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GRAPHIC DESIGNS

Color Moods In Graphic Design –

Understanding Psychology Of Colors

Every piece of graphic design contains a concise and intricate message embedded in its lines,
shapes, hues, and fonts. While shapes, structure, and font styles also contribute to forming a
coherent brand message, it’s the colors that are the most potent when it comes to recognition and
recall.

According to a market research report, the brain notices and processes colors before shape or
wording, and when it comes to new brands, the information that is most remembered by the brain
about the new brand’s logo is its colors. Colors are not only crucial in making people retain the
information; they also influence human mood, feelings, and behavior. Marketers, brand owners, and
advertisers, therefore, spend time, money, and mental resources to choose the most perfect color
combinations to represent their brands.

Today, we will use this space to learn about this influence of colors, the psychological connotations
of different colors, and most importantly, understand how they convey or influence certain moods.

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Emotive Psychology Of Colors

Emotive Psychology Of Colors
Color psychology is not an exact science. You add emotions into the mix and it becomes even more
complicated. The emotive side of psychology deals with how we feel emotions and express them,
and how different colors and hues impact our subconscious and affect our moods, feelings, and
actions.

There is sufficient research that helps us establish certain meanings that people universally
associate with certain colors. For example, red is considered a color of excitement, intensity, and
passion. Black is considered a somber and mysterious color in most cultures. And people usually
associate green with earth, growth, and development.

These universal meanings help artists and advertisers put a lot of responsibility regarding a brand
identity’s initial success to its brand colors.

Importance Of Color In Consumer Marketing

According to a consumer research report, 93% of consumers rate the visual appearance of the
product as the most important factor when it comes to purchase-decisions; 85% admitted to being
heavily influenced by the color of a product.

As you can see, colors play an important part in influencing consumer’s purchase decisions. But
there’s a segment of the market that is immune to this influence. About 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200
women are color vision deficient; meaning, they cannot correctly detect certain colors, and
therefore, any marketing effort be it through careful logo design, an advertising campaign, or
anything else that is completely or heavily dependent on colors alone will be incomplete and not
comprehensively effective.

So, as you learn the importance of colors in logo design and marketing, keep in mind that while
colors are important in influencing mood and behavior, you cannot depend on colors alone to
achieve comprehensive results.

That being said, strategic use of colors in your marketing and design efforts can certainly have a
decided effect. To master this strategic use, it’s crucial to learn what feelings and moods different
colors represent.

Let’s start.

Colors & Their Moods

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Different colors represent different moods When we merge colors we also mesh the
Different colors represent different moods. When we merge colors, we also mesh the
representations of emotions that are inherent to them. In this section, we will talk about colors, their
meanings, and their emotive moods.

Using this knowledge, you can be better equipped to know which color is most suitable to present
your message to the public.

• Red

“Crying bloody murder.”

“Turning red in embarrassment.”

“As hot as lava.”

What all of these have in common is color red. Red is the color of danger and warfare, of emotion
and passion, of intensity and fire. It is one of those colors from the spectrum that hold a wealth of
meaning and mood within its hues.

Depending on its changing tones and saturations, designers can opt to use it to signify love and
passion or choose to represent danger and fright through its shades. It is a color common in love
and violence. Both cupid and devil use it as their primary color, don’t forget.

Since it’s one of the most attention-grabbing colors and can overpower other colors quite easily,
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graphic designers rarely use it as the dominant color in their work – well, unless the intention is to
be dominant and overpowering. In most cases, you’ll see it complemented and contrasted by other
colors to enhance its mood or merge it with another emotion.

For example, McDonald’s, one of the most prominent brands with red in its logo, uses yellow arches
to add a bit of cheer (and mustard!) to its otherwise completely red branding.

Let’s look at a few other examples to understand in more detail how different emotions are captured
in graphic design with the help of red.

– Danger And Thrill

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Image Source: IMDb

The poster of this horror flick uses various shades of red in quite a brilliant subtlety to arouse your
emotion. The poster is darker from the corners and brighter in the middle, drawing your eyes in.
People who have watched its prequel ‘The Shining’ may also recall the bloody hallway scene when
looking at this poster.

– Vibrant And Inspired

Image Source: Mark Lawrence Design

Mark Lawrence, an accomplished web designer, uses various shades of red as accent colors for his
own website to show off his daring approach to design. If you’re looking for adventure, of
inspiration, and in the mood to try new things, the red accent of this website tells you this is the
place to trust.

