What color is response

What color is response?
An inside look at how color
improves — or hurts — your sales
Carol Worthington-Levy
Creative Director

What color is response? Carol Worthington-Levy CWL@Worthington-Levy.com

Does color really matter?
• How do people respond to colors?
• Does color help people to see messages
more quickly?
• Does color help to emphasize blocks of
copy or headlines?
• What colors help to show off product in a
photograph?

How can the right colors improve response?

• When The Highlander went from this – black
backgrounds on all pages…


• …to this – warm gold colors behind all type — their sales
were up 400% - and order sizes doubled


• When Republic of tea changed this layout background
from green to white and lighter tans, sales improved
substantially!

Today you‘ll get some ideas about…
• How color affects the way people…
- see you
- perceive you and
- respond to your promotional efforts


Let‘s look at some examples
• Check out these treatments and
tell us out loud what the color means to
you…


Remember this?

• Back in 1977, when this was Apple‘s logo, the
Apple was seen as a computer that gave users
superior color output to a PC
• What ELSE does – or did - the color mean to you?

The modern logo

• Today Apple prides itself in its technical wizardry
and business-friendly dependability
• What does this more subdued gray/silver image —
used for all Apple products— mean to you now?

Brand is more powerful with color

• What company uses this color?

Which one is from the Tiffany website?

C

A

B

• What does the color in the shot do to add value?

A sophisticated brand piggybacks
on Tiffany

• Is this a good choice? Is the market the same?

Another color treatment

WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?

• Who is this?


UPS ‗owns‘ brown now

WHAT CAN BROWN DO FOR YOU?

• This campaign started in 2002 and was retired in
2010
• Anyone know how they chose brown? (Trivia!)
• Is brown an upscale color? Downscale?

Pullman brown doesn‘t get dirty!

The brown color that UPS uses on its vehicles and uniforms
is called Pullman Brown. The color is also mentioned in their
former advertising slogan: "What can Brown do for you?”
Originally founder James E. Casey wanted the trucks to be
yellow, but one of his partners, Charlie Soderstrom stated
they would be impossible to keep clean, and that Pullman
railroad cars were brown for just that reason.


All browns are not equal
• Which brown is
―warmer‖?
• Warm colors are
more inviting,
more responsive,
than cool neutral
colors


Sometimes brown is just plain wrong
• Brown may seem like ‗mother
earth‘ nurturing, but in truth it still
feels like dirt
• Is that what you‘d look for or want
in health care? In a car?


Can we use color to connect to our customer?
• Customers quickly
learn what various
colors stand for if they
are on-target…
• Web logos are hitting
us so often that we‘re
connecting the dots
between color and
business


Yahoo purple promises us a fun and
offbeat experience
• We‘re so well trained that Yahoo is purple that
we don‘t even need to see who this is from.


We ―train‖ customers with color
• … so when I get this in my email, and the
Yahoo logo is orange, I’m uncomfortable with it!
Customers will wonder:
is this a scam?
We learn to trust colors
intuitively when they‘re
used consistently


Vocabulary: Color Value
• Dark to light
• The eye is 1600X more sensitive to value
than to color
• Our eyes gravitate automatically to higher contrast,
even though we love color.
• It’s the way our brains are wired
Highest contrast

medium contrast

lower contrast


Colors in proximity affect
how we perceive other colors
• The blue box in
each of these is
the same color –
but they look very
different.
• Our eyes adjust to
the intense color
around that blue
box, and our
brains think it‘s
different!

Color Wheel
• An essential tool for all
designers
• Very handy when
you‘re choosing
curtains, too!


When type is put against a background of
similar ‗value‘, it‘s too hard to read!

• The red type on the gold is illegible

Type in a color – even when it‘s bold –
is harder for people to read
• It becomes lower
contrast – the
further away from
black it gets, the less
the legibility!
• Our customer
ignores messages
written in colors
lighter than black

How do we increase contrast?
• Think ―value‖ when you put two colors together,
and look at them carefully. Is there enough
contrast or are they too close in value?


