When asked “What does this color represent?”. You might have the answer right away. But take a moment to think. How did it come to be. How we see color and what each of them represent, perhaps is influenced by society, pop culture and media. Now lets us take a look at some of them see what the meanings that they signify.
Red
Red is usually associated with powerful emotions such as anger, confidence and courage. More often than not it is used in advertising because it entices the viewer. Coca-cola and KFC are just some of the examples. A lot of sports drink and sports related items use red in their branding because the color red can signify power. Sensuality is also can be represented by red. We often see in movies or in television, even in advertisement women wearing red dress, red high heels and red lips. Those combinations evokes passion and love.
Other shades of red can represent:
Light red love, sexuality and passion.
Pink romance, love, and feminine qualities.
Dark red rage, anger, willpower, leadership, and courage.
Brown stability and masculine qualities.
Reddish-brown harvest and fall.
Orange
Orange is a secondary color. It is a combination of red and yellow. It has high visibility and commonly used in advertising food products and toys. Orange itself often represent creativity, enthusiasm, fascination and success.
Other shades of orange can represent:
Dark orange frustration
Red-orange aggravation
Gold prestige, illumination, wisdom, wealth and high quality.
Yellow
When you think of yellow you would think of the sun. Hence yellow is the color of sunshine. It can also be associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy. We see a lot of nursery painted yellow because it evokes cheerfulness. As a matter of fact a lot of toys are colored yellow. However, as a result yellow has been associated with the term “childish”. It would be wise to avoid using them in high brand advertisement.
Other shades of yellow can represent:
Dull (dingy) yellow caution, jealousy and sickness.
Light yellow intellect, freshness, and joy.
Green
Nature is the thing that people would associate with the color green. Green also symbolizes growth, harmony, safety, freshness, and fertility. Green also can be associated with money especially with dark green. Many examples of the usage of green are for eco-friendly items, and green traffic lights to ensure safety.
Other shades of green can represent:
Dark green money, greed, and jealousy.
Yellow-green sickness or cowardice
Aqua healing and protection.
Blue
Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven. Blue has that calming effect on others. But some shade blue can give a sad and gloomy effect. Some examples of the usage of blue that you often see are advertisement of cleaning products and airlines.
Other shades of blue can represent:
Light blue health, healing, tranquility, understanding, and softness.
Dark blue knowledge, power, integrity, and seriousness.
Purple
Purple is the color of royalty. But it can also represent mystery, magic, creativity and wisdom. Purple is a good color to be use in feminine design. And like yellow and orange, we often see toys colored purple.
Other shades of purple can represent:
Light purple romantic and nostalgic feelings.
Dark purple evokes gloom, sad feelings, and frustration.
White
White is associated with light, goodness, innocence, purity, and cleanliness. We associate many cleaning products with white. We also associate them with holy spiritual things, such as angels. The medical world often being represented by the color white, as we see a lot of the doctors and nurses uniforms, buildings, rooms and even some of the tools they use are white.
Black
Black is the opposite of white. As a result is commonly associated with dark, sinister, grief and mysterious emotions. A lot of horror movies, book, comics are depicted in black, and using the color white to give contrast. However it is not only used to depict grim materials but in a lot of fashion black is considered slimming. As such black also depicts elegance, fashionable and luxury.
In conclusion, colors represent many emotions and can be use as signifiers. We also learn that the media play a huge role in developing how we perceive colors. So express yourselves with color!
