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Part 3 - The significance of Color: Examples

Roses are red and violets are blue, but what color signage will work best for you?
by Ryan Ashworth, Account Representative / Excelsus Solutions

Part III: Examples

Why Are Pencils Yellow?

During the 1800’s the best graphite in the world came from China. In China, yellow symbolizes “royalty”. To convey to customers that their graphic was Chinese and made from the best graphite, pencil manufacturers painted their pencils yellow. Pencils have been yellow since the 1890’s for this reason!

Bing's $80 Million Color Selection

The Microsoft search engine Bing recently changed their link color on search results. The change came after market research showed the color blue was the most engaging, and that Bing’s original light blue link lacked the confidence of Google’s darker blue link. Bing switched to a color that closely resembles Google’s links and the change is estimated to be worth over $80 million in advertising sales.

Roses are red and violets are blue, but what color signage will work best for you?

by Ryan Ashworth, Account Representative / Excelsus Solution

PART II: Color Schemes: How to pair Colors

There are three main color schemes, monochromatic, complimentary, and triple color schemes. A monochromatic scheme uses different shades of the same color. Blue, light blue, and navy used together is an example of a monochromatic color scheme. This style is pleasing to the eye especially on websites. A complimentary scheme pairs exact opposites on the color wheel. Examples are orange:blue, red:green, and yellow:purple. This scheme allows marketers to highlight with the strong color and even out the appearance with the subtle color. Triple color schemes join three colors that are equally spaced around the color wheel.

The Color wheel: Choosing Color

When deciding on your colors for marketing materials it is important that your color selection, promotional message/communication, and audience all face the same direction. Now, I know earlier in the article I say that pink is the most calming color, but pink headings on your performance review summary to the company CEO, VP, and Manager will send some mixed signals! Let’s go through a couple scenarios to give you a better understanding.

Part 1 - The Significance of Color

Roses are red and violets are blue, but what color signage will work best for you?

by Ryan Ashworth, Account Representative / Excelsus Solution

PART I: The Significance of Color

Blood red and clean white, evenly spaced, and spun together on a pole, what is it? It’s a barber shop’s pole. Do you know why these are

chosen colors for almost all barber shops? Well, the reason spans back before the invention of modern medicine. The “barber shops’” of

the middle age was a one stop shop for shaving, surgery, teeth pulling, and a number of other painful activities. At the end of the day the

barber shop would wash the used linens and hang them on a pole to dry. Some were stained blood red while others were white. As the

wind dried the cloths they would spin around and get twisted. Hence, this became the symbol of the town barber shop!

Colors are everywhere in human life. When used correctly, color can multiply the impact of your communications. Conversely, a poorly

designed color scheme will cause confusion with your target customer, or worse send them to the arms of the competition.

This three-part series is written to help you choose colors for your upcoming marketing promotions, presentations, mailers, website,

and any other piece of your company’s marketing collateral. Part I goes through color meanings, Part II covers how to correctly pair and

choose colors, and Part III are examples of color selection.

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