Black always draws the eye best
• Do you feel anxious in a yellow room? Does the color blue
make you feel calm and relaxed? Artists and interior
designers have long understood how color can dramatically
affect moods, feelings and emotions.
What•color is response? Carol Worthington-Levy CWL@Worthington-Levy.com

Which is easiest to read?
• And which is the
least readable?
• At first glance, the
human eye always
goes for the one
with the most
contrast, ignores
the lowest contrast


What do colors symbolize?
• Dark green and dark blue are colors that
symbolize stability and authority —
banking, high end real estate, investment


When does blue NOT work?
• For food… studies have noted that blue is
not a good color, no appetite appeal —
proven to decrease appetite!
• Far right is dog food – and it still is not
appetizing!


Photography can be made better, or worse
with carefully chosen color of props
• Which colors look most appetizing?

• Yummy!
ecch!
• Good rule of thumb – almost nothing looks
good on grey!

Logos for restaurants must have both
appetite appeal and brand/service appeal…

• JUST looking at the color – which one
says Beverly Hills? Which one says
TexMex? Which one says worldly,
exotic?

Too much of any intense color
actually annoys the viewer
• The bowl of noodles is not enough to make up
for this visual onslaught


What do other colors symbolize?
• Pure hues like cyan (bright blue) and red
are playful, exciting and work well in
children‘s goods, pets and entertainment


Colors can evoke emotions
• Which colors look more appealing for
someone looking for pet goods?


Too much blue
• High intensity blue makes us look away
• Reversed type reduces comprehension to only 10% of
what it would be if dark on light
• The little
bit of red
is not enough
to offset this
deadly site


Too much blue
• Less intense blue, offset by
the yellow
• Note – the box ‗disappears‘
in the layout
• Reversed out type
• Incredibly – a reversed out
coupon
• Proof that all the money in
the world can‘t buy
common sense


Grey: subtle but effective if balanced
with other color
• Gray is subdued and can be elegant if the
right gray… but warning: can also be dull
and uninteresting


Elegance with interesting surfaces
• Grey used as a silver
can be festive and
classy
• Note how this has a bit
of turquoise and blue to
provide relief from all the
grey
• A little blue, a lot of
silver – a good rule of
thumb for color use

The grey palette is bigger than you think
• Note how this
gray has some
color to it –
makes it more
interesting
• A little bit of
intense red
offsets the large
areas of black
and gray – takes
it from dull to
interesting

B/W photography – does it work?
• Black and white photography has mostly
grays – and it too can be elegant if used the
right way
Financial

Luxury real estate


What does light blue symbolize?
• Light blues are optimistic – evokes blue sky,
relaxation, water and cleanliness.


What about black?
• Studies prove
that type
reversed out of
black (white type
on black bkg)
reduces
comprehension
to as low as only
10%
• It‘s even worse
for websites —
people simply do
not stay to read!

Can black work well?
• This is a high end product
by VISA
• Could this get mixed up
with the AMEX Black
(Centurion) Card?

Your own look/feel/color scheme
Is best for you to establish your
brand

The right colors can make us feel
cleanliness and freshness
• Green says ‗eco‘ but blue says ‗clean‘. See
how these logos fare in using color to send
their message.
• For cleaning service, which would you have
the most confidence in?


Choose color to emphasize the prime
benefit to highlight a service • But there are times when water and
relaxation are not the message you want to
convey:
• Which plumber would you hire to take care
of your plumbing problem? Which would you
hire to design an upscale bath?

Water

design strength/modern

dependable/service


What do colors symbolize?
• Green= fresh, nature, environment… but it‘s
not necessarily the right color for type or a
logo!
• Mid to light greens fare poorly in
comprehension tests – green vs. black type


And if you love bright yellow…
• Bright yellows — either on walls or as the
background on a computer screen—are the
most bothersome colors and are not calming
or relaxing in any way.
• Bright colors reflect more light, so yellow
over-stimulates our eyes, causing strain and
even irritability.


