Among many decisions every company makes along its industrious journey, one of these decisions is choosing the company logo and its colors.
This article explores the use of color within a company logo and the effect each color has. When choosing a color for a company logo, company stakeholders should give the right time and attention to this fundamental decision. At first appearance, this decision seems simple and effortless, but it is actually one of the most influential in order to support the communication strategy of the company and to achieve its branding goals. If you underestimate this important task, you may lose a significant competitive advantage or even worse, make users and potential customers misunderstand your corporate identity and step away from you.
Empirical studies show that the human being is subject to the effects of colors in an incisive manner. The human body is influenced by the nervous system from the sight of a certain color. When color is transmitted through the eye, studies show that the human brain releases a defined quantity of hormones, which cause various moods and emotions to flow into the body. Given the importance of a company theme, a careful analysis of the right color is essential for every aspect of the company such as graphics, logo, font, and so on. The color selection process requires effort and time to understand the best way the company wants to convey a certain message. A color can be perceived in one way by an individual and another way by other person, but what the company has to do is make a choices that reflects important values for its target customers.
Academic research discovered evidence about psychology and physical effects that are caused by colors. From the results of different studies, it was discovered that colors can arouse feelings of excitement, peace, relaxation, warmness, coolness, and even awareness. Studies show that, if you give someone warm colored placebo pills, they will be more influential compared to the same placebo pills in cool colors. Furthermore, red lights cause an exciting effect on gamblers, making them gamble more with riskier bets. Red exposure can also increase blood pressure and frequency of eye blink. Blue lights, on the other hand, have the opposite effect of red, making us feel calmer and more relaxed. In one study it was revealed that there was a decrease in the number of crimes and suicides in streets where blue illumination was introduced. An additional study shows research undertaken on football and ice hockey teams with black uniforms that they were more aggressive and receive more penalties than teams with colored uniforms.
These are only a few examples of the impact colors have on people’s minds and their decision making. Numerous other examples can be found in the marketing world. Colors have been widely applied in marketing for a long time, in order to attract customers’ attention and to provide products that better suit their personalities and needs.