INTORDUCTION

Every where in our lives we have colors. Each color is a symbol for a certain emotion and effect. Color preferences vary from one another according to the personality. There are four psychological primary colours red, blue, yellow and green. They relate respectively to the body, the mind, the emotions and the essential balance between these three. The psychological properties of the eleven basic colours are as follows

RED:Physical

Positive: Physical courage, strength, warmth, energy, basic survival, 'fight or flight', stimulation, masculinity, excitement. Negative: Defiance, aggression, visual impact, strain.

Being the longest wavelength, red is a powerful color. Although not technically the most visible, it has the property of appearing to be nearer than it is and therefore it grabs our attention first. Hence its effectiveness in traffic lights the world over. Its effect is physical; it stimulates us and raises the pulse rate, giving the impression that time is passing faster than it is. It relates to the masculine principle and can activate the "fight or flight" instinct. Red is strong, and very basic. Pure red is the simplest color, with no subtlety. It is stimulating and lively, very friendly. At the same time, it can be perceived as demanding and aggressive

BLUE: Intellectual.

Positive: Intelligence, communication, trust, efficiency, serenity, duty, logic, coolness, reflection, calm. Negative: Coldness, aloofness, lack of emotion, unfriendliness.

Blue is the color of the mind and is essentially soothing; it affects us mentally, rather than the physical reaction we have to red. Strong blues will stimulate clear thought and lighter, soft blues will calm the mind and aid concentration. Consequently it is serene and mentally calming. It is the color of clear communication. Blue objects do not appear to be as close to us as red ones. Time and again in research, blue is the world's favorite color. However, it can be perceived as cold, unemotional and unfriendly.

YELLOW: Emotional

Positive: Optimism, confidence, self-esteem, extraversion, emotional strength, friendliness, creativity. Negative: Irrationality, fear, emotional fragility, depression, anxiety, suicide.

The yellow wavelength is relatively long and essentially stimulating. In this case the stimulus is emotional, therefore yellow is the strongest color, psychologically. The right yellow will lift our spirits and our self-esteem; it is the color of confidence and optimism. Too much of it, or the wrong tone in relation to the other tones in a color scheme, can cause self-esteem to plummet, giving rise to fear and anxiety. Our "yellow streak" can surface.

GREEN: Balance

Positive: Harmony, balance, refreshment, universal love, rest, restoration, reassurance, environmental awareness, equilibrium, peace. Negative: Boredom, stagnation, blandness, enervation.

Green strikes the eye in such a way as to require no adjustment whatever and is, therefore, restful. Being in the centre of the spectrum, it is the colour of balance - a more important concept than many people realise. When the world about us contains plenty of green, this indicates the presence of water, and little danger of famine, so we are reassured by green, on a primitive level. Negatively, it can indicate stagnation and, incorrectly used, will be perceived as being too bland.

VIOLET: Spiritual

Positive: Spiritual awareness, containment, vision, luxury, authenticity, truth, quality. Negative: Introversion, decadence, suppression, inferiority.

The shortest wavelength is violet, often described as purple. It takes awareness to a higher level of thought, even into the realms of spiritual values. It is highly introversive and encourages deep contemplation, or meditation. It has associations with royalty and usually communicates the finest possible quality. Being the last visible wavelength before the ultra-violet ray, it has associations with time and space and the cosmos. Excessive use of purple can bring about too much introspection and the wrong tone of it communicates something cheap and nasty, faster than any other color.

ORANGE:

Positive: Physical comfort, food, warmth, security, sensuality, passion, abundance, fun. Negative: Deprivation, frustration, frivolity, immaturity.

Since it is a combination of red and yellow, orange is stimulating and reaction to it is a combination of the physical and the emotional. It focuses our minds on issues of physical comfort - food, warmth, shelter etc. - and sensuality. It is a 'fun' color.Equally, too much orange suggests frivolity and a lack of serious intellectual values.

Positive: Physical tranquility, nurture, warmth, femininity, love. Negative: Inhibition, emotional claustrophobia, physical weakness.

PINK:

Being a tint of red, pink also affects us physically, but it soothes, rather than stimulates. (Interestingly, red is the only color that has an entirely separate name for its tints. Tints of blue, green, yellow, etc. are simply called light blue, light green,etc.) Pink is a powerful color, psychologically. It represents the feminine principle, and survival of the species; it is nurturing and physically soothing. Too much pink is physically draining.

