How big of a factor does color selection play in your package design process? From a consumer's perspective, the color of your packaging can greatly, or gravely, impact the decision to purchase your product over your competitors. Buyer demographics like age, culture, gender identity, and global location should all play a part in selecting the colors that will represent your product on the shelf, or on the web.
To say that there is a kind of sorcery and certainly a science to the psychological power of colors... well, that would be a great understatement.
From colorpsychology.org:
"When we visit a museum to appreciate a work of art, we take it in through the colors we see because they invoke within us certain emotions, making the claim that everyone sees it differently a reality. Interior decorators survey the effect of colors when deciding what color (Or rather color associations) the walls of a certain area in a building will be painted.
The reason that many offices have a lot of greys, blues and browns incorporated in their décor is because these colors tends to increase productivity. Yet, this is not a rule of the thumb. This does hold true for a corporate environment, but if one were to work say for example in the fashion industry, or the media, the use of brighter and more “colorful” paints would help encourage creativity.
Many car commercials show black as their model, because this certain color is associated with affluence and seriousness. This leads the consumer to believe that the product is worth buying. Even the food and drink industry uses color to attract more people to certain brands. The purple and gold packaging of a certain brand of candy bar is a technique to lure the consumer into believing that this is chocolate royalty, and why would one not want to buy the best of best. Culturally speaking, colors have different values attached to them too. A bride in the western world wears white, where as it is what a widow wears in South Asia."
What different colors mean to your brand identity on the shelf:
Black:
Black represents authority and luxury...
black packaging for authority and luxury
Using black as a main color in your packaging exudes a top-tier product identity. It also represents elegance. Globally, black exemplifies a wide range of emotions.. from trust, to evil, and also mourning. Selecting different colored packaging for different locations may be worth considering when selling globally. Align color selection with your product and its intended retail geography.
May evoke power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery.
May invoke fear and the unknown (black holes).
Sometimes manifests negative connotations.
Suggest strength and/or authority.
Considered a symbol of grief by many.
White:
White represents cleanliness, purity, and simplicity...
white packaging for cleanliness and simplicity
White packaging exudes simplicity in your product. The clean and pure color (or lack there-of) allows for clear and concise messaging, and exudes peace and calmness. White can also induce thoughts of creativity, likened to a white canvas with endless possibility.
May evoke light, goodness, innocence, purity, and virginity.
Signifies perfection.
Manifests feelings of safety, purity, and cleanliness.
Generally invokes a positive connotation.
Often used to represent faith and purity.
To know more about solvent dyes or plastic pigments, go to roha.com