Colour Theory — The Mood ring of the Metaverse
Designers colour the world around us, but how do the colours they choose affect the way we think, feel and shop?
Anyone who’s taken an art class, adhered to their mood ring’s opinion on how their day is going, or filled out a Buzzfeed Quiz on what colour they are (linked here;)) is familiar with the term, or at least the general idea, of ‘colour theory.’ The typical red is mad, blue is sad is not a new concept to people. However, when considering the colour palette a designer selects for a company’s branding, there are a lot more factors to consider than you might think.
The perception of colour is a long time debate between both neighbours and nations.
The dress (yes, you know what dress I am talking about), ‘broke’ the internet in 2015, dividing the world into team white/gold or team blue/black. Such a simple visual illusion brought many people’s attention to the way that our perception of colour can vary from others. The reason that The Dress’s colour was so difficult to decipher was because of the brightness of the image. If you see a black and blue dress, that likely means that you are viewing the photo in an over-exposed light. This is because when our retina registers an overexposed picture, colours are perceived as darker, and vice versa.
The value of a colour is one of the most important factors to consider when designing a colour palette.
The vibrancy and the intensity of a colour is very influential to the way a colour makes us feel, especially when it is in association with a brand. Bright, intense colours are eye-catching, and can evoke excitement and alertness in people, however colours that are too bright can also make your eyes hurt and seem unprofessional. If you’re using bright colours in a design, find a happy-medium of a chroma that is not too intense. However, duller colours are also valuable to a brand, as they promote feelings to softness and tranquillity. Using lighter colours can make the perceived value of a product feel greater than a product with bright colours.
Where does colour come into design?
The colour palette of a brand is just as important as a brand’s name, logo, and other design components that influences brand recognition. When creating a colour palette for your brand, consider who your audience is and what emotions you are trying to evoke out of them.
There are many parallels between the colour palettes of competitive brands, but one of the most common is ‘Restaurant Red.’ Many fast food restaurants use the colour red in their signs and advertising in order to grab people’s attention, and now many food related apps are doing the same. Food review apps like Yelp use red, as well as deliver apps like Doordash and Grubhub. Red is a stimulating and exciting colour that has been known to increase one’s heart rate. Although it doesn’t necessarily make you hungry, it is a colour that invites action; hence the jokes around ‘Don’t Press The Red Button.’
The colour of a brand can be very influential to their brand recognition.
When it comes to Facebook, a company with a very recognizable shade of blue, the fact that Mark Zuckerburg is colour blind is one of the main reasons he picked the vibrant shade for the app. Credits to Zuckerburg for design accessibility being at the forefront of Facebook’s colour scheme, but aside from being a favourite colour, blue is a colour that communicated reliability and security to Facebook’s users…political ad scandals aside.
Designers are long-time influencers of the world around us, but how do they influence our actions in the digital realm?
Whether we realize it or not, colour is playing an important role in our perception of the digital realm. When it comes to making purchases online, the visual appearance of a product is the most important factor to a customer. In a survey of consumers done by KISS metrics, researchers found that 85% of customers purchase items for their visual appearance. This visual appearance includes not only the appearance of the product itself, but also the way it is presented.
The presentation of a product online and the colours which accompany it are not only important to purchasing tangible goods, but digital ones as well.
The purchase of digital products is on the rise, from NFTs to gaming there has been a massive increase in the digital consumer market over the last few years. Digital colour and colour IRL have very different appearances. Colour, in real life, tends to be softer and a bit dull. In contrast, digital colour has the capability of being much brighter and more vibrant because it is easier to manipulate colour online.
The fundamental differences between digital colour and real colour create a divide between the real world and the metaverse. With the rise in popularity of Virtual Reality and Gaming, the escapism is becoming more and more realistic as many designers use softer colours in the digital realm to create an infatuating dream-like world.
At the root of the world around us, colour theory is an influential factor to the way we act, what we buy, and how we feel. The subconscious influence that colour has on us is a powerful tool to use within design, but don’t let it get to your head.
P.S. As an American writing for a British company, I think that I have officially brainwashed myself into writing ‘colour’ with a ‘u’…I feel like that could be a funny pun. Like “The world would be colourless without ‘u’.” Too far? I’ll pack it up.
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