Importance of Color in Design
As the internet use continues to spread among the people in the world, Color is one of the parts of the design that attract the majority of people to love the aesthetics of design especially the website design. It has been found that the color has both the advantages and disadvantages in design especially affecting the psychological effects of the people. For this thesis, 120 people were identified to do an experiment and identify the importance of color in design. Different colors such as red, blue, grey and orange were used to influence the people while searching for medical information online. This experiment showed the relationship between gender, color and ratings. For example, women were found to be fond of the red color higher than males in almost all the dimensions. The paper therefore is based on the color importance in the art work and why it has much importance on people’s perception and value.
Color is used in the art work for conversation. Nelson (1994 P 215) stated he color is mainly used for intellectual purposes and not the decorative purposes. The color should not be used to dazzle and attract people without education purposes. The color application in design has dignity for enlightenment. A good design for example, incorporates the color in all aspects such as shade, Chroma and tint. The designers use color to relate and teach their audiences rightly (Crozier and Kennedy, 1999 P 90). The color in design is therefore not used as a tool for manipulation. The audiences are always personalized through color. It helps in design to converse with the specific audiences. The color in art work and design speak to audiences according to the age, gender, culture, social status and personality among others. Firstly, gender is a very good factor that influences the color application on design and art work. Different sexes prefer different house, car and other things colors. Be it blue, red, silver or grey. Women for example, are very cautious about the color that they choose especially when they are shopping. For example, many women love red as colors (Cerrato 2012, p 1). On the other hand, men do not love colors like purple and pinks. It is therefore obvious that color has a role to play according to human gender. Designers will always design the color of the things according to the gender targeted (Nelson 1994, P 224). Secondly, the age is an important work of art reference when using color to design some things. As people get older, they become much darker and the light colors begin to be more appealing to them than the young people. Different age groups prefer different types of colors. For example, the youths between the ages of 13-20 majorly prefer blue as a color while 21-34 prefer navy blue. Similarly,, audiences that are 35 years and above in age prefer sky blue.
Similarly, Color is used in art work to converse the ethnic background and nationality. In the ethnic and nationality study of color application in design, there exist no universals. The culture of people differs worldwide and so the color does. For example, the use of green color has different meaning to both the dessert and rainforest dwellers (Peterson and Cullen, 2000, P 7). Likewise, the color white has vastly different connotations to the polar and tropical residents. This means different people understand color application in designing things according to their nationality and culture. There are some natural color occurrences that indicate local preferences as well as the history of the country. The designers will always do a thorough research on the culture and nationality before application of colors in their design to avoid the offensive or confusing colors to the people (Crozier and Kennedy, 1999 P 107). A good example is in the United States of America where there are color variations among the ethnic groups. The Blacks and Hispanics prefer the purple color more than other communities. Pink color is more popular among the Asians while the whites are leaning towards the green color. However, the research shows that the almost all the communities in the United States prefer blue color. Another importance of color in design conversation is social status. The middle-class audiences for example prefer the primary colors such as red, yellow and blue. The high-class citizens on the other hand prefer softer pastels such as gold, silver and violet. These colors are believed by the upscale people to convey the message of quality and class. The last conversation importance of color is personality (Peterson and Cullen, 2000, P 54). Color in design of things not only affects the response of people to those things, but also the sensitivity of people in general. While the extroverts learn towards color responses, the introverts are very much concerned about the shape of the things they choose. The extroverts will always choose things with best colors.
Color is very important in the graphic design. These include the color scheme, advertising and packaging. As Nelson (1994 P 213) states the color scheme deals with the application of colors in organization, corporation and service to represent the target audience. The printing budget of color schemes is very important to the designers before they select individual colors to use for designing purposes. The effective design needs the strong color schemes. For example, monochromatic which contain many shades and tints of one hue are very important and mostly preferred for the simple message communication. However, the research has found that the use of multiple color combination add depth, complexity and elaborate understanding of the design. The use of the complimentary colors, the directly opposite colors to each other represent a common two-hue combination of colors. Contrary, the use of triads, far much located colors to each other on the color wheel represents the three-hue color. The creativity of faking full-color print by the designer is only possible through the addition of a second color. Yellow color is mostly avoided in favor of green and blue. In simple terms, the use of four-color scheme is more appealing and attractive than the one or two-color schemes. There is also a phenomenon of color-scheme called vibrating color scheme where bright colors of equal density are placed besides each other. Advertising is also another function of color in graphic design. In marketing concept and a understanding, it is imperative to say that color sells in design. When the right colors are used in marketing and advertising, the things which are on sale, sell better (Nelson, 1994 P 212). The bright colors such as the full-page ads are noticed almost twice as their black and white counterparts. Therefore, when the bright colors are used in the advertising, the products and services sell very well more than other things that use the non-bright colors such as black and white. There is two-level approach of color selection for advertising. The first approach is basic universal level which is of the brightness and saturation while the second aspect is culture specific level which includes the color connotations and the cultural norms.
Lastly, the color use in design plays a very important role in the packaging. In packaging design use of color, the customer is attracted with the colors that are used. It is imperative to say that the color is what makes the customers spot and even think of quality about the products in the supermarket (Nelson, 1994 P 353). The wise use of color in products make the products be above the competitor’s through appearance. Therefore, color is the only single most important factor in packaging and not even the shape. The consumers always use colors to judge the quality and freshness of the products in the store. Drew and Meyer (2012 P 43) states that very slight shift or change in the original color of the product will always affect the sale on that product. Similarly, in packaging, the color carries different connotations. For example, the white color on the packaging of the soft drink implies that the drink has low sugar or calories content. In other packagers the letters are written very bright to signify the strength and purity of the product. The trends of the package design are very important in portraying what is inside the packet, what the quality of it is and how it should be used.
It is imperative to say that color is one of the important things in design and artwork. In almost every aspect of design, the color concept is used. The artwork of color can be witnessed everywhere. One of the main works of color in design is conversation concept of color in design. The color convey message to different people in different ways according to the design. For example, different genders prefer different colors. While women prefer some colors such as purple, men on the other hand do not presser such colors. The color use in design also signifies the status. The middle-class people love primary colors while the rich people love silver and gold colors. The nationality and culture are also what the colors define or represent in design. Secondly, the color is used in the graphic design of work especially in color scheme and advertising to attract the customers. The color schemes are incorporation and arrangement of the colors to attract. Finally, in packaging, the color connotations are used to define the quality of the product.
References List
Cerrato, H., 2012. The meaning of colors. The graphic designer.
Crozier, W.W. and Kennedy, G.J.A., 1999. Relationships between marine growth and marine survival of one sea winter Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L., from the River Bush, Northern Ireland. Fisheries Management and Ecology, 6(2), pp.89-96.
Drew, J.T. and Meyer, S.A., 2012. Color management: A comprehensive guide for graphic designers. Simon and Schuster.
Nelson, R.P., 1994. The design of advertising, Dubuque, IA: Wm. C.
Peterson, L. and Cullen, C.D., 2000. Global Graphics: Color. Rockport Publishers.