And now - about bright yellow…
• Don‘t let this happen to you!


How do you know which colors
to choose?
• We‘ve just seen examples of colors that
work and don‘t work
• Let‘s learn more about why they don‘t work
• And let‘s discuss colors that work well
together – or not
• After that we‘ll go over which colors work
best for messaging


More helpful vocabulary
Complementary colors

• This is a color wheel
• It‘s a great resource when
trying to define colors that
work together
• Colors opposite each other
on the color wheel are
complementary colors
• They balance each other
out visually

Same values, complementary colors

Merchandise

• Makes the eye
uncomfortable
• Seems to ‗jiggle‘ or
shimmer
• Bad readership with
good eyes
• Terrible readership
when there‘s slight
colorblindness (8% of
males cannot tell red
from green)

Merchandise

Complementary color scheme
• This is a kind of
complementary scheme
• The blue is opposite
orange on the color
wheel
• Balance: It doesn‘t take
much of a powerful
color like orange to
offset all the cool blues


• This is more
subtle but it is
also
complementary
• The pale yellow
with the dusty
blue (a little bit
lavender) offset
each other well
• This was a very
successful redo

• Classic holiday
mix of red and
green
• The third color –
the gold –
provides some
interest and visual
relief from the
heavy green and
red


Other color schemes
• Analogous colors
means they are very near
each other on the color
wheel
• They can look great
together but too much will
bore the eye. They need
a touch of a complement
to make it work

Example of analogous color scheme
• The tan, mauve and
muted gold are very
close in color and
intensity
• Why does this work?
The background
does not overwhelm
the subtle color of the
shirt – plays it up
• Subdued color choice
plays up elegance

• The yellows, golds
and metallic gold all
work to create a
compelling,
harmonious image
• White gives the eye
relief from all the
warm color
• Note how the logo
stands out nicely

• Use of a photo with
strong analogous
colors makes this
mail piece
eyecatching
• We play it up with a
bright yellow
violator in one of
the darker areas of
the photo


• This is for the
holidays
• Breaks out of the
traditional and often
overdone red and
green
• Snowflakes in
orange background
are festive – we
don‘t judge it to be
wrong because it‘s
orange

Example of Monochromatic color
scheme
• Many versions of
the same basic
blue
• Do you think this
works to show off
the printer and
samples?
• If not, why?


Example of Monochromatic color
scheme
• This is
monochromatic
using reds
• Their colorful
packaging shows
up well here
• If this were all a
bright red, those
packages would not
show up


Primary and secondary colors
• Primary colors are red,
yellow and blue –
which look great
together
• A secondary color
scheme uses purple,
orange and green –
which also work well
together

Example of a primary color scheme
• This is a primary color
scheme
• NOTE that it‘s not just
‗out of the box‘ color –
• The yellow is a
subdued tint to make
the site easy to look at


Example of a secondary color
scheme
• The warmth of the field
behind her (orange,
subdued) and her skin
tones balance the violet
red color and the moss
green


Example of a secondary color scheme
• Pale gold makes a
nice field color for the
navigation – it offsets
the forest green logo
• The redness of the
cooked food is a
color too – this is
very different. While
it‘s not violet, it is so
different than the
others that it works.

Example of a secondary color scheme
• Green and
orange work well
with the Chili‘s
southwest theme
• Green does not
surround the
food, so it‘s still
appetizing
• Little zings of
gold and bright
red liven it up

Contrast by extension:
which is more eye-catching?

• Pink is essentially light red
• The complement of that is
green
• If this had only pale green it
would be boring
• The dark green adds interest
due to the difference in color and
contrast (it is much darker)

• If you have a lot of one
color, and want some
visual relief and
balance, choose a
complement and use
just a little to offset it.


