Colour Psychology

Transcript

In this episode, we’re going to be talking about colour psychology.
Hi, everyone, and welcome to say, what’s up this week I am with Jim who has returned a Nick who was making his podcast debut, we’re going to be talking about colour psychology. So Jim, as our resident designer who likes colouring in, as you confess yourself, what is colour psychology? And why is it important?
Well, as everyone likes to say that I’m a professional colour, and that’s good going, isn’t it? And colour psychology and it’s massively important, especially like, if you’re thinking about branding, your branding isn’t just a logo, as we all should know. It’s, you know, the messaging. And it’s also the colour of, it’s what we’re trying to communicate, or what they’re, our client is trying to communicate to the customer. Yeah. So it’s, colour in itself is, is a language Yeah, of what we’re trying to communicate.
And I think as well like touching on colour, it’s, it’s one of those things that goes into I guess, more than more of the emotional side of branding, isn’t it instead of like, the rational side, because like, you can’t rationally put things onto a colour really, can you like, I know, we’re trying with like, colour psychology, but really, like, it’s just, it’s just a way to evoke those emotions from people that like really, words can’t do sometimes, or like those kind of like, subliminal things that we can’t actually measure.
Yeah, so if there’s some colours that people want to, you know, to take action, you want people to feel calm to feel connected to Earth and things like this. There’s there’s so many different ways of doing this of what’s loyalty to a brand. What’s strong, and bold. It’s, it’s, it’s everything. Really. If you think about what when you walk into a shop, the first thing that you see colour, yeah. When you’re picking out your new top, or you see your, your colour,
my clothes are mostly black. So what does that psychologically say about me?
I mean, it says she kind of dark, dark and moody.
Yeah, probably. I can take that one. Maybe if I’ve not had enough seven coffees in the morning to get me
a block? That’s just not very good in the summer.
That was it? No, to be fair, actually, I did look at that, because I was quite concerned when I did see the state of my wardrobe a few weeks ago. And apparently, if you were black, then you’re actually creative.
I’m happy with that. When I’ve got black, grey.
Bit Navy in there for some variation. Yeah. And then and then a brass orange one, which I’ve never worn. Was that the one that I said that you lay Sainsbury’s in it?
No, no, it’s not that one. But I have I’ve never worn out since. So. You’re very welcome. Yeah, thanks for ruining that for me.
So in regards to call it and we’re saying that it kind of like evoke those emotions for people and what you kind of do in terms of like, the logo and the colours and stuff that you use, like both physically and also on Web. That’s why we’ve got Nick here, who was our senior web developer, he’s going to be talking about colour and its importance for building your websites.
It’s mostly how brands and how the calls through the website. Yeah. So things like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, use mostly blue. Things to trust the brand. And generally, the colours that inherit through websites and how brands and colour schemes. Yeah,
no, that makes a lot of sense. Actually, I didn’t fully realise actually, that all of the social networking sites do tend to use blue and well all of the big ones that you’ve just mentioned. But before I think you’ve touched on then that blue obviously means this and then you were talking about how you can use colour to like manipulate those emotions gem about like if you wanted people to feel like calm and stuff like that. It all sounds a little bit BuzzFeed crazy to me at the moment in regards to like, Oh, tell me how you feeling and we’ll give you a colour. But I mean, if you’ve if you’ve got the psychology to back it up, then I’m very much interested to hear more about it as I’m sure our listeners.
I mean, just as Nick was saying, they’re so talking about your social media, which are actually they’re all blue. So trust, loyalty, knowledge. Power, yeah, integrity. Just think about Facebook. Where do you get most of your news from these days? Well, Twitter, and Facebook. Pretty much knowledge power. Facebook is all about power. Yeah. Anytime that anything else wants to bring something out Facebook goes, I want it. I want to do that as well. So Facebook is all about power. But then also when you think about the trust and loyalty, so then it’s used a lot in technology. So you think about Dell, HP Vremya actually is another one. So they all use blue. It’s, it’s such a weird, because, I mean, when, back in the early days when I first started graphic design, and I heard someone say, I’ve chosen blue because it represents integrity, and I was like, you’ve chosen blue because you like it. And it’s a nice fit. And obviously then, that’s 10 years ago, and now actually, when I’m starting to think about colour and emotion, it’s definitely right. It’s one of the first things that I work with.