GRAY:

Positive: Psychological neutrality. Negative: Lack of confidence, dampness, depression, hibernation, lack of energy.

Pure grey is the only color that has no direct psychological properties. It is, however, quite suppressive. A virtual absence of color is depressing and when the world turns grey we are instinctively conditioned to draw in and prepare for hibernation. Unless the precise tone is right, grey has a dampening effect on other colors used with it. Heavy use of grey usually indicates a lack of confidence and fear of exposure.

BLACK:

Positive: Sophistication, glamour, security, emotional safety, efficiency, substance. Negative: Oppression, coldness, menace, heaviness.

Black is all colors, totally absorbed. The psychological implications of that are considerable. It creates protective barriers, as it absorbs all the energy coming towards you, and it enshrouds the personality. Black is essentially an absence of light, since no wavelengths are reflected and it can, therefore be menacing; many people are afraid of the dark. Positively, it communicates absolute clarity, with no fine nuances. It communicates sophistication and uncompromising excellence and it works particularly well with white. Black creates a perception of weight and seriousness.

WHICH IS HEAVIER AND BIGGER??

THE BLACK ONE IS HEAVIER!!

Most people swear that the black one is bigger, in fact they are off the same size.

The

truth behind the myth is that black is the most recessive color a matter of not drawing attention to yourself, rather than actually making you look slimmer.

Black is the densest color hence creating an effect of heaviness.

White:

Positive: Hygiene, sterility, clarity, purity, cleanness, simplicity, sophistication, efficiency. Negative: Sterility, coldness, barriers, unfriendliness, elitism.

Just as black is total absorption, so white is total reflection. In effect, it reflects the full force of the spectrum into our eyes. Thus it also creates barriers, but differently from black, and it is often a strain to look at. It communicates, purity and, like black, uncompromising; it is clean, hygienic, and sterile. The concept of sterility can also be negative. Visually, white gives a heightened perception of space.

Brown:

Positive: Seriousness, warmth, Nature, earthiness, reliability, support. Negative: Lack of humour, heaviness, lack of sophistication.

Brown usually consists of red and yellow, with a large percentage of black. Consequently, it has much of the same seriousness as black, but is warmer and softer. It has elements of the red and yellow properties. Brown has associations with the earth and the natural world. It is a solid, reliable color and most people find it quietly supportive - more positively than the ever-popular black, which is suppressive, rather than supportive.

Conclusion( will be removed later)

Colors influence people through psychological changes and are associated with certain feelings and meanings. Colors exist everywhere else, it is omnipresent. Colors represent cultural, social customs and emotional values and its use in arts, printing, designing, websites, graphics, etc. - these days are unavoidable. Choosing proper color is an essential constituent for your website and its graphics; as visitors to your website first encounters colors and graphics before they read your textual descriptions. Colors are used in website design and graphic design for various forms; use of colors can be for backgrounds, navigation, logos, and navigation buttons to emphasize, highlight, symbolize your text description and outlining your site. Despite the fact that your website is enhanced and fabricated with textual and graphical design, if you are using the wrong color combinations, then you are annoying your own visitors rather appealing them. As a result, to attract your customers, it is important to understand psychological behavior of your customers to your websites chromatics. The use of wrong colors results in the wrong impression. Below are the details for color interpreted through different professions, culture, and physiology science; Red: Red is a color of intensity, stimulants, love, gaudiness, blood, war, excitement, speed, heat, leadership, masculinity, power, passion, strength, energy, financial loss, Danger, fire, radicalism, aggression, stop, anger, and revolution. Blue: Blue is a color of peace, unity, harmony, depression, coldness, ice, tackiness, winter tranquility, calmness, coolness, confidence, water, ice, loyalty, conservatism, dependability, cleanliness, technology, winter, idealism, and obscenity. White: White a color of peace, innocence, cleanliness, simplicity, security, humility, sterility, winter, reverence, purity, coldness, surrender, cowardice, and fearfulness. Black: Black is a color of power, sophistication, Evil, death, fear, anonymity, anger, sadness, mystery, formality, elegance, wealth, style, remorse, mourning, and unhappiness. Green: Green is a color of nature, spring, good luck, illness, greed, vigor, generosity, go, grass, wealth, money, fertility, youth, environment, envy, misfortune, jealousy, aggression, and inexperience. Purple: Purple is a color of spirituality, royalty, nobility, enlightenment, sensuality, creativity, wealth, gaudiness, ceremony, mystery, wisdom, mourning, profanity, exaggeration, confusion, arrogance, and flamboyance. Brown: Brown is a color of richness, stability, anachronism, dirt, dullness, filth, heaviness, poverty, roughness tradition, calm, depth, natural organisms, and nature. Yellow: Yellow is the color of joy, happiness, optimism, idealism, gold, summer, hope, air, sunlight, hazards, dishonesty, avarice, weakness, cowardice, and illness. Orange: Orange is a color of energy, flamboyance, playfulness, balance, heat, fire, enthusiasm, overemotional, warning, danger, fire, aggression, arrogance, flamboyance, and gaudiness. Even choosing color is a professional skill in graphic design business, as it is not only just the colors, but are the color that stimulates the mind of your viewers. Graphic designs inevitably comes with colors, and selecting the best ones for your business is an expertise.

