Colors Have Meaning
- Red: Raises people’s blood pressure and heart rate, and is often associated with movement, excitement, passion and danger.
- Orange: Stimulates areas of the brain that trigger feelings like enthusiasm or anxiety, and is considered a confident, warm and cheerful color.
- Yellow: Increases mental activity, is often used to highlight important points for memory, and is associated with happiness, caution and energy.
- Green: Promotes harmony and balance in the brain, and is synonymous with health, nature, peacefulness and envy.
- Blue: Associated with security, logic, and a calm mind, but can feel uninviting.
Don’t Rely on Color Stereotypes Alone
While it’s helpful for you to understand typical associations people have with colors, you also must consider the context of your audience. Before selecting a label color, think about the industry, cultural, competitive or gender perceptions that could impact the effectiveness of your marketing or communications. Take yellow, the “happiness color,” for example. While this may seem like the perfect uplifting hue for hospitals, there are industry-specific use cases for yellow, such as prevention protocol, care instructions, and fall-risk notifications, that might deter its use within a medical setting.
Eye-Pleasing Color Combinations
Businesses today have access a whole spectrum of color choices and combinations for their labels. When harnessed properly, color combinations can quickly become your most powerful design element. Consider these basic techniques when combining colors:
- Complementary: Colors located on opposite sides of the color spectrum, like blue and orange, are defined as complementary colors. They are effective at highlighting contrast or making a bold statement, but can be overwhelming in large doses.
- Analogous: Neighbors on the color wheel, analogous color combos coexist nicely and evoke feelings of harmony and serenity, making them ideal for grouping related components, text, or visuals.
- Triad: This color scheme uses any combination of three evenly spaced colors from around the color wheel, such as shades of green, violet, and orange. To ensure your information stands out, leverage one dominant color against two supporting accent colors.
Let’s talk about color for your project
Just because your color choices work well with one medium, doesn’t mean they will translate to your custom label. We are well-versed in the psychology of color, design, and label best practices, let’s chat about your project.