Contrast by extension: which is more
interesting?

• On the color wheel, the opposite
of violet is yellow
• A yellow green is very intense
• The violet colors are subdued and quiet
• So the addition of the lime green in a
small dose offsets it, makes it interesting
and well-balanced!

• If you have a lot of one
color, and want some
visual relief and
balance, choose a
complement and use
just a little to offset it.


Contrast by extension in action
• A lot of red
• White provides
relief
• We immediately
tune into that
little guy because
the color is so
different


Contrast by extension - in the real world
• Microsoft‘s friendly
clean blue frame
has a little ‗zinger‘
in that ―Kodak‖
warm
yellow/orange.
• It doesn‘t take
much to work well
• Warm colors have
more intensity to
our eye than cool
colors do

Too much Simultaneous contrast makes
a layout ―vibrate‖ uncomfortably
• Next time you think about
using red and green next to
each other on your website
or catalog, for the holidays,
think about this
• People avoid looking at this
because it is overwhelming

Alternative: try a different version of one
of the colors: more muted, darker, etc
• This uses red and green, but
it‘s richer looking
• Easier to look at, more
inviting
• More eye-catching because
it‘s slightly different than the
usual holiday fare


Too much color can hide what you‘re selling
• When you surround
the product you‘re
selling with similar
colors, it will
disappear from
view!
• A sign of a great
stylist is one who
props with taste
and restraint!

How to use color to emphasize
• To make a product pop,
there must be contrast
in value and color


Contrast is the #1 way to
get attention
• Black and white are the ultimate contrast
• As soon as you make something a ‗color‘ it
becomes less dark than black – and less
contrasty
• Subtle color is wasted on many people –
especially men. 7% of all men are colorblind.
Contrast is what helps them to see and read
better

Contrast – can‘t take your eyes off it
• Full range of value and color


Low contrast – weak, uninformed
• Pale colors
against white
don‘t read well
enough to be
comprehended.


Color and contrast/photography
• Sometimes photographers and art
directors take concept too far
• Black gloves – gray stony
background – dull and lifeless –
plus nondescript
• Can you see the ‗new‘ burst?
• What would make that work
better?


Color choices photography

• Complementary colors can make a photo
– and an ad or visual - pop

Color choices photography

• Is this the color of excitement and entertainment
you‘d get from a big screen TV? Yawn.

So let‘s try a few before we
go…
• What could
they do
with color
to make this
a more
interesting
or appealing
site?

Let‘s try another…
• What could
they do
with color
to make this
work better?


• Do these
colors work?
Why or why
not?
• This is about a
service for
entrepreneurs
and startups
in business
• What would
you do to
improve it?

One more…


Summary: How do you know which
colors to choose?
• Think of how people emotionally respond to colors, and find
the best ones for your effort
• Don‘t let your designer choose the ‗creative solution‘ that is
not in line with colors that are appropriate
• Think of how you‘ll use those colors, and concentrate on
ease of reading and comprehension …if someone can‘t read
it, they can‘t respond to it
• Work on color BALANCE – warm and cool, dark and light
(value) and so on
• Never, ever just say yes to the first color combination you
see. Try a few, find the right one!

Some additional sources for you
zealots out there
•
•
•
•
•

Franklin Institute page on color:
http://www.fi.edu/color/
A color contrast analyser – from Australia
http://www.visionaustralia.org.au/info.aspx?page=628
Interesting tool for communicating about color
http://www.colblindor.com/color-name-hue/
• This site helps you identify interesting color combinations that work
well- and tells you why they work!
• http://www.worqx.com/color/itten.htm
• Colin Wheildon: Type & Layout, are you communicating or just
making pretty shapes?
http://www.amazon.com/Type-Layout-Communicating-MakingPretty/dp/1875750223/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315337552&sr=1-2

Questions?
THANK YOU!
Carol Worthington-Levy


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