Color Psychology: the Science of Art

First impressions are everything. People make snap decisions based on first impressions all the time. For marketing, these first impressions could make or break your product’s success. Studies prove that people decide if they like something or not within 90 seconds, and somewhere between 60-90% of their choice is influenced by color. Color choices are notorious for their underestimated but significant impact on audiences. Sometimes, colors seem subtle and bleak, but they have a variety of associations across global cultures. Context is critical for success, so understanding the meanings of colors is essential for appropriately reaching your audience.

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Red

The color red is generally defined “as of fire, blood, or rubies” and universally represents heat and heart. Around the world, red signifies “stop” in traffic lights and stop signs. However, red has a variety of meanings and associations between -- and even within -- cultures. Western cultures associate red with passion and love but also with danger and power. Studies show that heterosexual men consider women wearing red more sexually appealing; thus, the color is regarded as sexy and alluring. Consequently, the “red-light district” is an urban neighborhood known for prostitution, strip clubs, or adult shops.

Red happens to be the color most frequently used as nail polish or lipstick. Many regions have urban legends about a “Lady in Red” who is enchanting and irresistible. In Hollywood, the red carpet is rolled out exclusively for celebrities. On the contrary, the English phrase “caught red-handed” implies finding someone doing something wrong and a “red flag” is a warning sign. Some European countries, especially those further east, associate red with communism. Similarly, red evokes danger and caution in Middle Eastern countries as it is considered the color of evil.

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In China, red is the color of happiness, luck, and celebration. Chinese brides traditionally wear red on their wedding day to manifest prosperity, long life, and happy marriage. Red envelopes containing money are traditional gifts for many celebrations, including weddings. Red is worn on the Chinese New Year for luck, fortune, and prosperity. Red represents an increase in stock prices for East Asian stock markets, which is the opposite of North American markets.

Red is the most important color in Indian culture. The color represents wealth, power, purity, fertility, seduction, love, and beauty. Like the Chinese culture, an Indian bridal trousseau is traditionally red. Married women also generally wear red henna on their hands and sindoor, a red powder, along their hairlines.

Orange

As the easiest color to see in dim light, orange is the color used most often for life rafts, life jackets, and buoys, as well as other emergency necessities. In addition, detour signs and road workers wear orange in the United States to ensure drivers will see them, regardless of lighting.

Orange is the color of autumn in Western cultures, representing changing and falling leaves, pumpkins, and the warmth of a fire in the hearth. Paired with black, it signifies Halloween. Historians suggest these colors were chosen for their contradictory meanings since orange represents the warmth of life and black the mystery of death. Although many North American and European countries consider orange fun and refreshing, it can express curiosity or creativity. Orange is also the color of gluttony in Christianity, and mythological paintings depict Bacchus, God of wine, fertility, and religious ecstasy, in orange robes.

In the Netherlands, orange is considered the national color, and there’s a phenomenon called Oranjegekte or Oranjekoorts (“orange craze” or “orange fever,” respectively) during sporting events, the F1 Grand Prix, and Koningsdag (a holiday celebrating the king’s birthday). During these celebrations, the Dutch will wear orange and decorate their homes, streets, and shops with orange to celebrate the Dutch royal family, the House of Orange-Nassau.

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Orange symbolizes bravery and strength in Ukraine, where the color represents the Orange Revolution when the country stood up to the government during one of the most fraudulent presidential elections.

Japanese and Chinese cultures associate orange with courage, love, and good health. In India, saffron is considered lucky and sacred; thus, the orange-colored hue of the spice is also representative of sacredness. Meanwhile, many southeastern Asian countries associate orange with sacredness and holiness because Buddhist monks of the Theravada tradition wear orange (specifically, saffron) robes. On the contrary, Middle Eastern countries associate orange with mourning.

Yellow

Yellow is the most discernible color to the human eye. Red and yellow ochre pigments were among the first developed for human artwork, dating back over 40,000 years. In Christian lore, gold is symbolic of faith in the higher power. Gold is also universally symbolic of money, wealth, and success.

Representative of the sun, Western culture associates yellow with warmth, summer, and cheerfulness. In the United States, many forms of transportation are painted yellow, such as taxis, school buses, and road signs. In many English-speaking countries, the phrase “yellow-bellied” means cowardly, so the color is associated with cowardice. Some accounts trace this idiom to a nickname for people from the Lincolnshire Fens, where they were described as “yellow-bellied like their eels,” while others credit it to yellow-bellied sapsucker birds. Germany associates yellow with envy, despite most other Western countries associate green with envy. In France, yellow also represents betrayal, jealousy, and weakness -- mainly because the French painted the doors of traitors and criminals yellows in the 10th century.

