This is part 2 of a series on logo colors. Read the first installment, here: Red Logos: When & Why Your Brand Should Use Them.
Does your mood change when you walk from a room with dark paint to light paint? Do you feel more confident when you’re wearing clothes with certain colors? Are you more apt to be more aggressive when you see certain colors?
For a large percentage of people, the answer to the above questions is ‘yes.’ Colors can affect how we feel, how we think, and how we behave.
“Color is what catches the eye,” notes the Forbes magazine article, 7 Tips for Creating the Perfect Logo for Your Brand. “Significant studies have been conducted into the value of color and the effect it has on the human mind. It’s a fact that certain colors lead to certain reactions.”
As you launch or expand your business, you’ll make many decisions. If you tell your business partners “let’s create a logo” or “let’s study what kind of colors we should use,” they may respond “come on, let’s tackle far more serious issues first.”
But after reading this logo color series, you’ll be armed with statistics and information to prove that logos and colors are important.
The psychology of the color orange
Orange is a warm color like red and yellow. Warm colors are more apt to spur people into action while cool colors, like blue and green, are more apt to calm people down.
Walls that are painted warm colors cause people to believe the temperature in the room is higher than it actually is while cool-colored walls have the opposite effect, reports the Forbes article, How To Use Color Psychology To Give Your Business An Edge.
“Orange is a color of stimulation and enthusiasm,” HuffPost reports. “Orange is a nice mix of red’s passion and yellow’s joy. Research has found that orange increases oxygen supply to the brain, produces an energizing effect, and stimulates brain activity.”
Orange is the color for working out, according to the HuffPost article. It sparks many emotions and reactions, including:
- Confidence
- Creativity
- Determination
- Friendliness
- Cheerfulness
- Anticipation
- Aggression
Orange’s affect on business success
‘So orange makes people happier and more active,’ you might think. ‘How can that affect my business?’
Stop being so skeptical! Unbounce, a company that helps marketers convert website visitors into customers, concluded after a series of tests that orange is the best color for call-to-action buttons, reports the article “The Psychology of Color: How to Use Colors to Increase Conversion Rate.”
Is there a correlation between orange call-to-action buttons and orange logos? There is, according to Forbes’ “7 Tips” article and the Fast Company article “What Your Logo’s Color Says About Your Company.” The latter article reports that orange spurs impulsive shoppers to buy and subscribe to products.
An orange logo or a logo that includes orange, in fact, might be more effective at spurring action than a red logo, says the Forbes article. “Studies have shown that bright orange is the best color for encouraging people to click, whereas red comes in second,” the article reports. “When you design your logo, design it with multiple colors.”
Logos in orange
Telling you about the benefits of orange logos is beneficial, but showing you which companies have logos in orange might help you figure out whether an orange logo is for you.
Companies with an orange logo – or lots of orange in their logo – include:
- Fanta
- Gulf Oil
- Harley-Davidson
- Hooters
- MasterCard.
- Nickelodeon
- Payless ShoeSource
You also might be interested in the Color Emotion Guide in the Entrepreneur magazine article “The Psychology of Color in Marketing and Branding” that lists about 20 companies with orange logos as well as companies with logos in six other colors.
While many companies with orange logos are trying to persuade potential customers to make impulse buying decisions, the Forbes article “How To Use Color Psychology To Give Your Business An Edge” reports that orange is also associated with good value.
“The orange color in the Home Depot logo, for example, helps customers view them as a low-cost provider of valuable goods,” the article reports. “Some high-end retailers have been able to overcome this association with orange and they’ve successfully incorporated orange into their brand.”
Is an orange logo for you?
Before you choose an orange logo, there’s one other fact that you should know — orange is not popular.
According to the results of a study published in Entrepreneur, orange is women’s least favorite color by a wide margin and tied for the second least favorite color among men. Only 5 percent of men and women say orange is their favorite color. In addition, a University of Maryland study reported that orange is men’s fifth favorite color among the seven tested and the least favorite among women.
Nevertheless, the number of companies with orange logos suggests that your company should consider using one if it’s trying to spark the kinds of emotions that orange sparks.
Your logo should make a good first impression. Test it on a few reliable friends and colleagues before introducing it to the public. Watch how they react when they look at. Contact them one week later to see if they remember it. You should also keep it simple, advises Forbes in the “7 Tips” article.
“Time and time again, new businesses create logos that are incredibly complex,” the article says. “They do this because they want to stand out from the competition, but you can easily stand out for all the wrong reasons. The general rule of thumb for a logo is that it should be memorable enough so someone could easily draw it onto a piece of paper when prompted.”
> Ready to get started? Take a look through some of our logo designs for inspiration.
