When it comes to communicating with your audience, colour is incredibly powerful. Often unconsciously, colour can portray emotions and create strong internal reactions. Think about the colour black, for example. We automatically associate the colour with grieving and sombreness because it’s the colour most commonly worn to funerals. The same is true for brighter colours like yellow which are associated with happiness and brightness.

Knowing the psychological effects of different colours is a clever tool, so read on for some tips and tricks.

Dark colour scheme: Black and Brown

As we touched on already, black is well-known as the symbol of grief and therefore often has negative associations of ambiguity and sin. However, black is a versatile colour and also has connotations of formality and elegance, too.

Brown can be a slightly less interesting but no less powerful colour. Research shows that light brown represents stability whereas dark brown is considered predictable and dull.

Light colour scheme: Yellow, Orange and Pink

Yellow is the brightest colour on the spectrum and so is commonly used to evoke joy and stimulate awareness and energy. This is also a colour that has strong connotations with Gods and Deities in many religions, further showing the associations of optimism and positivity.

Orange sits just above yellow in that it denotes enthusiasm and creativity and is also associated with happiness.

In contrast to these bright colours, pink is a soft and gentle colour that conveys innocence and sweetness. Darker shades of pink can be related to love and tenderness. Although pink is primarily a female colour in the Western world, pink is associated with masculinity in other cultures, like Japan.

Primary colour scheme: Red and Blue (and Yellow)

Red is most likely to create strong reactions in people such as love or anger. It’s an energizing colour, encouraging action which is why it’s used as both warning signs and is the symbol for love.

On the other hand, blue is a calming colour and indicates serenity. It’s the most universally favoured colour and one that helps to build customer loyalty. Therefore, it is used in the majority of official uniforms – something to consider when choosing a colour palette for a brochure.

‘Rich’ colour scheme: Purple, White and Green

People are usually drawn to purple because it implies a high level of quality, a richness. It is the colour of royalty and is often used to market premium products. When you’re ready to begin the printing of your brochures and wish to produce high-quality prints, a digital duplicator machine may be the perfect solution. Putting quality above all else, duplicators themselves should have their own purple colour palette.

White is a less complex colour but similarly represents a simplicity and an honesty. White is the traditional wedding dress colour – an occasion of purity and hope.

Green can provoke feelings of jealousy and selfishness if used in excess, but is most commonly representative of nature, harmony and healing. Associated with safety, in contrast to red, green is often used in relation to health and safety.

Hopefully you now have a better idea of the colours to use in order to portray the right kind of message in your brochures!