Every day, whether you realize it or not, color is being used to persuade and impact certain aspects of your life. From the clothes you choose to wear to the hundreds of business ads you see, color can be used to influence mood, holistic healing, and even business marketing decisions. We associate colors with certain feelings and holidays. We think carefully and change our minds frequently when deciding what colors would be perfect to decorate our homes with and what color car we will drive. Every color has meaning and can present different emotions for every individual.
While many factors come into play like childhood associations, memories, and personal preference, generally colors are associated with some of the following meanings:
Red: love, aggression, energy, intensity
Orange: change, warmth, cheerful, enthusiasm
Yellow: happiness, optimism, vitality, hunger
Green: peace, tranquility, renewal, envy
Blue: focused, calmness, wisdom, serenity
Purple: royalty, creativity, sophistication, mystery
White: peace, innocence, cleanliness, space
Black: strength, authority, power, intelligence
Chromotherapy, also referred to as color therapy, is often used in holistic healing to treat health problems. Chromotherapy is based off the realigning of chakras, which hold different centers of energy within us. By utilizing the energy from color and light, chromotherapy uses different tools of visualization and vibration to treat a person's physical or mental health. Many people believe that color can also enter our bodies through our skin, in addition to being seen. By doing so, the color entering our bodies is thought to affect our hormones by causing chemical reactions and thus allowing our bodies to heal. Color has been used for its healing properties for thousands of years in many communities across the world, through many different ways, and is still a common practice today.
The psychology of color can also be found in business marketing. There is a reason why many companies choose specific colors to be the face of their brand and ads. We know that we can’t be sure color is going to relay the same sense of emotion for every person, since cultural differences and experiences can influence opinions. However, color can impact the ways we perceive a brand. It’s important for brands to ensure their color instills the right feel for the company and is different from any leading competitors. Specific colors and even the names of colors are known to influence the genders of a business’s target audience.
Color is all around us, and while we may all perceive colors differently, it impacts our lives in more ways than one. Whether it be the restaurants you eat in, the doctor offices you wait in, or the gym you exercise in, take a look at the colors surrounding you and consider what feelings they are meant to bring you.
