COLOUR + TYPOGRAPHY.
- Hannah
- Sep 4, 2020
- 4 min read
COLOUR PSYCHOLOGY:
Colour is used in advertising to try and manipulate the audience to evoke and induce certain emotions, this can be so they feel that emotion when thinking of the brand or product. Some colours we naturally associate with feelings and the brand or company will play on this when making their ads to encourage the feeling when seeing the ad.
Emotions in adverts and examples:
Red causes emphasis of an emotion and is often combined with other colours to make their meaning seem more intense. It is also seen with urgency and panic, making it easily one of the most easily noticable colours from the palette. For example, after red, yellow is causes the most hunger, closely followed by orange, and this order of red, yellow, orange is not coincidentally the rank of most commonly used colours in the fast food empire.
McDonald's marrying the yellow with the red means the audience is more likely to feel passionately hungry when they see their ads.
Green is known worldwide to be linked to themes of eco-friendliness and the natural earth, this and is used to promote healthiness.
Coca Cola has partnered with WWF to encourage helping the environment in global warning by using the actual advert to help the cause - just as it says: 'This billboard absorbs all pollutants.'
White represents cleanliness and purity and for this reason is often used in hygiene or toothpaste adverts as this is how the brand wants the consumer to feel when they use their product. It is often used to as a background colour combined with another to emphasise another colour.
The Colgate magazine advert uses a white backgorund contrasting to the red ad features as using red makes the white more noticeable. This white is used to represent cleanliness and hygiene in this case as this is what the product needs the consumer to feel when they use the product, associating this feeling with both he advert, brand and product before purchase or use makes Colgate more likely to gain a loyal customer.
Black is the colour of authority and power and will make the audience feel in control, this is a reason why it is commonly used in weight loss ads. It can also bring classiness and is used in upper class brands.
In Audi's case the black is used for simplicity and to portray the company as high end, upper class brand.
Blue is a hunger suppressant and is used to prevent the feeling of hunger in consumers. This has been thought to be because it is an unnatural colour and uses artificial ingredients to produce so our minds organically turn away from it. Despite this, it is used mainly to make the audience feel refreshed and often reminds them of positive times and of summer relating to scenes of the sky and holiday pools or the sea.
Sea blue is associated with perfume advertisements due to the fact it makes the audience feel emotionally connected to their summer memories which is the most positively rated season of the year.
Purple connects with the concept of royalty, power and elegance, this dates back to ancient times when The Persian King Cyrus had his his royal uniform become purple, this was unheard of back then and the dye to make the colour was extremely expensive, something only wealthy elegant people could afford.
Spotify have used the concept of purple being something of high quality and of importance as they use it as a background to entice consumers to pay for their premium service, this means that if they were to upgrade from the free version they have something exclusive and of importance. The model even being shone under a purple lights suggests that the consumer will feel this way once they change plans, happy and dancing with their simple luxury.
Colour and hex codes:
Adverts usually use a few basic colours and base the rest of the atmosphere around these colours. This is so the overall piece isn't too distracting and the product is clear to view. Using a colour palette generator you can plainly see the main four colours used in the image and the 'HEX CODES' so you can replicate the colours in programmes like Photoshop.
I used the website: canva.com/colors/color-palette-generator
Simply upload the photo and the website generates the main four colours for you.
Fonts:
Serif vs sans serif:
Two popular fonts used in advertising are 'serif' and 'sans serif'. The left image explains the main differences between each font. They are not difficult to read therefore the reader can quickly read the text, this is important for certain adverts like large billboards on roads for example.
Serif dates back to the eighteenth century when it was carved into rock by stonemasons, today it gives the feeling of establishment and trustworthiness due to how long it has been around. Today, we see a lot of serif fonts in traditional mediums such as newspapers, magazines, and books. That’s why serif fonts are typically seen as more classic and refined and are used by companies who want to exude these traits.
(Left: an example of sans serif from pre 1800s.)
Sans serif is a more modern font and slowly creeped in just before the eighteenth century and in 1832 it
was featured in Vincent Figgins' specimen book (to the left) under the same name as today. The font was based on the structure of the serif font and became popular due to the lack of serifs. This then changed when it came to the early twentieth century as designers, artists and architects altered it to their own preference.
Example:
Cadbury are very simple when it comes to fonts and advertising to make the messages very clear to the audience, they usually use almost yellow bubble writing against a deep purple background. The contrasting secondary colours make the advert stand out to the general public and makes it easily noticeable when passing it at speed which makes it good to be shown at a train station for example.
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