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The first Chinese emperor was called the “Yellow Emperor.” Following the end of the Song Dynasty in 1279, only the emperor was allowed to wear bright yellow. Since the color is considered sacred and imperial, distinguished visitors are honored with a yellow carpet. However, Chinese pop culture associates yellow with pornography. “Yellow movies” or “yellow pictures” imply movies or images that contain adult content.

During the Japanese War of Dynasties, warriors wore yellow chrysanthemums to pledge their courage and loyalty to the Japanese emperor and royal family. The color now represents bravery, wealth, and courage.

Thais also wear yellow to honor their King, Bhumibol, born Monday, December 5, 1927.

For many Africa countries, only high-ranking members of society may wear yellow because it resembles gold.

Egyptians used gold to paint mummies and tombs to aid the deceased into the afterlife, so yellow similarly resembles these associations. Soon, these colors became associated with mourning. Similarly, Latin American countries associate yellow with death and mourning.

Green

Green is the most common color used for militaries around the world but also universally represents nature. Thus, green signifies environmental awareness and protection, such as “green business” or “going green.” In addition, nearly all cultures understand green to mean “proceed”: green traffic lights, a “green light” for a project, or a “green card” for immigrants to the United States.

Most cultures also associate green with good health, except for the United States and European Union. The phrase “green around the gills” signifies poor health due to the green pallor of the skin when nauseated. Green is the color used for money in the United States and often indicates envy in the Western world, excluding Germany. For example, “green with envy” or the “green-eyed monster jealousy.”

Known as the Emerald Isle, Ireland’s countryside is filled with rich greens due to lots of rain. The national color also happens to be green. In Irish and English folklore, green signifies magic and luck. Leprechauns are depicted wearing green suits, often with four-leaf clovers. Legends claim that sneaky leprechauns pinch anyone who doesn’t wear green on St. Patrick’s day.

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In the Mexican flag, green represents independence from Spain. However, many South American cultures believe green symbolizes death due to the destruction of many lush forests and natural resources.

Asian cultures typically associate green with fertility, youth, and prosperity, but also exorcism and infidelity. For example, in China, the phrase “wearing a green hat” refers to women cheating on their husbands or boyfriends because the term sounds similar to the word for “cuckold.”

In the Middle East, green represents Islam, strength, fertility, and wealth. The Qur’an depicts the people of paradise as wearing green and sitting on green cushions.

Blue

Blue is the most versatile color in the world, with associations ranging from sadness to peace to authority. The color represents the peaceful waves of the ocean and the soft hue of the sky. Most airlines use blue for their interiors to calm anxious flyers, and the United Nations chose blue for their flag to represent international peace.

In the Western world, blue is soothing but authoritative, so many bank logos use blue to signify their reliability. Conversely, the color also symbolizes melancholy, as exampled by the phrases “feeling blue” or “having the blues.” Many American hospitals and parents wrap newborn boys with blue blankets to signify masculinity, whereas the Chinese associate it with femininity.

In India, blue symbolizes immortality and strength. The Hindu gods Vishnu (“The Preserver”), Shiva (“The Destroyer”), and Krishna (God of protection) are depicted with blue skin. Many sports teams also choose blue to signify strength.

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Near the end of the Middle Ages, lapis lazuli - a rich blue stone with golden specks - began exportation to Europe, where it was ground into a pigment named “ultramarine.” The 12th century Roman Catholic Church insisted the Virgin Mary’s robe and headscarf only be painted with this new, sacred (and costly) pigment.

Due to the spread of Catholicism in Latin and South America, blue is also associated with spirituality, holiness, and serenity. Additionally, blue represents holiness and divinity in Judaic practices.

In Egyptian lore, the chief deity, Amun, could turn his skin blue to make himself invisible while flying through the sky. In addition, the eye of the god Osiris was believed to have protective qualities, so blue glass beads were formed as talismans, known as Nazar, to guard against the curse of the “Evil Eye.”

For Middle Eastern countries, blue signifies heaven, protection, and immortality.

Purple

Tyrian purple dye (named after Tyre, where it was manufactured) is a secretion from predatory mollusks and required close to 12,000 sea snails and substantial labor to produce enough dye for a single garment. However, the color was rich and became even brighter with weathering and sunlight rather than fading. Thus, it was expensive to produce and became a status symbol for the royal and wealthy. Today, most cultures still associate purple with royalty, and filmmakers use it frequently for royalty in film and television.

In the United States, purple is honorable, as the military’s highest award is the Purple Heart for acts of bravery. Also, in the United States, “purple states” are equally balanced between Democrats (blue) and Republicans (red). The bisexual pride flag uses pink (to represent homosexuality) and blue (heterosexuality) with a purple stripe to evoke a crossing of both sexualities.

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For some European and South American nations, Thailand and India, purple is traditionally worn for death and grieving. Because of this association, wearing purple when not attending a funeral is unlucky, especially to an Italian opera. In addition, Italian brides avoid purple for their weddings, and purple gift wrap is considered tawdry. Thais reserve the color for widows mourning the deaths of their husbands.