Yeah, no, it’s, it’s good actually, because I think you do tend to gravitate towards certain colours and stuff as well like in terms of like, personally like we were just talking about how we prefer like kind of muted colours in terms of like our wardrobes and stuff. But like if you actually asked me what my favourite colour was, it probably be like a really bright vibrant blue, but like I’d never wear it,
but funny enough, my favourite colour is sky blue. Yeah, like I love summer. So the first thing that you see when you open up the windows is absolutely luscious. Blue sky. And also like the the light green of the leaves on the trees and things like that. Come to winter. Everything’s grey. Yeah, it’s like the roads grey all the trees. no leaves on the skies. Grey in snows grey in Saudi cars grey. When you drive along. Just everything is dull. So yeah, that’s a funny one, because I wouldn’t really wear a light blue. It’s a standout colour. Yeah. And sometimes, obviously, it comes with you know how you are as a person? Yeah, I would. You might be a bold person that does lots of wear bright colours or someone that tends to want to stay in the background more like me. Yeah. And wear black and grey. Yeah.
And Sainsbury’s uniform and the Sainsbury’s uniform. Yeah. So we’re talking about different colours, then. Do you want to just discuss a few big brands like I guess kind of how we were doing them. I actually saw something the other day about like how most people will most like children, like around the 18 month stage, have the mic they can recognise the McDonald’s logo and then like the bright vibrant colours of it before they can actually like spell their own name or sometimes even say their own name. Oh, yeah.
I mean, I mean, my son Charlie used to in August. He said, always a bit. too smart for his own good for him. It’s frightening. But he’ll he can recognise anything. It saw a kid wearing a hey, doggy t shirt. doggy, doggy? Yes. All right. Yeah. And then I’m also trying to teach him how to spell his name. recognise his letters. Yeah. Well, by far recognises colour letters are hard to work with. Yeah, he’s named Charlie. C. Go. Charlie begins with a C and E like nobody begins with a chair. So I’ll use LG tele. Yeah, so a two year old that
no, I got it. Yeah. Well then
working with colours he tends to go fit for blue. Oh, okay. Which is all right, you know, that’s his favourite colour at the moment. Yeah, it’s an odd one have withdrawn withdrawn to call us.
Yeah, definitely. I think like it’s really hard to think isn’t it? Like I guess kind of what draws you in? Like thinking about it. Now I’m definitely drawn to brands with like elements of like, blue or like red. I don’t really get drawn to brands with like, orange in them in terms of like, it’s not something that oranges ecologist doesn’t really appeal to me.
Yeah, well, Orange is a colour of joy and happiness. Oh, wow. Okay, maybe I am maybe just dark and moody. Just although I was
looking at this like kind of like brand resonance type thing. And in terms of like, brand, like kind of brand attributes that people attribute to like kind of the oranges and the yellows. Orange and Yellow usually signify like cheap.
Yes, yeah. So what? Huh?
Yeah, you know, Donald’s classic.
Yeah, I mean, it’s KFC. KFC is red, isn’t it? Oh, is it kind of? That’s the kind of colorway with reds are not an odd one. Because it can be about love. Yeah, relationships and things like that and passion, it also be rage. Warning. It is. So it depends on what message you’re trying to give off, and how the actual customer is feeling. You get that sort of thing in the middle. So if you need a warning sign, it’s red, you’ve got the message to put across that. You need to stop it stop sign. And also the customer while person driving needs to stop. Okay. Yeah, no, that makes sense. So it’s talking message that you are trying to, to give off to the viewer. Yeah,
essentially, urgency is volunteer. Yeah, it comes local. on websites and things. Well,
yeah, those call to actions actually, if you have the call to action in red, they have like the highest rate of click.
Yeah, exactly. So I Yeah, next, as you know, read is cancelled. Failed. It’s
kind of a negative. Yeah. Patient to actually have just taken and you can’t slow. You failed. I suppose us? It’s mostly that.
Yeah. You’ve missed a field out. Yeah.
Read my red pen like Jenny will be getting her red pen out and like telling people that they don’t know what they’re wrong about verbs on their Etsy T shirts.
I mean, yeah, I mean, she’s got a point. She’s got a massive point. So well, just to go off that. So my partner is a French teacher. And she’s been on Etsy and to see T shirts with French spelling on, it’s all spelt incorrectly. Yeah. You know, people buy them. And she feels bad that people are walking around with the incorrect spelling.
Yeah, no, I think that’s, well, it’s lack of integrity. Really? Isn’t it on the sellers part?
Well, yeah, it’s a bit daft, isn’t it? person probably feels incredible. I mean, you might not notice my French is terrible. So I wouldn’t have noticed, but
maybe don’t take them on holiday to France.
Exactly. You don’t wear these T shirts in France, because they will laugh at you. You know, everyone already hates England enough. So yeah, go to your efficients get zero points. Yeah, no, you don’t want to not with incorrect spelling and be proud of it.
