Color the Success in Your Work Environments and Marketing!

As a Business & Lifestyle Empowerment Coach, with a background in interior design, I see the tremendous value in creating workplace environments that empower us and help us to focus, feel calm and happy, and allow us to be clear and productive.

I’ve done a lot of business talks over the past 20 years on creating interior environments for peak productivity. When I do, even the most successful and distinguished entrepreneurs and CEO types perk up and listen because it’s a topic that really matters! A great environment can be a game changer, and can motivate us and drive us to positive action.

In particular, whenever I do a speech or write an article on the topic of color, I get a tremendous response. Most of us have a lot of questions and even become a little anxious when choosing colors for our home and workplace interiors (paint, furniture, fabrics, window treatments, or accessories). The color anxiety doesn’t stop there. Sometimes in our businesses and jobs we can stress out when we have to choose colors for marketing materials such as logos, e-book covers, websites & sales pages, and promotional materials.

Choosing colors for your workplace and home environments and for your marketing projects doesn’t have to be a shot in the dark. Although color is often chosen strictly on what appeals to an individual personally, deliberate choices can serve to improve the quality of your life and work, and can even help you towards achieving important goals (for example being more creative, staying calm, or selling a particular product).

We know that colors affect us emotionally and physically, consciously and unconsciously. In addition, there are certain common stereotypes and associations attached to specific colors. Some come from our own experiences, and some are conditioned by society. Some are common among all classes of people, while others are very personal. Although the interpretation of colors can be very subjective depending on the one interpreting, colors hold deep meanings to each of us. Color associations are not necessarily right or wrong, they are just our associations.

Having a basic understanding of the meaning and common associations related to general colors will help you make better decisions, regardless of whether those decisions involve your environment or your marketing!

Following are some of the general associations and meanings people have historically given to specific colors in American society. I have also listed some general physiological responses the body has to certain colors, based on scientific research.

Blue

Blue is associated with peace, safety, tranquility, recreation, and calm. It symbolizes loyalty, trust, and productivity. It represents justice, strength, and perseverance. It is also associated with public servants and service (uniforms). Pale blue is associated with insecurity and introspection, as well as imagination. It causes the body to produce chemicals that are calming. It can increase productivity and sometimes even physical strength. Of all the colors, blue is the one most likely to produce the lowest pulse rate, blood pressure, respiration, heart rate, and eye blink frequency. Blue is relaxing to the body. If overused, this color can be depressing and a bit cold. It is the least appetizing (blue food is a turn off).

Purple

Purple is associated with royalty dignity, and wealth. It is theatrical, majestic, magical, sophisticated, serious, intellectual, romantic, and spiritual. It can be considered artificial and decadent, especially when overused. Lighter shades reflect sweetness, innocence, imagination, femininity, and a love for the aesthetic. It reduces hunger. It helps develop the imagination in children. It stimulates the bones, spleen, and upper brain. It depresses heart muscles and motor nerves. It can be calming in cases of mental illness. It helps to maintain ionic balance and increases the power of meditation.

Green

Green is also associated with being calm and safe, as well as friendly and comfortable. It is used in hospitals to relax patients. It represents order, frankness, honesty, and practicality. Dark green is conservative and solid and is associated with wealth, security, success, tenacity, and good judgment. Lighter greens represent youth, new growth, and inexperience. Green can be associated with money in general (don’t wear a green suit if you are a salesman since it can makes you come off as greedy). Green is physically easy on the eyes compared to all other colors and can actually improve vision. It is calming and refreshing to the mind. It helps build tissue cells like muscle and bone. It relieves tension, lowers the blood pressure, dilates the capillaries, produces a feeling of warmth, stimulates the pituitary, and helps even out the emotions. Green acts as a hypnotic upon the sympathetic nervous system. Vibrations of green can disinfect certain germs as well as bacteria and viruses.

Black

Black is associated with power and authority, as well as violence. It is sleek and sophisticated, and the color of drama. It enlivens other colors. In small quantities it stimulates. In large quantities it is oppressive. It is also the color of submission and mourning. It can quickly bring on a feeling of depression if used in large amounts. It is a great accent color.

White

White symbolizes purity, innocence, light, crispness, and coolness. It represents sterility, cleanliness, sharpness, and openness. It causes a lower pulse rate, blood pressure, respiration, heart rate, and eye blink frequency than almost all colors except blue.

Red

Red is associated with arousal, anger, aggression, passion, love, mental energy, control, excitability, as well as danger. It also represents valor and courage. The richer the red (dark or dull), the more respected and sophisticated. Rich red also denotes compassion. Adrenaline is released in the presence of red. It stimulates appetite, heightens the sense of smell, raises the pulse, and increases blood pressure, respiration, and heart rate. It is highly visible and causes an increase in eye blink frequency.

Pink

Pink is associated with fun, music, celebration, and excitement. Lighter shades are associated with sweetness and can be calming. Very pale pink is sometimes associated with lethargy—mental and sometimes physical loss of energy.

Orange

Orange is associated with excitement and fulfillment of the senses, affection, radiance, and heat. It is warm, stimulating, friendly, lively, and inviting. It also denotes commonality, comfort, and a sense of home. Deep oranges are associated with dependability, the earth, and harvest as well as strength and rich beauty. Rich shades are also associated with wealth and fame, and lighter hues represent comfort and the relieving of stress. Orange increases appetite, induces relaxation, slows down the rates of blood flow, increases the potential for sleep, stimulates the thyroid glands, depresses the parathyroid, increases the pulse rate, but does not effect the blood pressure. It helps assimilation and circulation and helps relieve muscle cramps.

Gold

Gold is associated with affluence, prestige, power, wealth, distinction, and thirst.

Yellow

Yellow, in its rich true form, is the sunny color of happiness, cheerfulness, optimism, energy, and life. It represents renewal, intensity, talkativeness, prestige, love, and intellectual stimulation. It is associated with warning. Paler shades denote intelligence, wisdom, enlightenment, goodness, freshness, inexperience, youth, happiness, cleanliness, and clarity. Vision takes place relatively quickly in the presence of yellow compared to other colors. It is hard on the eyes (use in moderation), speeds metabolism, and can make us emotionally uneasy and argumentative. Paler shades enhance concentration and clear thinking (yellow note pads). Yellow rooms cause babies to cry more often, and cause allergies to flare up more frequently in people of all ages.

Brown

Brown is associated with the earth. It implies sincerity and genuineness, and being solid and reliable. It reduces irritability and mental tension, promotes the synthesis of serotonin (a neurotransmitter), eliminates chronic fatigue, stimulates the formation of prostaglandin E1 (which has many functions and it factors into the actions for the womb, brain, lungs, and kidneys), and increases tryptophan amino acid levels that influence sleep, migraine, immunity and moods.

Now you have a better understanding of color meanings and common color associations. Going forward, allow color to truly serve you in your home and in your work by choosing it with a specific intent or purpose in mind.