Is orange going to get you seen in business? I’m going to look in detail at the expressive and flamboyant color orange.
What does the color orange mean to you? What do your customers and web site visitors associate with the color? Does it really work for branding a business? How long has orange been around and what came first the orange fruit or the color orange?
If your web site is aimed at photography of autumn leaves or pumpkins, then orange is an obvious choice. But what about a corporate telecommunication business, a cheap and easy flight company or a gas petroleum company? Why would orange work for them?
7% Men chose orange as their favourite color
Live Science
3% Women chose orange as their favourite color
Without going any further, let’s look in detail at the meaning behind the color orange.
Orange Branding & Design
Maybe you have another color too to consider. In expensive works for easy jet, but is that the message you want to portray? We have looked at every color and its psychological meaning. We have fully analysed which colors work best for which type of business in design and branding. So before you choose a color for branding your business, make sure you read our highly respected article called The Meaning Of Colors.
For an example of the use of orange in design, take a look at this web site I built last year for a client in my portfolio. The Website is called Performance Edge Consulting. The color orange meaning here is appealing to grabbing attention. It uses orange to appeal to mentally exciting a person into accomplishment.
Orange Color Scheme From Nature
What’s does the color orange mean in nature? Is it attraction to bees and wasps? Nature provides spectacular color. That couldn’t be truer than with the color orange.
Last week I went out from my home in Dorset to the countryside. The purpose was to find areas where I could take some shots of beautiful flowers and try and capture the astonishing colors on camera. From the digital photos you can easily produce some amazing complimentary color schemes.
For example here is my photo of orange and yellows.
I then upload my photo to an online color scheme tool and extract the colors from the photo to form a useful color palette. You do need to make sure you get a good mixture of contrasting colors and at the same time make sure they complement the main color.
Here is my example.
The hex numbers are there so you can use them in a design. If you do, make sure you let me know in the comments below or via email.
Orange color psychology branding
What branding comes to mind when you think of orange? Harley Davidson has successfully used orange as has TNT, Penguin publishing, Nickelodeon and several others. For a drinks company like Fanta it was an obvious choice as the fruit and flavour and color go hand in hand.
Negative meanings for orange include:
Orange is often considered a superficial color. If you wanted to convey serious and sensible it may not work for you in design. Other negative ideas include, insincere, over-bearing, proud and self-indulgent More recently companies have used the negative idea of inexpensive as a positive message.
Positive meanings for orange include:
Words such as optimistic, cheerful and enthusiastic are associated with the color orange. So that in itself is great for any branding. I think using orange to suggest, self-confidence and independence is becoming a trend at the moment. Other positive meanings include flamboyant, extroverted adventurous and warm-hearted.
Other facts about orange
We initially asked at the beginning of this article; how long has orange been around and what came first the orange fruit or the color orange? Well to answer this we discovered that it was back in the 1300’s the fruit was exported to the English speaking countries. But the color orange doesn’t crop up for another 200 years. Documentation suggest in the early 1500’s was the first mention of the English name for the reddish yellow color.
Every eye is different. According to Wikipedia, human eyes can perceive orange when observing light with a dominant wavelength between 590 and 620 nanometres.
Orange is the major color used by the Netherlands. No other color stands out in a crowd like the fans of the Football team or F1 driver Jos Verstappen. A sea of fans wearing orange T-shirts is now seen at every European race.
What Does The Color Orange Mean To You?
Is orange as negative as they say it is? Our article should help you conclude the color orange, meaning is it’s neither fully negative or positive in purpose. Have you various words you associate with the color orange that we haven’t considered? Let us know by commenting below and tell us what the color orange means to you.