Feeling like you’ve made an effort. So I guess we’ve all got like, kind of we’ve all heard the story as well about like how Google was doing like a B testing with like different shades of blue to make like to kind of like measure the ones that people were like clicking on the most. And this like a be testing led on for two years. And I know that like it’s kind of like a wellness story and an anecdote now in marketing. But like, honestly, do you think that’s overkill?
Yes or No? I’d say colour is a massive part. So to me, I’d be more attracted to a light blue. Okay. So I don’t actually know what the outcome of that was. I can’t remember myself. I can’t
remember the outcome of it. I can just remember the story that like they were testing all of these different shades of blue. So I guess on that even brings into the question, like, you’ve got all of these different colours, but then you’ve got the different shades of the colours. Yeah, that’s annoying. Yeah. And do the different shades mean different things? Like how do you is like a light blue, more happy and chirpy than a dark blue? Because I’d wear a dark blue.
That’s interesting, actually, because it’s noticed last couple of years, but Facebook had been increasing the lightness of their share your play they’ve been using? Yes, yes.
You actually used to be adopted to the other sort of gradients in it as well. And now it is a very likely Twitter is a very likeable. Yeah. Whereas LinkedIn is actually a dark web. So maybe that the lighter blue is more friendly. And the darker blue is more professional.
Well, in terms of like professional b2b size, the most use colour for b2b is blue. So you can kind of see how like LinkedIn works in that way and it has like pulled that through and then the use of their colour as well of like the gold LinkedIn logo for the premium users that spend like only 50 pound a month on, I don’t know, extra insights and things like that. Like it kind of gives them like a sense of prestige because they get this like gold badge.
Well yeah, I mean, that that was what gold is you know it’s luxury. So if you do want a prestigious size, you would go for it for gold, maybe well bronze, silver, gold, you know when you you have different packages, your bronze is so right, silver, it’s even better. Gold this prestigious luxury
Yeah, no, it makes a lot of sense, actually. But I think you’ve hit on something there neck with, like how these websites and these brands are like kind of gradually increasing them. Because obviously from like a brand point of view, they can’t just like change overnight, because like, we’ll see it. And you can see like, you could see the backlash, you know, on Instagram change, then you like icon, the logo in the app had like an update. And just like completely free everyone for a while, like, I actually like the new low wealth, the newer one that we’ve got now because it is more vibrant. And it’s got that gradient in there. And it kind of it has those hints of orange and purple in there. And like, obviously, Orange means like creativity, and like you said, joy and happiness, and purple has that kind of like regal effect to it. And that kind of like lusciousness that really like it didn’t have before. So I quite like it. But I think in terms of like managing change for people, people don’t like change.
So yeah, it’s a very tough one to handle really.
So I think yeah, like mentioning how Facebook has like, had to gradually increase, like the gradients of the blue, that they’ve gotten there, to kind of like keep that brand resonance and to like, kind of keep people happy. And I think also as well, like just just shoes, how like kind of Sly Facebook is, and how like kind of, they really do take into consideration like the minute detail because like, I’d be sat here thinking like, Oh, it’s just a bit lighter. Like it doesn’t really matter too much. But actually, like they’ve strategically increased the gradient and increased like more light into it over the space of a few years. So it obviously means a lot to their brand to get the colour of that blue. Right.
Yeah. It’s interesting, actually, because Facebook and LinkedIn have both removed the solid header colour. So it’s now more of a white background header with the logo in the corner.
Yes, making everything more or clearer. It’s simplifying everything there as well. Yeah, so before, everything had gradients, everything had a part in it. So if you think about Instagram, and how the layout used to be, yeah, now it’s thin lines, like, light grey, everything’s simplified. But here with the logo is that when you have a sudden change, but when you have such a drastic change, that’s when people have have that opinion. But also when you when you are a company like Instagram, that everyone is on every single day. You are a trendsetter. Yeah. So give me a month and everyone thinks, actually, that’s pretty much. Yeah, you know, you just have to get used to it. And that’s a difficult thing, sometimes even designing something new for a client is that it’s, especially when they’ve got an emotional attachment. Yes. To the previous brand. It’s difficult for them to come away from it.
