Design color and consumer psychology decoding

Abstract: This paper draws the point of view to study from the psychological role of color and human. Firstly, it studies the psychological feelings of people from the objective properties of color. Secondly, from the aspect of consumer psychology, it studies the reaction of consumers to design colors, and then designs the colors in the design. Combining the state of application in practice with theory, and finally looking forward and predicting future design colors

Abstract: This paper draws the point of view to study from the psychological role of color and human. Firstly, it studies the psychological feelings of people from the objective properties of color. Secondly, from the aspect of consumer psychology, it studies the reaction of consumers to design colors, and then designs the colors in the design. In practice, the state of application is combined with theory. Finally, the future design colors are expected and predicted.

Keywords: color design color consumer psychology

"Wen Xin Diao Long" once said: "The movement of looking for, the heart also shakes." It tells the color affect people's psychological activities, acting on our actions. In fact, in the understanding and grasp of color, Bauhaus' color teaching also emphasizes the combination of color scientific analysis and psychological experience. Kandinsky, Klee, and Eaton rationalized and abstracted color, and then grasped the psychological and emotional experience of color by processing color geometry. In the modern design, there is a dangerous tendency to free-handedly design its own way and set the colors separately. This often makes the color out of touch with the consumer psychology, design colors become the embodiment of the designer's personal feelings of color, making the product not accepted by consumers, resulting in a lot of human and material waste. As a designer, one must understand the design colors and deepen the market research and the general consumer psychology. Therefore, how to align our design colors with people's consumer psychology is a problem that we need to study and explore.

1 Analyze the design color from objective properties

1.1 Design Color Range and Definition

The broad range of design colors is very broad. The field covers almost every purposeful activity of human beings. It is different from painting colors. Painting colors focus on the reproduction of science. Design colors focus on abstract decoration, but as a graphic design, product design, The design concepts of environmental design, apparel design, and other special design requirements can be summed up and summarized: it integrates people's physics, chemistry, physiology, art and aesthetics, psychology, marketing, sociology, etc. Through meticulous design, conceiving, and choosing, through certain means, procedures, and methods, the process of creating new works that meet people's needs is created.

1.2 Scientific basis for designing colors

Color has its physical characteristics. In this field, we must study the elements of the spectrum, the mixing of shades, the frequency of the colored light waves, and the length of the waveforms. We must also study the criteria and classification of colors. Only by accurately grasping the laws of color can we conduct psychological analysis of colors and make design colors achieve good results.

The design color is also based on the physiological basis of humans. Mencius said: "It's the same thing with color and beauty." That's the reason. The question of the physiological response to color can be found in the modernly recognized Young-Helmholtz theory of three colors. His color theory tells us that different colors and color relationships will cause different physical and visual physiological responses. Scientists' experiments on color provide scientific basis for us to design colors and understand that it can more thoroughly grasp the visual perception rules of consumers.

The color of design also has its aesthetic foundation. Design is designed for people and serves people's life needs. Naturally, the beauty of design is also to follow the basic human aesthetic interests. The use of aesthetic rules such as symmetry, rhythm, balance, rhythm, unity, etc., can also be applied to design colors to satisfy consumers' aesthetic demands.

2 Studying Consumers' Response to Design Colors from the Perspective of People’s Perceptual Psychology

According to Mr. Randolph, a master of industrial design in the United States, a good designer must be a wise psychologist. Designers study people's perceptions and emotions in the process of consumer behavior, explore people's desire for the heart, grasp the psychology of consumers, and their design works can better attract the majority of consumers. In the same way, understanding people's feelings about color can make design colors acceptable to consumers. Therefore, we can only use and develop consumer psychology by studying and understanding the characteristics of consumer psychology and consumer behavior.

Consumer reactions to color include: emotional reactions, cognitive reactions, and behavioral responses. This is also the process by which people recognize and reflect on things. At the same time, consumers generally have a realistic psychology, saving the psychology of seeking for justice, seeking beauty psychology, imitating psychology and seeking new ideas, and seeking psychological change. As people continue to seek new differences, as well as the pursuit of fashion psychology, so that the emergence of popular colors. The emergence of fashion colors undoubtedly satisfies the dual demands of people on the old colors and the longing for the new color of the physiological (vision and suppression balance) and psychological (personal values). [1] As a result, popular colors have been widely used in packaging and advertising, people’s daily appliances, clothing, and public facilities, and have become an integral part of modern life.

With the improvement of the material and cultural living standards, people’s consumption concepts are constantly changing, and they are also developing in the direction of diversification. As designers should fully grasp the psychological needs of consumers, we can make our design colors and consumer psychology resonate. Therefore, we should study the psychological needs of consumers from the following aspects:

Consumers' emotions about colors vary with age. As people grow older, their love for color has their own preferences and understanding. The study found that the majority of children from adults to adults change from warm to cool, that is, children prefer red, orange, and yellow-green warm colors, while adults prefer green, blue, and blue-violet cool colors.

