The Importance of Choosing the Right Color
I’ve written about color in the past, but I believe it’s one of the most important aspects of design and had to bring it up again when I came across this site: www.soundofcolor.com. It has a music video for each of the 5 main colors and lists different associations and emotions attached those colors. Another point they made is that different colors have different cultural meanings. These facts are important to know when designing so that you don’t confuse your viewers or even make them angry. Below are a few of the things I learned from this site that I didn’t know about certain colors before:
- - Rooms painted yellow make babies cry more.
- - Blue is the color of immortality in China.
- - Barns are painted red because farmers used to add ferrous oxide to their paint, which gave it a red color, and helped control mold and moss.
- - In India, a red mark on the forehead is said to bring good luck.
- - In the highlands of Scotland, people wore green as a mark of honor.
- - The human eye can discern more shades of green than any other color.
- - Native Americans associated black with the color of soil, which gives life.
If you’re designing for a culture other than your own it’s important to realize that colors have different meanings to different groups of people. Be sure to research any major color decisions you make, especially if you are unsure on their subtle meanings or associations.