Yeah, definitely. And I’ve done quite a lot of work with clients like both here and in the past as well around like kind of the colours and stuff that we’ve used. And I guess like, rebranding is always difficult, because obviously, agency side, we always have like a vision of how great it could look and kind of like the creative vision of it all and how it’s all going to work and how it’s all going to be magnificent. And what we actually have to do is like ground ourselves, because you’ve got the senior stakeholders in house that obviously like there, some of them are really attached to the brand. Others might be not attached to it and be those kind of like militant change makers in there that have like, commissioned the agency. And there’s a lot of like internal politics at play. But then you’ve got to take into consideration like the actual customer base, like what do they want, what do they resonate with, and is anything that they’re doing gain to upset what the actual customers want. And then the agency has to be that kind of like impartial person that can like push back and really champion the customer and make sure that they’re the ones that are ultimately being served. And I think that’s the job of a good agency in regards to like, sticking up for like the customers and making sure that the people in house like don’t get swept away by everything going on. And we actually think of the people wanting it. And I think colour can play a lot into that, especially if like we’re working with b2b brands. And they’re so used to like they’re kind of like dark blues or like, some might think they’re adventurous because they’ve got like a splash of green in there. But actually, like, we all know that if they’re a kind of environmentalist or more academic business, it’s high, like highly likely they will have green in it. So it’s actually like, Okay, well, we don’t want to completely disrupt what people associate with your colour. But like, come on now like you’d be to be in your blue like that’s not going to make you stand out as it
yeah And this is something that you need to look at your competitors. Yeah, I’ve looked at what colours they are, you’ve got a whole list of blue. Do something a bit different. Be bold, be brush. Yeah, you know,
you’d also go the opposite way and give a neutral palette like black and white. And then you give van colour as an accent colour. Yeah, thank you change that regularly. Like, that’s the whole band.
Black and white is always a good choice. If you think about all the sports brands, and even all the colour logos at the moment. They’ve gone very simple. Yeah, a black logo. You can recognise it from the logo. And now it’s just black on white. Yeah, PMA, like I did us is black and white. But also I mean, with their logos, they do change them. So if you had a t shirt that was based on Italy, yeah, you know, it’s you can base it on the colours of their flock.
Yeah, it’s good though, because like that just goes to show like how these international brands really do drill down into the details for like their kind of like Target Market audiences. Because ultimately, like they have all of these different people and all over the world especially but then they’ve got these like national markets and these like localised markets, that they really do have to make sure that they keep on top of them. Because there’s only so much weight that our brand like added us like the name of it, and like the kind of resonance that you have with it can carry you also do have to solve those problems and like kind of initiate that need from those localised markets. And you can only do that if you speak directly to them. Exactly. So colours, then I hear you’ve got a bit of a surprise quiz for us.
I have so Valspar paint, and if you’ve ever used it, nope. Right? There are millions and millions of colours. Okay, well, obviously, how to give a name a colour. I don’t actually know what their processes have given it a name to the colour, but from the colours that I’ve got, I’m going to give you the name. And I want you to guess what colour it is. How specific do we have to be not too specific? Okay, I’m not I’m not gonna say like you Sure. Yeah. You know, just think pink. Like maybe it may be a light pink. Oh, okay. Yeah. So I’m going to start off with what I think are actually quite quite good names for the cause. Okay, so first one, jam jar.
I’m gonna get read. I think for that one.
Good for deep talk. Good.
Brock neck. Bucket. Deep, deep red. Okay, so that’s nice one. Yeah, that was all right, wasn’t it? Yeah, I
was gonna get strawberry red. But I mean, that’s not really fingers it
is. That’s the bright vibrant red, isn’t it that you do get on the strawberry. So yeah. Next one. Sweet Pea in a pod.
That’s got to be green.
It’s got to be green it Yeah, of course it is screen. Next one. Bee’s Knees.
Oh, holy yellow. We can
see. You’d see that because like, yeah, bees are kind of like vibrant and yellow. But isn’t a bee’s knees technically black.
Yeah, but you don’t want to like jump into a flower and get covered and nectar and all that. Alright. That’s what I’m thinking. Well, that’s what I thought when I saw it anyway. bee’s knees so next right with that okay yellow bit of healthy competition next one cool box
blue like a light icy blue
very specific. Yeah.
If a mid blue cool box led
coolbox led that’s the colour I thought you know when you go on holiday in the 90s mom and dad and dad takes up massive coolbox for all your Capri Suns. Yeah, that blue. Yeah, that’s that’s the cool box blew up. Next one just because I’m obsessed with Batman and I love the fact that this one is called Gotham City.
Okay. I’m going to go with a deep charcoal grey
very dark. BLACK BLACK,
BLACK BLACK. Does it come on black? Chelsea’s a winner. Don’t Don’t grey. Now these ones these ones are just a bit daft. Right. Okay, looking forward to the next one is plenty fever.
Oh, okay. I heard kind of like a neon purple type vibe for that one. Oh I don’t know I think it just reminded me of like a really tacky night called funny fever. West shots are like one pound 50
probably sound like a mixture of green and blue. I could strange mix of colours you
can get sometimes it’s not like a teal colour.
