Choosing the Right Color for Your Logo
by Cono Fusco
For the small to medium business owner and the home based entrepreneur, making a logo design with their company colors will be the single most important thing they will do. It seems odd to say but it is the truth; that one consideration will make or break their business. Think about it. Marketing today has been boiled down to the psychology of it all because the trial and error has been done in years past, so market researchers and logo designers today have it down to an exact science.
Neuro-behavioral expert Dr. Gautham, in his blog, describes a shopper who only wanted milk and bread. These items, however, were located in the back corner of the store, forcing the shopper to walk past shiny red apples, deep, dark chocolate fudge, creamy white ice cream, prettily coloured fruit juice and Pepsi. She thought she would pick these up as they would complement her family's evening meal, but she was shocked at the check-out how much money she had spent. Dr. Gautham's example shopper was seduced by pretty colors in a few logo design items, like Pepsi, into buying what she didn't need.
|
|
|
Another shopper of Dr. Gautham's acquaintance is the male shopper who only wants food but has to walk the store over to get it. He is frustrated by choices, quantity and indecision, so he grabs what looks good and heads to the checkout. This shopper has been programmed by those marketing researchers and logo designers to reach for prominent brands he knows and trusts so he can get out of there and back to re-building that engine in his car.
Business owners can see immediately the effect of placement but more importantly the color of a logo design in enticing customers to buy their product. If you pay close attention to other successful company logos, you would notice something you could use in your own business.
• Sears' "blue team"
• Nickelodeon's orange logo
• The Weather Channel's blue logo
• CNN's red letters
All respectable, trusted sources of information, products and services that use colors to portray their message.
The Importance of Color and What They Symbolize
Color has a lot to do with logo design because people have been programmed over the years to recognize trustworthy colors and shy away from dangerous or wild colors.
In Color Psychology in Logo Design, Eric Peterson describes the attributes of varied colors. His example of pink, used in the Barbie logo, he says represents the innocence of little girls, femininity, delicacy and romance. Similarly, the colour orange symbolizes fun, enthusiasm, light-heartedness and youth.
If a business owner were to design his company logo in purple, however, he would be persuading his customers of his regal, royal, noble status. Good example being the Hallmark logo. While blue tends to impress people with calm, confidence, authority and dignity, much like the Weather Channel or Sears logos.
Green is all about nature, environment, healing and health. Many bank logos are in green. Red is the single color most chosen by logo designers because it's the color of fast, danger, action and adventure. Appropriately, fast food uniforms are often red.
Color evokes certain emotions in people which in turn makes them feel a certain way towards a brand, product or service. Depending on the emotion you want your customers to feel, take careful consideration about the colours in your logo.
< Back To Branding Tips
|
|
