i have this unpopular opinion that a lot of design advice - like much of psychology - is a bunch of p-hacked pseudo-science.
i've had to sit through enough corporate branding meetings with agencies to select adjectives that describe companies and mission statements. the aura of importance is palpable. invariably, every company ends up with some form of "trustworthy reliable innovative and customer-focused.", but it takes 5 meetings and 4 c-levels to arrive at the exact ordering. i just bring the popcorn now.
> (round shapes are more trustworthy & straight sharp edges are more striking)
so they have proven that round shaped designs result in what? better lifetime value? higher customer retention or aquisition?
the adjectives assigned to colors are hilarious
> Yellow – Happy, Friendly, Warning
so, both friendly and warning. or is that a typo and they meant Warming? and the CAT logo is there - a heavy industrial equipment mfg? yes, the CAT color is appropriate because it matches a yellow construction sign. and most of the crap that mcdonalds produces is some shade of deep fried yellow-orange. they're appropriate colors but imo have questionable connections with warmth/friendliness.
most of this advice is dubious at best. it's like the apt statement about advertising spend, "half of it is wasted, i just don't know which half"
It depends on how it is used and the exact shade of yellow.
Bright yellow is a really strong color. If you use it in large swaths, yes, it is alarming.
It is why we use it on buses: So you can't miss them. They have researched this. Yellow is the easiest shade to see without trying. It's the hardest shade to overlook.
But touches of a less-strong shade of yellow as an accent color do help warm things up and signal "friendly" and "happy." So a trustworthy shade of dark blue with small touches of yellow can be a good color combo.
I have read research-based books about color and had a class in Cartography for GIS. There is research on various aspects of color -- it's literal perception (like yellow being hard to overlook) and it's subjective perception, which can be influenced by culture. For example, some cultures wear black to funerals and others wear white to funerals.
So you do have to be aware of cultural context when trying to brand something. If you only ever try to brand stuff for Middle Class American Consumers, you may not realize that. But if you ever try to branch out to Asia or whatever, stuff that works here may not work there.
I wouldn't rely too much on the attributes ascribed to each color, they really are dependent on the individual. This is obliquely admitted to when talking about cultural differences.
But I will say that color is hugely important to branding. If I see an ad I can instantly tell who it's from if the company uses consistent color choices.
yes, i'm not dismissing the importance of color/design. i think it has to be easily recognizable/consistent and i doubt many would choose the color red for environmental causes. but these things are obvious to any 10 people you survey. it's the advice on the specifics which i find hugely inconclusive.
at least in my neck of the woods it doesn't match the colors most abundant in nature. and if you look at earth as a whole, you wont find much red in it. i imagine blue/green/yellow/brown would work better.
I don't think there's any kind of research that could possibly back up claims about the influence of color on something as brand perception. There is only "29 UCLA psych undergrads reacted 18ms faster to small red squares in comparison to small blue triangles on a monitor at 40cm distance in 2003".
I haven’t looked into any scientific work around color perception but I would imagine at least some of the attributes are rooted in our evolutionary past.
Yellow=warning. Many poisonous critters use this color as a warning (snakes, salamanders, etc)
Blue=calming. Maybe triggers feeling of being near water which I’m sure long ago was quite reassuring when access wasn’t guaranteed.
Some of it is due to historical context, for example:
Violet – Luxurious
Historically, most clothes for most commoners were pretty bland. Dying something purple was very, very hard and expensive. Thus, it became associated with royalty because no one else could afford it.
The association still persists, though now any schmuck in most developed countries can wear something purple.
The color associations are useless, they're not only varying with cultures, they're varying with individuals, but most importantly they vary in relation to other colors.
What's true is that that certain colors "harmonize" better with others, but little of value can be said about any one color in isolation.
> I'm on the side of color theory in terms of visual harmony.
I have this unpopular opinion that a lot of color theory in terms of visual harmony - like much of psychology - is a bunch of p-hacked pseudo-science;-)
The most telling sign for me is that the relationship between harmonic colors most often are (and have been for a very long time) defined by certain simple angles in a color wheel. While the specific angles have always been the same (like 180 degrees for contrasting colors) the underlying color wheels have changed drastically[1]. Even today the angles are most often interpreted in relation to the hue circle of the HSV (or HSL) model which takes a very simplistic approach to hue angles compared to perceptual models like CIECAM.
Fortunately not all designers fall for this quackery. I especially like the summary of the chapter about color harmony from Linda Holtzschue's book "Understanding Color: An Introduction for Designers":
> * No single factor determines color harmony. All elements of a color composition contribute to the overall effect.
> * The complementary relationship between hues is a strong basis for harmony, but it is not the only basis. Any hues used together can be made to be harmonious.
> * Even intervals between colors contribute to harmony. Even intervals are pleasing whether between colors of different hue, different value, different saturation, or any combination of these qualities.
Just think of this article of not mostly a science, but a reflection of the common trends that consumers experience and expect. Design trends are good to follow because they are familiar and comforting to users. At the very least, it'll prevent you from making egregious design errors.
I completely agree. As an art teacher, I am often called upon to teach 'colour theory'. Well... find me a theory in the true sense, and I will teach it. Goethe's 'Theory of Colour' is no such thing. Past that, received wisdoms like 'yellow comes forward, blue recedes', is provable bunk.
The core problem is that from the very birth of colour science, the subject has attracted floppy thinking. Newton himself added an accurate colour to his colour wheel for no other reason than he thought it should correspond with the classical musical scale.
i've had to sit through enough corporate branding meetings with agencies to select adjectives that describe companies and mission statements. the aura of importance is palpable. invariably, every company ends up with some form of "trustworthy reliable innovative and customer-focused.", but it takes 5 meetings and 4 c-levels to arrive at the exact ordering. i just bring the popcorn now.
> (round shapes are more trustworthy & straight sharp edges are more striking)
so they have proven that round shaped designs result in what? better lifetime value? higher customer retention or aquisition?
the adjectives assigned to colors are hilarious
> Yellow – Happy, Friendly, Warning
so, both friendly and warning. or is that a typo and they meant Warming? and the CAT logo is there - a heavy industrial equipment mfg? yes, the CAT color is appropriate because it matches a yellow construction sign. and most of the crap that mcdonalds produces is some shade of deep fried yellow-orange. they're appropriate colors but imo have questionable connections with warmth/friendliness.
most of this advice is dubious at best. it's like the apt statement about advertising spend, "half of it is wasted, i just don't know which half"
/rant