Like black and metallic kind of work a
metallic
both getting very specific now it’s good while you’re both wrong because it’s like a deep red planet Mars sort of colour.
I like when a fever comes across like sweeps well obviously like Coronavirus, and it’s like morning
plummet fever direto apparently Okay, next one slice of heaven Oh, why?
I’d go for like really nice dusty pink.
Okay, can very wrong. Thanks. It’s quite a light blue actually. Oh, okay. Yeah, I can see that slice of heaven you saying often the sky light blue.
I was just thinking cotton candy.
I think the clouds
next one, Tempest teapot,
Tempest teapot,
Tempest teapot.
The Tempest is like a big storm, isn’t it? So I’m going to kind of go with like a grey again. But maybe like not a deep grey maybe like kind of a soft grey.
For a stock made grey like a dark cloud kind of grey. I’m referring to clouds again. But
you say you’ve done both the pros. They’ve done pretty well. It’s actually quite a dark grey.
Okay. So dark as Gotham or not as dark as
he’s darker than Gotham which which I’m not happy about. I think Gotham city needs to be a dark Ray.
Yeah, I think it needs a bit of tempest in there.
He does. At Yeah, swap ammonia. Next one. Eagles Mark I don’t know your name that one Eagles mark but oh, I
don’t know.
Probably go for like a yellow beat colour. Eagle. Like kind
of Tony brown maybe like the kind of column that like the carpet was, I guess in the 70s
Oh, yeah. I would have thought that so you can think of an eagle which you know, deep brown isn’t? Yeah, the feathers or you know like a golden eagles.
Pink now, aren’t you?
It’s it’s green. It’s like a black a very mid green. I don’t know. No. Felspar answers on a postcard, please. And the last one. Oh, okay. Safe Haven
huh this is really safe. Hey,
just put the paper down.
I didn’t see I didn’t see. I don’t know.
He said it’s a weird one. Isn’t it safe haven because it’s got nothing really that you can associate with a colour.
Well, yeah. And also as well, like, I don’t really know what a safe haven is like, I don’t feel like I’ve ever been to one.
Probably say like a blue kind of colour. The trust element coming through.
Yeah, so first, we’re
gonna go why? Because I’m just coming up blank.
It’s a very light blue.
Okay, nice one, Nick.
Yes, yeah, actually quite a whitey blue. So I’d a bit of blue into what you said. Yeah, it’s bottle. Yeah, I said why? So you’re not actually so say that buck.
But now I think when it comes to actually like looking at colours in the way that they have hurt feelings. There’s obviously somewhere like my guess it’s like social conditioning as well as in it. Like we’re kind of all like kind of socially conditioned, like Valentine’s Days red and like, but then again, man, United’s red and that’s because like they had that kind of like that really nice forward attacking and they just used to be really aggressive with that play and that sort of thing as well. And but then it also means stop. So how can you have a football team that’s like really aggressive and going for it when red means stop as well. I can just really doesn’t make sense.
Yeah, it depends on where your emotion is. Those neat because red can also mean like take action. So you walk in through the shops and for sale 50% off. Yeah. What colour would you use? Do you want people to walk in although now obviously. I mean, walk past one. It was just like blue. But I didn’t notice it. Yeah. The next one, which you know, Sports Direct closing down sale. It’s been closing down for 10 years. We’re still it’s bold red, isn’t it?
The DFS sale that’s just like perpetually a sale. Oh, yeah.
And all the signs that hanging down from the ceiling, predominantly, right? Yeah, he would say,
is is interesting, isn’t it because like looking to like kind of our branding as well, like, especially at the moment, it’s just like black, white and red. And I guess kind of like it, it kind of makes sense for agencies to have that kind of like black and whiteness, because that way, then people can kind of like, visualise their own branding and like what the agency can do for them. And like you kind of almost need to come across as like a blank slate when you want to attract brands that like have that aspiration, because you can’t make it all about you.
Yeah, you don’t really want to attach some emotional colour to it. Yeah, it’s difficult, especially for an agency because you’re providing a service. Yeah. Right, rather than, you know, providing a specific product.