Middle Eastern countries also associate purple with wealth, and Egyptians believe the color is virtuous.

Pink

Though it doesn’t necessarily have any consistently cross-cultural meanings, studies show pink is mentally stimulating but calming and reduces the risk of violent behavior. Many prisons use pink for their holding cells to limit behavioral issues.

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In North America and Europe, pink is tender, romantic, childlike, and feminine. Many cake and candy shops use some shade of pink, and hospitals wrap newborn girls with pink blankets. Conversely, pink is considered a masculine color to the Japanese but worn by all genders. The Chinese did not officially recognize pink as a color until influenced by Western culture. The Chinese for pink translates to “foreign color.” Now, pink is sometimes associated with marriage. In Korea, the color represents trust. Latin American countries loosely associate pink with architecture since many buildings are pink.

Brown

Brown is universally neutral, so interpretations are based mainly on the colors used in tandem with brown. For many, brown is earthy and dependable or barren and dull. The United States uses brown mainly for packaging and food containers. Bakeries tend to use browns to signify the grains used for freshly-baked bread. Some Asian cultures associate brown with mourning, and Chinese horoscopes represent earth with brown. However, brown is discouraging for many South American countries.

Black

Black is the most mysterious of colors, representing the unknown, the occult, magic, elegance, and death. Black comes from the complete absorption of visible light. For Christians, the universe was black before God created light and suggests the work of the Devil. Some European and North American countries wear black for mourning and attending funerals. Latin countries sometimes use black for mourning, but it is also the color of masculinity.

In many Asian cultures, black is considered masculine and the preferred color for boys’ clothing. The color also signifies wealth and good health—however, Thailand and Tibet associate black with forces of evil. In Japan, black represents the supernatural and unknown, including death. For many centuries, black clothing was believed to bring bad luck. Black conveys experience; for example, a black belt in martial arts is the highest rank only achieved by experience.

The black soil of the Nile River lead to an association with life and survival for ancient Egyptians. Anubis, the ruler of the Underworld, was said to turn into a black jackal and protect the dead from evil.

Artwork of the Hindu goddess of time and death, Kali, depicts her with black skin. Black protects against evil in India, and black dots are painted under the chin or behind the ears to ward off the evil eye. In the Middle East, black represents rebirth (a blank slate for starting over) and mourning (complete absorption of life).

White

“Wave the white flag of surrender.” White is universally recognized as a truce. The color results from the reflection of all visible light. White symbolizes purity, peace, and cleanliness in most cultures and death in others. Christian children wear white for baptism, and the Pope wears white to represent sacrifice. Ihram is a sacred state for Muslims before performing either pilgrimage. Ihram participants wear a white ensemble consisting of two unhemmed white sheets: one draped across the torso and the other secured around the waist by a belt, with unstitched sandals. The intention is to detract attention, encourage unity, and signify that all worshippers are equal in the eyes of Allah.

In the Roman Republic, white tunics were the traditional attire for brides to represent purity. However, wedding ceremonies in the Middle Ages were indications of social standings, and many brides chose dresses based on the expense of colors and materials. The first recorded royal wedding ceremony where the princess wore white was the marriage of Philippa of England to Eric of Pomerania in 1406. Queen Victoria reinstated the modern trend of white weddings after her marriage to Albert of Saxe-Coburg wearing a white lace gown in 1840. Illustrations of the wedding, especially her white dress, were published and spread across the globe.

Hospitals and medical facilities use white to suggest cleanliness and sterility. In Italy, White chrysanthemums are placed at gravesites or offered to families of the recently deceased. In some Western cultures, white is worn to funerals by the family or close friends of the dead. Some cultures associate white with ghosts and phantoms concerning the paleness of death.

Ancient Egyptians associated white with death for its resemblance to the lifeless desert, but white clothing indicated high social status. The Bedouin, nomads of the Middle East, associate the color with gratitude and fertility for its resemblance to camel milk, a staple food for these travelers. In Asia, white is used for funerals and signifies unhappiness and misfortune.

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Colors trigger subconscious feelings and inferences. They remind us of specific traditions, memories, both good and bad, or people and places. It’s important for us to know how someone else might interpret our designs, especially how they might misinterpret our designs.

Briggs, O. (2017, January 26). What Colors Mean in Other Cultures. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-colors-mean-in-other_b_9078674.

Cousins, C. (2012, June 11). Color and Cultural Design Considerations. Webdesigner Depot. https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2012/06/color-and-cultural-design-considerations/.

Shutterstock. (2020, October 30). The Meaning of Colors in Cultures Around the World. The Shutterstock Blog. https://www.shutterstock.com/blog/color-symbolism-and-meanings-around-the-world.