When deciding on colour schemes for the design of my website I wanted to consider elements that would keep the experience calm, trustworthy and relaxed.
“Psychologically, research has shown that we all have the same innate, instinctive response to colour,” says colour consultant Andrea Mountford of Red Technologies. What nature begins, nurture develops.
“A lot [of our colour response] is based on association. We’re raised with thoughts and feelings about colours,” says Leatrice Eiseman, director of the Pantone Colour Institute in New Jersey. Red is for danger, not only because of its natural association with blood and fire, but from the tightening of our mother’s grip when the traffic lights turn red.
Green is for calm and peace, influenced as much by the safety of the green light as the fecundity of the green countryside. These associations can be carried into business documents.
As well as enhancing the meaning of text, colour can influence the way the “personality” of a company is reflected in print. “Blue is probably the most ‘trustworthy’ colour,says John Knight, director of the User-Lab research centre at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design.
“A German study of the use of photography on websites found that pictures of people tend to make visitors trust what they’re seeing and reading,” says Knight.
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