90 seconds after first seeing something, people make a judgement about it, and up to 90% of the impression made is based on colour alone. What I want to say is, colours are important (but I don't see much discussion about it)
What are your experiences with choosing the colour for a brand or observing other logo colours? I want to know if you have noticed any patterns? Do you agree with the importance of colour or is the messaging more important?

I would say personal and cultural factors determine them for the most part, so you can’t really be lazy by looking at a picture on the internet containing a simplified classification of the function of different colours and using it thinking you now know it all about colour psychology. You have to keep in mind what emotions you want your audience to feel towards your brand’s personality. The colour you choose may correspond to a general characteristic, but it’s more important that it fits your brand’s personality and gives you an unforgettable look. The notion that green, for example, is a colour of calmness and nature may be known by most people, but that hasn’t stopped a company like Monster Energy which is associated with sports and…well…energy, use it. Yet the colour fits perfectly.

On the other hand common colour associations DO exist, and admittedly, becoming familiar with the colours that affect most people’s perceptions in a mostly similar way is actually a great starting step. So I’ll give a quick guide and hopefully this thread will be a place to gather more opinions and examples regarding colour psychology and colour choices!
SO in general, we can say:

  • Red can affect your physical body and increase your blood pressure AND appetite. This is the colour of passion and danger, so it’s appropriate for different products from inviting food at McDonalds to speedy cars.
  • Green, of course, the colour of nature, growth, freshness, and calmness. Think: Wholefoods, Starbucks. But as previously said it doesn’t have to solely represent that. Think about Spotify, it uses green to convey the healing, cheerful state of listening to music.
  • Even more calming than green is blue, think again of nature but this time the sea and the sky. That’s why blue is so powerful. It is also an indicator of intelligence, trust, and security. Next time you see the Boeing or Visa logos, remember they are trying to gain your trust by their colour.
  • Yellow is associated with youth, sunshine, and happiness. All is good. On the other hand, it also has a connotation for caution as seen in road signs.
  • Orange also has a great range. Think of Nickelodeon to remember the joyful, entertaining vibe it exudes. Then think about the many supermarket chains that use it to show they have cheap and affordable products!
  • White & Black: These are real double-edged swords. They are pretty hard to execute, and once done poorly can either bore the customer or make them feel purely miserable. Once done nicely, though, they’re a clear sign of modernity and luxury.
    Looking forward to more discussion about this!

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Yeah, I fell in love with color theory, as it related to Internet marketing, back in the late 1990s. In the early 2000s, all tech sites were blue and white, and we became known in the industry as the purple tech site. It set us apart.

This is really fascinating. I guess Purple even now is a standout for tech sites. It seems Blue or Black are still the most popular, and interestingly Green and Yellow/Orange seem to come close. Maybe the purple theme also contributes to the difference in the community. I was just reading the rules once again and the "Keep It Pleasant" section is relatively unique in comparison to similar sites :D

I was just reading the rules once again and the "Keep It Pleasant" section is relatively unique in comparison to similar sites

You think? How so??

A very long, long time ago (15+ years ago), DaniWeb, like many other vBulletin-based forums on the web (we're no longer based on vB), allowed members to use BBCode to select the color of the font in their posts. I started a discussion about why I believed we should remove that feature: https://www.daniweb.com/community-center/meta-daniweb/threads/78160/why-color-should-be-disabled (hint: We obviously did, since it doesn't exist today) There are 121 responses to that forum thread, but it's a very interesting read if you take the time.

Once we removed the ability for members to post in color, some members revolted in this thread: https://www.daniweb.com/community-center/meta-daniweb/threads/55206/no-colors-anymore ... Again, I go into color theory a bit in my debate, especially on page 2.

Both of these forum threads need to be read with the understanding that they are fifteen year old discussions, and read in the context of where the web was, evolutionally, 15 years ago.

Wow that was a really interesting read, it's fascinating how fast our mind processes colors and how important they are because of this. Thank you for referring me to that thread. Just as you pointed out the time gap and the huge differences 15 years has caused in tech though, do you still think limited colors are the better choice for a forum like Daniweb? I'm contemplating that, and it's an interesting difference that this forum has, although usually color usage is frowned upon.

do you still think limited colors are the better choice for a forum like Daniweb?

If anything, I think that I was a bit ahead of the times as to where the industry was heading. 15 years ago there was MySpace and all of these blogs and forums that encouraged "freedom of expression" in terms of people being able to use bold, italics, underline, any font, any style, any color in each of their posts. If you remember the old AOL Instant Messenger where kids would make every word a different color and font.

I wanted DaniWeb to be taken more seriously, and be in control of the color palette, and ended up having to fight for that. Nowadays, what I was wanting back then is simply status quo.

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