creativity, comfort, fun, warmth
- Negative: Flightiness, lack of conviction, deprivation
Yellow
- Positive: Happy, friendly, warning, joy, self-esteem, confidence, competence
- Negative: Laziness, depression, anxiety, hatred
Green
- Positive: Natural, stable, prosperous, tranquility, calm, money, hope, good taste
- Negative: Jealousy, envy, boredom, stagnation, blandness
Blue
- Positive: Serene, trustworthy, inviting, competence, quality, intelligence,
- Negative: Coldness, fear, unfriendliness, unemotional
Pink
- Positive: Feminine, young, innocent
- Negative: Weakness, inhibition
Purple
- Positive: Luxurious, mysterious, romantic, royalty, trusting
- Negative: Foreboding, introversion, suppression
Brown
- Positive: Earthy, sturdy, rustic, rugged
- Negative: Humorless, heavy
Black
- Positive: Powerful, sophisticated, edgy, formal, evil, darkness, expensive
- Negative: Mourning, scary
White
- Positive: Clean, virtuous, healthy, purity, innocence
- Negative: Cold, unfriendly
Grey
- Positive: Neutral, formal
- Negative: Gloomy
Effect of Color Traits on Emotions
The colors on the wheel are known as “pure colors” and are referred to as the color Hue. But each pure color can be used to create an almost infinite number of other colors by blending them together in different ratios. Each new color can invoke a uniquely different emotional response based on a combination of the ones identified above.
The intensity of a color is referred to as the Saturation. High saturation colors (like Neon or Vivid colors) produces a much stronger occurrences of those emotions than low saturations (like Pastels)
Use complimentary colors
Combining colors will also have the effect of combing emotions. A woman in a red dress against a black background can show the darker, evil side of passion. A green plant sprouting in a brown forest shows hope or renewal, while the same plant shot in a sun kissed meadow can show tranquility. Use complimentary colors (on opposite side of the color wheel) to accentuate contrast or to mitigate the negative emotions of the dominant color.
Understanding color and the impact it can have on the end users of your design can take your message from interesting to impactful.
Leave feedback about this