Colors have a large effect on us. They can push us or discourage us to do a certain thing. How can you use colors in your design to bring your message across?

Fun and Playful Colors

When a brand is looking to create a product with a fun and playful image, they use colors that represent life and vibrancy (above).

Yellow, red and orange can be used to describe a product as being fun and playful. These colors show consumers that the product may help them find increased joy, creativity and is an overall fun item.

Luxury Labels

You’re designing the packaging for a luxury brand. What colors will stand out and scream “I’m expensive! You need me!”? Purple means royalty and it has for a very long time. Use different shades of purple and experiment based on your target audience. There are other colors, though.

Black can also represent luxury. It represents things that are refined and not mass-produced. Bespoke even. White can also represent the same thing, depending on your audience. Many skincare product packages are white.

Inspired by Nature

Green is a fitting color to represent natural things. You see so much green in nature. Products that are marketed as natural tend to use shades of green. Green isn’t the only color that represents nature.

Blue and white can represent purity in general and purity found in nature. So they’re also great color choices to use in design based on nature.

We Want Speed

Nothing says speed like red and yellow. Why are so many sports cars painted red? They always look fast even when they’re standing still.

Red and yellow also make people think about products that are fast acting or “here for a limited time.”

These Will Make You Hungry

Certain colors make people hungry. Think of the colors used to advertise the most popular restaurants.

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They want you to immediately feel hungry and buy their food. So many fast food logos are red. It obviously works.

Colors are a big deal. Choose which ones you use wisely. They can mean whether or not a product succeeds or bombs.