Consumers' emotions about colors vary from gender to gender. In general, most of the colors that men love are cold, high-purity colors such as black and gray; women prefer warm colors, low-purity powdery colors, and white. In addition, men's favorite color is roughly the same, the color is concentrated; women are different from person to person, the color tone is dispersed.

Consumers have different design colors due to differences in ethnic culture and religious beliefs. The love of color for a nation or a nation is inseparable from its living environment, social culture, and religious beliefs. It is often claimed that China is "Red China." This is because under the influence of Chinese traditional culture and Confucianism, red is considered as auspicious color and noble color. Newlywed birthdays and festive celebrations are inseparable from red. For example: China's paper-cutting, the overall red, does not make people boredom. In Western Germany and Sweden, people think that red represents ominous, so they must not use red when designing holiday supplies.

3 Design Colors Used in Design Practices

Design colors are widely used in modern life. It enriches our lives, brings vitality and vitality to our lives, and makes our lives more interesting.

3.1 Application of Design Colors in Graphic Design

Design color is an important and attractive artistic language in graphic design. With it, it can create amazing visual reality and unique visual effects in a two-dimensional plane space.

In the packaging design element of the product, the color impact is the strongest, because it first arouses the attention of consumers and gives the specific connotation and appearance of the commodity packaging. Therefore, the designer should cast the design ideas into the works according to the deep feelings obtained by the natural colors, follow the emotional needs of the consumers, and use different design techniques and techniques to make the best use of the artistic appeal of the colors. To achieve the ideal realm, so as to better express the theme of the design works. As far as the packaging of a food is concerned, the first thing that brings consumers is the visual and psychological first feeling—the sense of taste. Its good or bad has a direct impact on the sales market of the product. [2] When we design a package, we should use a variety of methods to express it, make its shape and color echoes, make the performance of food more vivid and attractive, quickly seize the eyes of consumers, people feel The food in the package is fresh and delicious, resulting in an immediate purchase impulse. Nowadays, many instant noodles are packed using this method to maximize performance and attract consumers.

Design color is also an important factor in the success of advertising design. The first thing that people see on the advertisement screen is still color, and then it is graphics and text. Rudolph Arnheim stated in the "Art and Vision": "When it comes to expressions, color is better than shape, and the sunset and the expression of the Mediterranean blue bluish color may be any determination. The shape of the game is also unmatched.” Thus, when advertising audiences watch advertisements, the vivid colors in the advertisements can easily give people a feeling of coolness and warmth. This warm and cold tone directly brings the feelings of the audience into a mood and makes people Have a good impression on advertising products. Such as air-conditioning advertising, creating a cool space in the screen, in the summer scorching, the ad people have the desire to have a cool space. [3]

In addition, design colors are also used in book bindings, illustrations, logos, etc., affecting design and consumer communication.

3.2 Design Colors in Industrial Design and Other Applications

In industrial design, any product design can not be separated from the design color, its use will affect the quality and sales of products and people's desire to consume. Modern products use a certain amount of colors to decorate their appearance. They often have the power to enhance the image of the product, strengthen the recognition of memories, influence consumer psychology, and convey a certain meaning. When designing products for people of different occupations, regions, and ages, they must Consider their psychological and aesthetic tastes. [4] Such as: To design products for the elderly to consider too strong colors will make them feel dizzy, so it should be quiet, serene color; the design of toy products for children should be colorful, colorful, so that Children can have more curiosity and freshness with these toys.

In costume design, design colors also play a decisive role. It is an important factor in creating the overall artistic atmosphere and aesthetic appeal of clothing. The collocation of colors affects people's emotional factors in different forms and different degrees. Different color themes with different shapes and fabrics also often cause people to produce complex emotions, thereby attracting people's attention and controlling people's psychological activities. [5]

The application of design colors in environmental space. Our environmental space is inseparable from the planning of design colors. Reasonable planning and design colors will create a harmonious visual atmosphere for our environmental space. For example, people should feel a cheerful and warm color atmosphere in public entertainment venues. Their color tone design can not produce depressing and sad emotions. They should boldly adopt contrasting colors.

In other respects, both the film and television arts and the dramatic arts are also associated with the design colors and directly affect the audience's psychology. The audience's visual requirements will also affect the development of design colors.

4 Conclusion

In life, people pursue perfect color perception and color effects; in the design, we must grasp the appropriate combination of the functional characteristics of color and human psychological factors, and use creative color language to express the intention of design through life and nature. The study of color science applies it to the design, so that our design can increase the market share of the commodity market, summarize the design color experience from the market, and then return to our design. It is believed that the design colors of the future will be more colorful. Regardless of the form of expression or performance, they should be combined with the market to guide people's consumption. Similarly, people's psychological needs will change the design color.


Source: China Elite League

Posted on