Written By: Jamie Ross | 3-minute read

What Is Colour Psychology? 

Colour psychology is the study of colours and their effect on human emotion and behaviour, and for marketing purposes, how colours can affect customer decision-making.

Why Should You Use Colour Psychology For Your Brand?

Marketing and branding are the primary uses for colour psychology, and when deciding your brand colours or logo, colour choices should play an integral role. Colour is often the first element of design that potential customers notice and consequently has a major impact on how your brand or product is perceived. 

Colour is also an essential component of brand recognition. If you happened to walk by a purple McDonald’s sign you might struggle to connect it to the Golden Arches you’re used to. If you want customers to be able to pick your brand out of a crowd, colour psychology is a valuable tool to accomplish that goal. 

Colour has also been shown to affect human emotion and behaviour; Associating your brand with the emotions you want your customers to feel through the use of colour is an important choice to make.

How Can You Effectively Use Colour Psychology? 

Colour Psychology should be kept in mind during the development of your brand. Consistency and context are key when choosing your brand colours. Every colour has certain attributes associated with it through biological, cultural, and social context. For example, yellow is seen as a colour that represents joy. The colour yellow’s most prominent sources in nature are the sun and flowers, and the sun represents light warmth and safety to every human. This is the biological context of the colour yellow and culturally (in Western culture) it represents the same—Through symbols like the traditional yellow smiley face or rubber duck.

All that being said, choosing the right colours for your brand should be done based on what your brand represents and what those colours represent in context.