Yeah. And I think like, it’s when you’ve kind of got like, b2c consumers and stuff, like, you can almost kind of play on that, because like, if we’re talking about like, our needs and stuff, as people, you’ve obviously got like food, and reproduction, and like, the need for safety, if all of those needs are met, then you kind of don’t have as strong emotional pull. So things like McDonald’s when like they’re selling that food, and like they create that urgency around it with the red and like the fast food, nature of it, and like the yellow to evoke, like happiness and things like that. It’s almost kind of like already alluding to that instant gratification that you’re going to get it and you’re going to get it quickly. Yeah,
it is about the quick service, isn’t it? Yeah. And also, when you’re driving down the motorway, if you see a red sign, it’s usually a warning. You see the McDonald’s, which is bold, red, with hints of yellow, with a hint of yellow with happiness. Get your happy meal, and yeah, you know, for KFC with the white background, and then it’s red. Yeah. So
it stops you in your tracks, isn’t it? And I think like, Have you watched the film about the founder, the McDonald’s founder? Oh, I haven’t actually. So that’s a really, really good one. There’s like a scene in it, where he’s talking about like, well, he’s driving around in his car. And there’s a bit of a montage. And he’s like talking about like how every single town has like a church in a courthouse. And they have these like emblems of like what they are. So like the church house across and then like, the courthouse has the flag. And he wants to create this like kind of visionary experience that is McDonald’s so that like you kind of drive past it and like you can kind of it’s like a beacon that brings you together. And he goes through all of these things. And it’s like, oh, yeah, church, courthouse community. McDonald’s needs to be in with that. And it’s just, it was just super interesting. And then they chose like yellow to bring that actually to live to be like a shining beacon of like all of this. It was bringing it together. Such a good film.
I haven’t seen it. But I’ve been told it’s actually quite good. So it doesn’t sound like it holds you make a film about McDonald’s
is really good. To be fair, I think it just depends on what you’re interested in. And if you are kind of like into the kind of like, how would you build a business type thing like another film that I really enjoyed was joy, you know, the one about like, the woman who started Jemelle mobs and stuff, but it just depends. There was nothing about colour psychology in that film, though, so I won’t talk about that anymore. That was for another podcast.
JMO. So everywhere there wasn’t it. But yeah,
I think in regards to colour, did you have any points that you wanted to share about web Nick
is mostly already yet spoken about it with the cost of buttons and that sort of thing and the trust element. And another thing is avoid college like the heavy use of Mac’s threats, maxwidth feedbunk, colours, and maybe to accent colours. I don’t use too many colours on the website could be too basic.
That’s a good point. Actually, I wanted to ask you about that. How many colours is too much?
question because I’m quite minimalistic, and I’m going to happily put it out there. I believe that the best looking brands have no more than three and two of those are kind of secondary colours and they lead with one primary. Yeah,
I was gonna say two to three. Yeah. As well if you
because especially like because when I think about colours and stuff like I think about how it’s going to give us the freedom and flexibility to be creative on social. So for example, like my quivers were heavily black and white and then we’ve got red and that actually gives us enough to play about unreal because we’ve got like the different shades of red and we can like incorporate shadow work into that the graphics that we create for social and they are quite good graphics like that. visually striking. Whereas, like, if we muddied that any further. I don’t think I’d be very happy,
though. You do have like your, I’d say two to three colours. And then also you have secondary colours as highlights. So I follow a guy on Instagram called Timewalker. Yeah, he’s great. My days. He’s an absolute genius. Yeah. Yeah. Like he has. So he has, even though he’s given a message with all of his messages that he does on Instagram. He has a branding colours, like yellow, black, and he uses a soft pink. Yes. So is yellow is? Well, yellow and black are predominant colours. Yeah, but then 20% of the time, it will just throw in that pink. Yeah. Just to sort of soften the blow a bit, which I think is it works when he’s saying that to you. And I always say I practice what you preach. And then actually, I’m scrolling through his Instagram. Oh, yeah. He’s actually using that pink is like minimal. Yeah. So that’s what I’d say.
Yeah, I think they work the best. Because I think in terms of like websites, especially when we get to like kind of content, heavy ones, or E commerce ones, you don’t want to put too much colour on there. Because it’s going to distract from either the content that you’re putting on there, too, I guess, like tell the story or like sell the service or the E commerce where like, your ultimate goal is really to get someone to go to the checkout, isn’t it. And if you’re going to make it like an all bells and whistles site that detracts from that. It’s going to be difficult to ultimately complete it. But then for example, because we’ve just launched Waterworld website and like, that’s like an incredible website that we had to take into consideration, like the whole Inca theming that they have, like there at the park and create that experience that physical experience digitally. We had to be a bit more playful, didn’t we? Boy, if you look on that, it still is consistent. And it’s consistently green.
Yeah, it’s when you think about inco and it’s that high hills of Peru. Yeah, things eat you up. There’s a lot of green. Yeah. So although you’re on water slides, and everything is plastic, and it’s you know, in a warehouse, but obviously the decorated, lovingly decorated it’s beautifully styled when you go into a theme. Yeah, obviously you want your website to wanted a website so much of all these bright kids obviously with WaterWorld is aimed at families.
