A product logo is an important marketing tool. It generally uses color, as colors affect people’s perception of a brand or business. If you incorporate a logo into your packaging design, chances are you’ve carefully selected the colors for their emotional value.
What Is the Psychology of Color?
Brand marketers often use color psychology to influence a consumer’s perception. Using the color wheel, they may choose warm colors (red, orange, and yellow) or cool colors (green, blue, and violet). Tints, shades, tones, and color combinations may be considered as well. A high contrast is often used for important content, while low contrast may be applied for subtlety and/or readability; complementary, or opposite, colors can help things stand out.
Analogous colors, which sit next to one another on the color wheel, can make a logo more pleasing to look at. Sometimes monochromatic colors using the same shades, tints, and tones work if paired with one complimentary color. To maximize the impact of color, colors can be configured in basic shapes (square, rectangle, and triangle) across your packaging logo.
Best Colors for Your Business
When choosing colors, here are a few you may want to consider, along with these colors’ effect:
Red: A very strong color that grabs attention. Although red must be used carefully, it can reflect strength, friendliness, and a faster response; it is a very energetic color.
Blue: Is most often associated with positive thoughts. Blue is satisfying and can help your brand be viewed as trustworthy and dependable.
Pink: Is a calming color that invokes a sense of compassion and empathy. Pink is also a sign of hope and is very useful if you are targeting a female demographic.
Yellow: Cheery, happy, and optimistic, yellow can increase mood, confidence, and attention. However, use it sparingly if you want to attract a large target audience.
Orange: From a marketing perspective, orange has positivity and motivational qualities. It is cool yet attracts attention and can make your company seem valuable and cutting edge.
Gold: Invokes a sense of luxury, elegance, and prestige. Gold adds power; aside from symbolizing wealth, it can be a useful highlight, but should not overwhelm your logo.
Purple: The color of royalty, purple adds some elegance and prestige. A touch of purple in your logo colorselection can give the impression of creativity.
Brown: Visually stimulating, brown adds structure and feelings of security and protection. It is also a safe color, so can make your logo boring if used too much.
Green: Green can add balance and harmony and reflects health, peace, and nature as well as growth. It is also warm and inviting.
Black: Black is highly versatile and can be modern or traditional; depending on how much is used, it can spark a variety of reactions. It’s most often used for contrast.
Color vs. Industry
Studies have shown that red is preferred in the food industry, while blue’s dependability is often chosen by airlines, home improvement, and pharmaceutical companies. Black is common for apparel and accessories. Couriers often use blue for trust and red for determination. Your product logo design should reflect the psychological effects you want to trigger and what best represents your industry.
For assistance with your packaging logo or custom box design, contact GCB Solutions, Inc. at 904-263-2804 and our branding specialists will be glad to help.