It's a colourful world..

After recently visiting Manchester to pick up on current trends, I found myself drawn to this seasons colour palette. With colour trends changing so often it made me wonder how brands designed logos that would never go out of fashion!

After a bit of research I found that brands seem to base there colour schemes on the psychological effect on its audience, rather than what's "in fashion" at the time of design..

..And the psychology of colours seems to go a lot deeper than I first thought. 

It's not just a simple case of Pink is for girls, and Blue is for boys, there seems to be a deeper meaning for every single colour:

Red
- evokes aggressiveness, passion, strength, Hunger and vitality.
Pink 
- evokes femininity, innocence, softness and health.
Orange
- evokes friendliness, fun, cheeriness and warm exuberance.
Yellow 
- evokes positivity, sunshine and cowardice.
Green 
- evokes tranquillity, health and freshness.
Blue
- evokes authority, dignity, security and faithfulness.
Purple
- evokes sophistication, spirituality, costliness, royalty and mystery.
- Brown
evokes utility, earthiness, woodsy-ness and subtle richness.
- White 
evokes purity, truthfulness, being contemporary and refined.
- Gray 
evokes somberness, authority, practicality and a corporate mentality.
- Black 
evokes seriousness, distinctiveness, boldness and being classic.

Which makes it obvious why its no coincidence that so many restaurants like McDonalds, Pizza Hut, and Subway all use red, orange, yellow or green but not purple or blue. And recent studies have also shown that people eat more in a room painted warm colours (e.g. red, yellow, orange), rather than cold colours (e.g. blue, grey, purple).

It seems that we know these rules as an audience already though.

For example, ask your self:

What colours are Social Networks? 

Blue...?

What colours are Supermarkets own brand? 

White and...?

What colours are environmentally friendly products? 

Green...?

You may notice from the diagram above that a large amount of logos seem to go into the blue sector, and with further research I then found out that blue is the colour that most people trust.

So with this in mind, it seems that choosing a colour for your brand logo is not as simple as first thought. Not only is aesthetic appeal important, but now it seems that psychology and trust all seem to factor in to create the perfect logo.