– Successful And Powerful

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Image Source: Behance

This business card design combines gradient of reds on the front, and on the back uses black to
make the red even more powerful and exclusive.

• Yellow

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Red is also a warm and primary color from the spectrum, just like red. However, it isn’t as in-your-
face as its red neighbor. While yellow is considered a cheery color and is often used to signal
emotions like happiness, warmth, and new beginnings, it is also a color that depicts caution.
Example: yellow warning signs, yellow hazard signs, and yellow crime scene tape!

But the reason yellow is used for such signals is due to its hard-to-miss hue than any inherent
emotional properties.

In fact, when it comes to emotions and moods, yellow is predominantly a happy and peaceful color.
Let’s see how graphic designers use yellow to portray different emotions.

– Upbeat And Optimistic

Image Source: Behance

Working on Nascar’s mobile app, the design studio, Studio JQ, uses a bright and inviting yellow. The
color immediately makes you think of speed and zooming cars. The black stripes drive home the
message even further.

– Sunflower, Sunshine, And Summer

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Image: Goodreads

This book cover of a YA novel is a coming of age story of two girls who used to be best friends. As a
light read, set in sunny Spain, the cover makes you think of lazy summer days, of sunflower fields,
and feeling absent-minded as you tear the petals away of a flower.

• Orange
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Orange is what you’ll get when you mix red and yellow, and accordingly, the color combines (and
offsets) qualities of both the primary colors. It gains your attention but in a subtle and warmer way.
It makes you think of cheerful times and puts you in a good mood without carrying the burden of
being a cautionary color.

In graphic design, orange is used by brands to stimulate emotions, add intensity, hype up the focus,
and boost the confidence. People, who may distance themselves away from bright reds and yellows,
may seem more comforted by a cheerful orange.

– Daring And Enthusiastic

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Image Source: Dragonfly Ave

This orange wallpaper, coupled with a green neon font, grabs and holds your attention without being
loud. The stark message of the poster is in brilliant contrast with the mellow shade of orange which
is still zesty enough to convey enthusiasm and courage.

– Warm And Fun

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Image: Bambi Bus

The website design sports a linear gradient of orange color for its main color palette. As a site that
promotes fun learning activities on day trips for children, orange is the most perfect color they could
go with. It puts you in the mood to expect awesome things to come,  of a day spent under the sun,
and running around in fields.

• Blue

As a cool color, both in temperature and temperament, blue color is everyone’s favorite. It often
comes up in polls and surveys as the most popular color, irrespective of gender or cultures. If you
want to invoke trust in your brand, put your audience at ease, and introduce an environment of calm
and tranquility, blue is the color to go with.

It is also usually associated with feelings of trust, reliability, and solidarity. You’ll often see
pharmaceuticals, tech brands, and consumer health brands using blue in their logo and creative
product packaging color scheme.

– Cool And Cultured

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Image: Facebook/Sloe

This clothing brand used a monochrome application of blue to announce its new season collection.
The blue paired with white looks extremely chic and makes you think of calm waters. The color is
acutely soothing and immediately puts you at ease.

– Serene As The Sea

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Image Source: Anthropologie

This book cover design is so calming and refreshing at the same time that you want to not only
open the book and start reading but may want to start packing your swimming gear, too.

• White

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White is a universal sign of purity, freshness, and peace. In western cultures, especially, white is
used to represent fresh starts, youth, neutrality, and purity. Brides wear white to celebrate their
unions; a crisp white shirt invokes feelings of freshness and new beginnings, and white space is
often used in design to add neutrality and vastness in the work.

As an accent color, you can’t go wrong with white. It beautifully offsets bright shades without
hurting their original meaning. Let’s take a look at a few of the white examples in design.

– The Perfect Background Color To Tell Your Story

Image Source: Nike

As a neutral color, white gives you the perfect canvas to paint your picture in whatever shades you
like. It highlights all the other colors you want to use without taking anything away from them.

• Black
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Black is the universal color of mystery and allure. It signifies mourning but also used to showcase
wealth, exclusivity, and finer taste. It stirs emotions of mystique, elegance, and power.

Industries that use black in their logo design are usually aiming for that same exclusive feeling to be
associated with their products and brands. Luxury fashion brands such as Chanel and YSL etc.
therefore, use the mystery and devil-may-care aspects of black to further elevate their brand worth.

