Bold. Bright. Glossy.
As a creative working against the backdrop of the rich vibrant culture of Trinidad and Tobago, a request for bold, bright, and glossy design is a far gone conclusion from a client when no other logical foundation exists to base their decision upon. And if you think that cliched use of “color is life”, you’re missing out on an opportunity to have a visual brand that truly stands out. Color, when used thoughtfully, can do for design what motifs do for complex stories. It unites conflicting aspects of what you’re all about at just the right frequency to help your services stand out the right way to the right people. For example, professionally, I’ve always worked with self-employed people who are creatives in some shape or form. Being newly self-employed at the time, I wanted to continue attracting and possibly working with them. I knew the corporate vibe wasn’t going to work in my favor, but I also knew I wanted my services to be taken seriously. So I channeled my inner Elle Woods by choosing a color that’s surprisingly intelligent and serious. You might disagree, perhaps you feel pink is the antithesis of intelligence and seriousness. But typical associations of color don’t have to follow social constraints when the most important aspect of a story is under consideration. Take Guardian Group for example; they're actually using the same colors as their competitors but mainly in brighter hues and more saturated tones.
So what is color? How do we determine what a color looks like in one situation versus another, or how it feels?
...How Can We Use Color More Genuinely And Purposefully?
Before I begin, I’ll be addressing this from a storytelling angle to help make this less technical and a little more practical and relatable.
In storytelling, color is a psychological association with the way someone perceives their reality. Also, as in the case with the vibrantly colored Blue Manakin, color is a reflection of important messages of truth. But, in design locally, it’s typically used like paint which conceals to deceive the eye.
I’ve seen it in situations where the client’s business is new. They will compromise what they care about for the sake of money, hence statements like “I don’t really have a target market per se,” when they do. But even in one instance where the business had been around for a while, the person still hid who they were. Telling someone they can trust you is misleading when you refuse to say something worthy of trust. Within context, both are distinct manifestations of a logical emotion, but anyone who hides who they are to project a lie is using the color of their visual brand like paint – a paste made from oil or wax, gum, egg yolk, plastic, acetate or even just water.
Color-masquerading not only changes a story being told, but also confuses your target audience. Beyonce was right, pretty does hurt.
To avoid using color cosmetically, the decision making process needs to be based on an understanding of the world you operate in, i.e your niche and industry.
Yes, colour is emotional but those feelings are also relative since any color can be symbolic of positive or negative emotions. So whether someone is “in the pink of health”, “seeing red”, or “feeling blue”, if your services are taking a specific type of person from where they are to where they want to be, it would make sense to understand the psychology of that journey in order to appear on the radar of the appropriate people.
…and oh yeah, that introduction takes place through the color of your visual brand first. It's said that people decide whether to not they like your product or trust your service in 90 seconds or less, and that 90% of that decision is based solely on color.
Here’s another take on the impact of color: let's assume you like working with a certain type of client represented in the color green but you instead wear purple which represents a different type of client. If you wear purple, who do you think you’ll attract?
The good news is a lot of the guesswork on what color you should use has been decided for you already. For example, yellow is associated with the electrical industry, and to name a few colors, blue, green, and red with banking and financial institutions. There are some industries like advertising, branding and design in Trinidad and Tobago that don’t follow a specific color association unless the institution is an initiative produced by the government in which case the color would be red. But in cases where your industry has a color, deciding on what yours should look like, is about differentiation. How will you set your services apart without taking credibility away from who you are? Like in the case with Guardian Group.
In conclusion, after reading this article, I hope it helps you to put some more thought into picking a color for your visual designs.
I am the Founder and Visual Brand Strategist at The BrandTUB **Schedule a call with me if you need help with your visual branding. Lets see if you're a good fit! **Do your research on your own with The One-Page Workbook™ **Sign up to receive these weekly articles in your inbox if you’re not quite ready to work with me yet.
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