So here comes the question

How

can we invest all these colors in our designs and in the banners??

Remember your audience.

If youre doing an international trade show, your color situation could get complicated. Thats because different cultures associate different meanings for certain colors. For example, purple is the color of royalty, right? Not in the Netherlandsfor them, its orange. And black is a bit funerealbut not in China. There, white is the color associated with funerals. Try to choose colors that dont have a strong cultural symbolism for your audience, just to make sure youre not communicating the wrong message.

Keep it legible
Did you know that purple is the hardest color for the eye to process? Knowing that, its probably not a good idea to print your banners ad copy in purple. Yellow, however, is the easiest on the eyeswe tend to notice yellows before we notice other colors. This means that yellow is a bad background color, because your eye will process it before noticing the copy you want to showcaseunless you tune it down to a very pale shade.

Keep contrast in mind

The right contrast between dark and light colors not only makes your banner copy legible it makes your image and message stand out. Make sure the colors you use are nt in the same shade.Dark greens and blues, for example. Be sure to contrast any darker color with a lighter color to make it stand out. This is especially important with tex tthe contrast between text and background colors should be easy on the eyes. If passers-by have to squint to read your banner, chances are they wont put in the effort.

Keep color psychology in mind. Different colors have different subliminal associations.

Color psychology is often used by national brands in designing logos and company colors. For example, blue is often used to indicate reliability and strength. Black indicates power, and is often used for very formal, corporate companies as well as hard companies such as manufacturers, miners, and oil companies. Red indicates passion, creativity, and material pleasures; green is adventurous and outdoorsy; orange and yellow are youthful and exuberant; and brown indicates stability and safety.

Dont do what everyone else is doing.

Because so many companies pay attention to the connotations of the colors they use, businesses in the same industry often wind up using the same colors. Dont fall into this trape especially at the trade show. Instead, choose a color scheme thats likely to stand out. For example, display your logo in colors on the opposite end of the color wheel from those of your usual logo. Or choose colors that project an interesting alter-image on your company. For example, if youre in an entertainment-based industry, the predominant colors might be reds and oranges. Choose black instead to show the power and strength of your company. Youll definitely stand out.

Know where your audience will be.

Is your banner stand intended to be seen from a long distance away? Or at eye level and fairly close? If youre using a hanging banner stand or sign that you want people to notice from across the convention hall, youll need a lot of contrast. Go for big, splashy design and avoid small details. You can go a little subtler with banner stands placed at eye level, and include finer detail as well.

Dont be afraid of white spaceclean, White space gives your banner a

roomy, organized feel. Dont fall into the mistake of thinking that you have to fill every inch of your banner with some color or designyou dont. White space is very effective in providing contrast to rich colors, and makes the perfect background color for text.

Dont leave out margins stretch their text Some banner designers

so that it fills the banner from side to side. Dont do this margins make your text more readable and make your banner look less cluttered. White space keeps the viewers eye focused on the text; filling up every inch of your banner only obscures the marketing message.

 Your

banner stand can be a great asset to your trade show display. color scheme placed out in front of your display can help draw your customers to youit works more effectively than youd think. bad design, and your banner stand will keep the customers coming.

A striking

Avoid

Color mixing and blending

There is no golden rule for mixing and blending the colors. This always depends on the several factors like the audience, the topic being designed, the aim of the design ,etc. We have lots of colors with lots of shades, that give us infinite blends and mixes. We should use this as a positive point, otherwise we get distracted and lose our track. So always keep the color physiology ,the deign aim ad the people targeted in mind

For More Information

Please contact Amira Osama her_majesty_amira@hotmail.com

Thank you