By
Duane Sprague
When properly
used, color can dramatically add information or meaning
to a message, or convey that message more quickly and precisely.
Color adds punch, pizzaz, elegance and IMPACT!
Why Use Color?
According to a study by the University of Minnesota, the University
of British Columbia and the 3M Corporation, when color is used
in advertising the color will:
o Improve realism
o Improve comprehension
o Get attention and hold it longer
o Deliver your message more quickly
o Make your ad and your company appear more prestigious
o Immediately identify a brand or company
o Establish relationships in a series or product line
o Add symbolic connotations and/or feelings to your message
o Make your ad more persuasive
o Enhance retention
o Enhance the image of the company, product or presenter
o Improve readability
o Make your ad and your company appear more professional
Color helps to sell and improve decision making. Seventy percent
of people with multicolor reports obtained an optimum decision
compared to only 33% of people with black and white reports.
Advertisements
In Color Have Proven To:
o Increase chances of seeing the ad by 38%
o Increase retention of the ad by 40%
o Enhance prospective buyers tendency to act by 26%
o Product is perceived as being greater in value, not in cost
o Increase positive feeling toward product by 22%
In the world
of business, color adds another dimension to information. Just
as a three dimensional image makes it easier to understand the
relationships between the surfaces of an object, color can be
used in charts and graphs to help us quickly grasp how numbers
correlate.
Important
words and phrases seem to leap off the page when highlighted in
color. Color adds prestige and helps communicate the message,
"This information and your attention to it is important."
What Is Color?
Color is technically just a perception of different lengths of
light waves by the eye. But this definition hardly conveys the
importance of color to human life. For most people, color forms
an essential part of our visual and symbolic language. Color can
stir emotions, sooth nerves or invoke a desired response.
People and
age groups have color preferences. Infants prefer luminous colors
like yellow, white, pink and red. As they grow older, children
drop their liking for yellow, and shift to blue and red as the
preferred colors. During the move into adulthood, people begin
strongly favoring the blue-green colors. Throughout the world
the dominant order of color preference is:
#1. Blue
#2. Red
#3. Green
#4. Violet
#5. Orange
#6. Yellow
Symbolism of Individual Colors:
o Black: serious, strong, somber
o Blue: relaxed, cool, refreshing
o Brown: realistic, masculine, honest, subtly rich
o Green: quiet, calm, tranquil, youthful, vigorous, healthful,
fresh
o Orange: happy, sunny, outdoorsy
o Pink: sweet, romantically soft, feminine
o Red: strong, vivacious, virile, masculine, passionate
o Yellow: cheerful, young, extroverted, lively