Yeah. So parents like you and Charlie would sit there and you’d like before you went, you’d show in mind the website I called you want to go there? Maybe when he’s a bit older, you can actually speak and be like, yeah, yeah,
he probably loves it probably a little bit. But I mean, I’m not going to throw him down a Spaceball. And
not just yet. Wait till these five.
genuine love have a few words. So what social services? But anyway,
but no, I think, yeah. What’s your what’s your opinion, Nick? Do you have to have a opinion on colours on websites in terms of how many is too much?
I’d say to stick to two or three kind of website, and maybe the odd accent global, like we were expecting, generally with rent and that sort of things. Mostly, you can use images or just the colour, just stick to black and white make the theme? Yeah, like a neutral theme colour. And then use the images do the talking with the Broncos.
Yeah, funny. Well, actually, one of our current clients of Guild guild living so their predominant colours are the gold, the black and the white. But then they have secondary colours, what they’ve got eight. So they’ve got four really bold colours, but then also of those colours, they’ve got four muted. So they’ve got a bold orange, bold, green, bold, pink, bold blue. But then they’ve also got those colours. very muted. Yeah, and it’s where they use them. So those bold colours, because I do want them all to each message to stand out differently. So that’s where you’ve got the pink, the blue, the orange to green in different ways. Yeah, but then maybe you’ve got two that you want to get that message out more than the ones that are muted.
But that makes sense I guess with their brand because in regards to like, the gold, the black and the way for them, for example, that shows kind of like the the prestigious nature of the homes that they’re going to create for people and like how they’re actually like and they do have this trust and like they put a lot of thought into like the kind of challenging brand that they are. And then because of that challenging brand that wants to like reinvent the later living space and how people view old people and like The kind of third stage of life, having those bold colours to show the old people can be bold, and like they’re still vibrant and still full of life. It makes perfect sense. So I think it’s the a lot of that it makes it does make sense in terms of them. So yeah, we can sit here and say like,
three cores, but then eight secondary colours,
I think like some of the things I’ve seen in the past as well like, and I do think sometimes this can be just a bit like, too much. But like when you have kind of like a brand, and then they separate the services by colours and stuff.
Well, I’m currently working on a website now. So it’s usually what you do in a catalogue. So you think of Argos? Yeah. So when you go through the sides of the pages, they’re all colour coded so that attorney light blue was sport or something like that. And green was all your outdoorsy garden things. Yeah, well, everything was separated. And so in this website that I’m currently doing, which is it sells work where it sells, like furniture at schools and things like this. And stationery. It’s so broad. Yeah. But actually, it did. Do you want to separate them? Yeah. And make it easier to notice what, in a way that I’m doing it. I don’t like a million colours altogether. So it’s only when you highlight it, that then that colour shows, but then we go on to that down to that subject, then you see more of the core? Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s a way of separating?
Yes, I get I think it’s just It depends. You have to be strategic, I guess, and how you do it, and how you bring that to life on a page, because it can look very overwhelming very quickly. Yeah. And I think the problem that I found with it in the past is that like, you almost have to take that care and consideration through and to how you’re kind of bringing it to life through social media as well. Because like so for example, if your brand colours are, let us do a black, white and red because there are currently and then like I know if we separated, like if we gave digital marketing orange, because I know I don’t like that colour and choppy. Pretty much website is can be blue. And then design can be like red. And then like content marketing can be pink, if we just go full out and like PR kind of put the services out there in their own colours. And every time we do a post about content marketing, then that doesn’t make sense in terms of our brand colours. So you have to like pull it through strategically don’t year in terms of like, still getting like the kind of house colours in like the black, white and the red. But then how do you get this kind of like, niche colour through that can like, kind of, I guess, signify the service. It’s always a problem with socialism, because you kind of need to keep that consistency open like that brand awareness, because of the type of platform is, but then how do you separate that kind of colour strategy into your social posts? Yeah,
we also use that to inhabit between a website footer products as well. Yeah. So what about direct for example? I’ve got the six stages colours. Yeah. And how that fits the products that are used with each stage.
Yeah, and obviously then that helps the customer that otter bright have diehard fans? Yeah. You know, the people who place 1000 pounds and you know voters did? It’s a it’s a big brand. Yeah. And, you know, it’s like walking into the shop of separating what you use on your wheels what you use to wash the con. Finish protect. And there was another one, I can’t remember what it is. But it’s so I want something for the wheels. Yeah, till then go to green. Yeah, it just, it makes life a lot easier.
