Color is an important element of your site design, and tells the user a lot about your company. Are you sending the right message?

Color is perceived by the user subconsciously and can be affected by many different factors. You can have a feeling about a certain color based on your life experiences, your nationality, where you grew up, and many other factors. Even though different people feel differently about each color, it’s best to know the broad scope of what colors mean to the public. Using the wrong color in your design could portray the wrong idea about your company.

Color theory is the study of colors and what they mean to people, it tells us what message they give to the public. Applying the ideas of color theory to a website is very helpful, and allows us to decide the appropriate colors for a company depending on the message they want to send. It’s important to keep in mind that different shades of each color can send a different message too, as well as the elements that surround it on the page like typography choices, layout, text, etc. Read on to discover what each color means.

Blue

Blue is usually a color of peace and serenity because of it’s association with the sea and the sky. In dark shades it can communicate professionalism and trustworthiness so it’s a great choice for a professional and corporate look.

Red

Red is the color of love and stands for passion and excitement. It’s an energetic color and can be used to stimulate your audience’s senses. Red can also have a negative connotation because of it’s association with anger and fear so the other colors and design elements of the site must be chosen wisely to complement it.

Black

Black is a very dominant color and can be used to portray power and elegance. It’s a great choice for showing sophistication as well and can be used to show off some powerful features.

White

White is a very peaceful color and symbolizes sweetness and purity. It can also show cleanliness, which is why it’s a popular choice for the background of large blocks of type, because it cleans up the area and makes it easy to read.

Green

Green stands for nature and youthfulness. It has a harmonious quality because of it’s association with plants and is a great choice for companies that want to show growth.

Yellow

Yellow is another warm color and also emotes energy like the color red. Yellow also suggests excitement and happiness and has a playful and youthful quality to it. It can also represent intelligence and joy.

Purple

Purple has a majestic and royal quality to it and is a great choice for showing power and importance. It also has a creative feel to it and can be used to show off creative features.

Orange

Orange is another happy color and can be used to show exuberance and joy. Like the other warm colors on the color wheel it can also evoke hunger and make people think of food.

Make sure to choose your website’s colors wisely in order to make the best visual impression you can. Users will get a good feeling of who you are just from your colors so it’s an important and valuable decision in the website creation process.

What message are your website colors sending?