– Sophisticated And Authoritative

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Image Source: Volt Cafe

This bold and dazzling design is not only authoritative in mood but combines sophistication and
design aesthetics, too. The gray background gives the perfect neutral background on which black is
present in all its elegance.

• Green

Green is a sign of fertility, life, and development. It promotes emotions that are associated with
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growth and nature. It is a color that brings hope, clarity, good judgment, and feelings of generosity
growth and nature. It is a color that brings hope, clarity, good judgment, and feelings of generosity
and abundance.

In graphic design, green is used to signal being right, and choosing the correct course, etc. That’s
why you’ll usually see green used for ‘safe’ buttons on website designs.

As a cool and calming color, it is one of the most popular colors for brands and industries that want
to promote their organic approach, a connection to nature, or eco-friendly business practices.

– Fresh Spirits

Image Source: Inspiration Feed

This vintage matchbox and bottle cap package design uses different shades of green and all convey
a single message of feeling fresh. The green splash on top of ‘I’ makes the letter look like a tree,
further emphasizing the feelings of being a part of nature.

It makes you think of feeling refreshed, quenching thirst, and feeling energized again.

• Purple

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Purple is the color of royalty. It is said that in olden times, the dye to achieve purple hue was used to
so expensive that only the super-wealthy could afford it. Perhaps that is why we still see purple
featured so prominently in official royal functions of the UK, for example.

But these feelings of richness and wealth are only associated with a deep bright purple. In lighter
tones, the color suggests femininity and delicacy. Lavender, for example, is considered a very
romantic color.

To see these different moods represented through graphic design, let’s take a look at few examples.

– Rich And Sophisticated

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Image Source: Behance

This rich purple is the height of sophistication. The color makes you think of expensive things, grand
mansions, and carpeted staircases. It immediately puts you in the mood to expect finer and
exclusive things to come.

– Creative, Delicate, And Inspiring

Image Source: Translate WF

The web designers have chosen a gradient of different shades of purple to achieve this beautifully
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mesmerizing shade. It makes you think of delicate crystals but the product itself is powerful,
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providing you with an attractive mixture of opposites.

• Pink

Pink is associated with feelings and emotions that are softer than red-hot passion. Care, romance,
excitement, affection and thoughtfulness, are all represented through pink.

If you want to add insight and hope into your graphic design, pink will be a perfect color to go with. It
invokes feelings of empowerment, a quiet strength, and gentle love.

Pink is used by brands to present softer, mellower but still exciting visual identities. Let’s see how
graphic design uses the power of pink to achieve its goals.

– Feminine Power

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Image Source: The Sisterhood Studio

The website design is all about feminine power. The color palette is soft, gentle yet strong. It bodes
really well for a brand that promotes female empowerment and women entrepreneurs.

– Excitement And Fun

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Image Source: Mind Sparkle Mag

The packaging for this new age natural drink looks a lot of fun and exciting due to the use of a sharp
shade of pink. This shade of pink signifies an adventurous attitude and a desire to try new things.

• Grey

Gray packs the power of both black and white. It is less somber than black and has more voice than
white. It is a reserved color that speaks of old money, technical precision, and cold objectivity.
Instead of voicing its opinion, gray is used as a color to keep its judgments reserved.

On an emotional scale, gray is a color of loss and depression. However, in graphic design, gray is
used as a neutral background and to add formality, objectivity, and conservative sophistication.

– Graceful And Competent

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Image Source: Gretchen Kamp

The calm and consistent background of gray presents a sense of competency in this website
design. It also looks modern, chic, and extremely graceful. The overlook of the site is polished and
refined, something gray achieves quite effortlessly.

Explore: 10 Best Color Palette Generator Tools

In Conclusion:
Color moods in graphic design is a complicated and intricate study of many factors. You’ll need to
pay attention to what your brand’s soul is, what its inherent message is, who its target audience is,
and then pick a color(s) that incorporates or augments all these complex meanings.

As you apply this knowledge to your graphic design, remember that as important as color is, it is
only a part of the design. The surest way you’ll be able to use its power to your advantage is when it
is used to elevate all other aspects of the design, too.

Raquel Addams
Raquel Addams is a professional blogger and graphic design enthusiast who employs a unique combination of
journalism, communication design and marketing strategy to help her clients to position and launch their enterprise
or start-ups.

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