But it’s done in a way that doesn’t overpower the brand. Yeah, and it’s minimalistic, and it makes sense in regards to how we do it. So like with regards to like how you’ve created it on the packaging and stuff that you do for them. The six steps, it’s not like the predominant colour on the logo is like on the background of the label. Sorry, is like the colour that it infiltrates to. It’s just the text is that colour and the numbers that colour and sometimes the outline of like the element is colour and it’s very, very muted, isn’t it? It’s not like all guns blazing, like green bottle.
No, no, I mean Devam got the Union Jack flag did the you know the very proud of everything being made in the UK. So that plays a big part and it bought as you say that using that colour. And softly You know, it’s just at the bottom and it’s a reppin behind. It’s enough. Yeah. To tell the difference between what’s well.
Yeah, no, I think when you use it as a categorization tool, it does work quite well. It’s just Obviously, in the strategy of the brand, it has to be pulled through consistently. And there’s a lot that you have to do to make it actually work.
Yeah, there’s a lot of thought to go into cola. Yeah, you know, you say that you can use two to three calls in the brands. But then actually, the anomaly is that this one can use eight, and this one has got 12 to cut. So categorise each each thing.
Yeah, I think it just depends on your brand strategy doesn’t really and what you actually want. So yeah, I mean, we can sit here and say that like me, personally, the less colour the better. But I am quite a minimalistic person anyway, like, I don’t really like clutter. And anything that is just too vibrant. It almost like kind of overwhelms the brain because there’s just too much to go on.
Is anything to get the message over to the viewer in the easiest way. Yeah, definitely, you can easily break it down.
Yeah. And I think when you use colour and clean, simple ways like that, it makes so much sense. And especially now because we’re just in a complete overload of information age. And we’ve already picked up on that brands are making their logos more simple. I think we’ll start to see cola come into effect a lot more now as well into these kind of like brand strategies and like the creative direction that people are taking themselves in. Yeah,
I mean, it’s weird, because like so many logos went, they were simple. And then they went into so much detail, because they all wanted to separate. And now they’ve all got immense detail. And now they’ve all come back. Yeah reverted back. Especially if the car logos like I said before, they’ve all simplified and they all work deal earth and they all deal progress.
Great. Yeah, no, I think so too. When I think luxury brands as well again, away from that kind of like heavy typographic font to those more kind of like a sans serif one now and it’s like a bit more blocky, and it’s a lot more clean and simple. To much to the point now that I think that a lot of them look the same.
Yeah, the devil are the same idea. If you think about all your fashion brands, Calvin Klein and you know, Dolce and Gabbana, all of them. They’re all black and white. Yeah. And they’re all very simple. And it’s, how would you separate those now? Yeah, but they’re all they all want to be bold. So that’s where you go for the black. On, you know, the black on the white. So it’s it do still do stand out on their own. But then when you are like it when you go to a shop, like a sauce. Yeah. And you see all the logos on and they’re also clean. Although they’ve got the same idea, they are actually quite different. But I just love the fact that of how clean they are.
Yeah, no, it’s I think we’re, we’re in the midst, I think, aren’t we we’re like a bit of a transition really with like how design and everything is working in lead the information age and how it’s all being brought together. And it’s interesting to see that things are getting simplified, but the thought that goes into them. You can’t see it, like, do you just wish sometimes that you could like, all of these logos and stuff and all of the strategies that look super clean and simple but effective. You can see the thought behind them. Because it brings a lot and it doesn’t look like it does, but it really does.
Yeah, I like it with with a lot of meaning in it. I like it when I see Brian instead of thought about the call. Yeah, if they want to be I always ask people on a scale of professionalism to friendliness, like where are you on that scale? Yeah, if it was like your messaging, you’re going to say hello. Or you’re going to say a up Yeah. Or you’re going to be so yeah, i Hi. You know, with with you messaging Where are you going to be? Yeah, because then actually, it gives me an idea of where you want to be with colour. Yeah, my if you can say you know, hello might actually gave a very simple, old professional. But if you say a up I’ll go bold on the other scale and use a very bold colour.
Yeah. What would you do if someone said hi? Would it be quiet like a week?
It to me that’s a mid that’s a mid tone.
Oh, playing it safe.
Playing it safe. Yeah, let’s say we’ll play it safe. Okay. Yeah. But then also like is are you going to show loyalty? Yeah. Can you show you know, there’s still that element of friendliness? Yeah. So yeah, I’d still gay for some sort of mid colour but then this is where I get so many colour palettes. And I do about four different options just to see just to see how that and then imagine a message that’s on there and put that on in the collar.
Yeah, no, it makes sense. There’s a lot into it. But yeah, I think if you have any questions on colour psychology and you want to get in touch with us and go through them a little bit more if you’d like to have a round of Jim’s quiz, then get in touch with us at Hello at so marketing.com