Choosing the colours in your advertising campaign, your building sign, your logo, even your branded t-shirts can cause a headache. You can pour over countless online articles about the psychology of colour, read expert advice, and still not have a clear answer. That’s due to the fact that the psychology of colour is unique to the individual; personal preference will always take precedence to your customers.
Also take into consideration the varying abilities for people to see colour at all. Rather than stress about looking for something that is undefinable, shift your focus to the art of design. It’s not about looking for statistics like women are more drawn to the colour pink, or that the world’s favourite colour is blue (not true in either case), it’s about what will grab your audience’s attention, and hold it.
Start by revisiting the concept of complementary colours. Recall the colour wheel you painstakingly created in elementary school (or just google it). Colours that are opposite each other on the wheel are complementary, which means that typically they meet the socially-acceptable requirements of “attractive.” This means if you decide to have purple signs, you could use yellow copy on them and no one should look at it and go “blech”. Same with red and green, orange and blue, and so on. Remember that colours come all shades so you can mess around quite a bit to find something you like. It’s a fun exercise!
Once you’ve got some ideas, turn to psychology – but not of colour. Head on back to your handy search engine and find out what other companies use the same 2 colours in their branding. It’s wise to know whether customers will already be conditioned to think of another brand when they see your colour combination. If you find a match, thankfully you’re still in the planning stages so you can make changes. Designing temporary signage? Don’t worry as much about competition, but it’s still wise to do some recon.
Whether permanent or temporary signage, you do have to seriously examine the general environment you plan to hang your signs, such as a convention or trade show, a festival, a plaza, and even within your own shop or lobby. You need your signs to stand out, even if they’re going up within your own space. If the scenery or neighbouring businesses rely heavily on blue, or you’re setting up at a Christmas market where red, green, silver, and gold will be prevalent, pick something else! Consult the colour wheel again and you can find some attractive alternatives or stand-out colours. Research and thoughtful planning can save you costly edits after your campaign is at the printers.
In relying on the rules of design in conjunction with your sign surroundings, you give your sign the best shot at attracting the right attention. Grand River Sign Design can help you with all of your sign design needs, especially colour choices. We’ve seen it all! Call (519) 740-7272 to book a consultation or come by our showroom at 25 Struck Court, Unit 5.
