Color and Web Design

Many businessmen assume that the text and graphics you put on your website is the most important factor for marketing. However there is another, often overlooked, aspect of a website that is actually what people see first when they visit your site: colors. "Just as you use words to express yourself, colors can be used as an expression as well and are a language all on their own." Colors can either reinforce the marketing message you are making with your text, or they can contradict, confuse, and even offend people.

The color scheme you choose for your website is important. Websites have a variety of color options such as the background, text color, sidebar colors, headlines, and logos. Here are some commonly used colors and the meanings they have in the United States: Red is associated with love, adventure danger, warning, impulse, passion, excitement, and action. Blue is connected with loyalty, tranquility, success, productiveness, power, and proficiency.

Green is linked to growth, health, wealth, nature, healing, peacefulness, life, and harmony. Orange is coupled with flamboyant, comfort, safety, creativity, sports, celebration, and fun. Purple is allied with royalty, luxury, justice, creativity, and mystery. White is related to innocence, cleanliness, purity, and simplicity. Yellow is associated with curiosity, happiness, and playfulness. Pink is connected to romance, youthfulness, femininity, softness, and sweetness. Brown is linked to the earth, warm, friendly, simple, and organic. Gray is coupled with neutrality, sophistication, and stability. Black is related to authority, mystery, seriousness, and luxury. Consider your target demographic and the subconscious message you wish to send them. A doctor's office may wish to imply cleanliness, friendliness, and health and so might choose white, brown, and green as their color scheme. A web development site might choose a variety of white and blue shades to indicate productiveness, proficiency, and simplicity. Some famous examples of colors used in this manner include Oral-B's logo of blue and white to promote successful cleanliness.

Or Home Depot's choice of orange and white which signifies creativity and simplicity. Colors are memorable and subtle in their psychological meanings and thus extremely useful for marketing and web design.

About the Author
For more information about web development and design, please visit www.digitalsynergygroup.com