From the purple-donned royals of the Byzantine Empire to the golden arches on your local fast food drive thru; color plays an important and complex role in creating brands. Color advertising has its roots dating all the way back to ancient civilizations, where evidence of messaging for political campaigns are found in the ruins of Pompeii.
Our ancestors were on to something with major staying power – research shows that color is capable of boosting brand recognition by 80%. Not only that, but by choosing specific colors for your designs, you can evoke a certain kind of feeling from passerby. Brands use color to convey a personality or set of values–speaking clearly with a simple shade of red or blue. For example, seeing a green logo in the grocery store conjures up the sense that this brand is health-centric. There are many meanings behind each color, so it’s essential to use colors that align with the feelings and values you want your brand to represent.
Not only can color be used for subconscious meanings, it can be used as an emphatic design element. It is a silent salesperson calling-out what is important, enhancing the messaging or directing a person’s attention. A carefully considered color coupled with relevant and targeted messaging in a crowded environment accomplishes more than any plain sentence ever could. Further, enhancing print communications with color increases brand effectiveness as well as the perceived value of your marketing collateral, creating more for your buck with a simple splash of sea foam green.
The power of color calls for the critical measure of quality control. An inaccurate hue or subtle shift in shade could spell disaster for your brand. The slightest flaw may create a set of colors that are slightly off, resulting in a domino-effect that could negatively affect the impact of your campaign. A high-quality printer will have daily procedures for quality control, calibrating color across a myriad of substrates, ensuring your brand colors are true.
So, when you consider your next marketing venture, play around with some color – who knows what you may stumble upon?