Colour Psychology: What's in a Colour?

Yellow is often overlooked or even made subtler in everyday life. Well not with SHINE. Don’t underestimate the power of yellow…

Colours are a very visual way of getting people’s attention. Whether it’s bright yellow or dark red, different colours create different reactions from people. The concept of colour psychology spans from this idea; that people feel certain emotions when viewing a particular colour. Colour psychology can be used in all sorts of ways, including personal use such as interior design, but it can also be used in branding (for a really great example of this, just look at SHINE!!)

Red can represent danger or excitement and is often used to get your attention with it’s bold personality. In contrast, green has a calming and peaceful effect, perhaps because it is associated with nature and the environment.

So, what about yellow? If we were to ask you to think of things that are yellow, what would you say?
The sun? Daffodils? Springtime, bananas, lemons, post-it notes? Something a bit more fun like minions or even SHINE? (obviously because of our See Yellow, Think SHINE campaign) When you see these things, how do you feel and what do you associate it with?

Lots of people think of spring or summer. Yellow is considered to be one of the happiest colours. It’s warm. It’s cheery. It gives people confidence in you. It represents wisdom, knowledge, energy, creativity and optimism. Of course, these are all reasons why SHINE is all about yellow – we are a happy, cheery design agency!

One of the wonderful things about yellow is that it stands out and attracts the most attention out of any other colours. This is why it is used for signage, as it can be spotted and interpreted from a distance (read more about the design strategy of signage here).

Of course there are many many positive things about yellow. But maybe we should provide a balanced view and present some of the negatives too… (not that there are many)

Some research has shown a yellow room can have a stimulating effect on the brain and therefore is good for studying… while other research suggests people in a yellow room are more likely to lose their tempers (maybe people are losing their tempers because they are studying…)

Have you heard of the phrase a ‘yellow house’? It used to be said when referring to a mad place (apparently, mental asylums used to be painted yellow and so the phrase stuck). So, some say yellow is the colour of madness. Of course we completely disagree with that; we’re all perfectly normal…