Is purple the most difficult color to brand. Did you know it’s the hardest color for your eye to perceive?
What does the color purple mean to you. As a designer I can honestly say purple is one of the most difficult colors to use. It’s often associated with epilepsy, a pop star and a children’s dinosaur. Yahoo have used it successfully over the years in business, but It remains an elusive color for many designers.
Purple color names
Define purple and you’re a better man than i am. It doesn’t have a definite wavelength of light. So it’s down to each person’s perception. Purple color names include eggplant, plum, violet, orchid, pomegranate, puce lavender, lilac, mauve and indigo.
For additional inspiration you should view our recent article called The Meaning Of Colors. This article takes 10 common colours and analysis each one in detail to see how it works in business branding. Once you have viewed it then you will know if purple is the best fit for your business.
What word meanings are associated with the color purple? While we look at the positive and negative words, think about your business, or branding. Ponder on what words you want your visitors or clients to associate with when they see branding in bright purple.
Negative word association for purple is on the left. Have these in mind when using it in web design and branding. To the right, are some positive words that you will want to fully focus on.
Purple Branding & Design
Purple is pretty popular. in a survey of favourite colours women choose purple above many other colors. The most common color is blue with 29% of women taking that color choice. But purple is only 2% different with 27% of women taking it as the color of choice. According to Live Science, they took 1,974 men and women and asked whether they preferred purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, or pink? The color orange only received 3% in the survey.
12% Men chose purple as their favourite color
Live Science
27% Women chose purple as their favourite color
Below I take a look at which companies are using purple successfully. The video also looks at some of the words and meaning associated with purple and why it may be a good or bad idea to use purple for the branding of your business.
At this point of my article I normally find one of my designs that illustrates how I’ve used a particular color in the past successfully to help a client.
However, designing a purple branded web design was rarer than I thought. I found in my archives a website I designed for a holiday villa in Italy. Although the logo was a hand drawn logo by the client, we did look at branding it with purple. The villa is now no longer being hired out, so it’s not currently live, but you can still view the project on my portfolio for Living on the lake here.
Purple Color Scheme From Nature
Nature knows how to produce incredible color schemes. Purple is one of those colors that seem to occur in any section of a garden. Lavender, lilacs and violet flowers produce some beautiful shades of purple. The challenge is where does indigo and violet start and end with purple? Below is a purple flower that a beautiful bee decided to investigate.
What I like about nature is it forces colors together. In the photo and its resulting color scheme I really love the light and dark greens working with the browns and beige, yet they all compliment the main purple color.
I like to take my photos and upload it to an online color scheme tool. I then simply extract the colors from the photo. As the purple flowers start to die they produce a soft brown and beige, so this is also included in my color scheme.
The hex numbers are there for you to use in your next web design or re-branding. The main color is the purple and that comes out as the Hex number #AF8AC0. The mid brown is (Hex #7B502F) the light beige is (Hex #F7E1D4). With the darker green of (Hex #959A84) and light green of (Hex #C4CF6F).
Purple color psychology branding
I can understand why Cadbury’s uses the purple association. The thought of decadence (excessive indulgence in pleasure or luxury), luxury and wealth are plainly seen. So purple could work for your branding if that’s the meanings you want to portray.
Negative meanings for purple include:
Purple is said to be impractical, cynical and arrogant. Not colours that would suit a new business. Ask yourself honestly, will using a particular purple really work for my business. What are my competitor’s colors? Do I want to stand out with purple for the right reasons?
Positive meanings for purple include:
Purple can be a positive color if you have the right focus. Luxury, nobility, power and ambition were mentioned earlier. There are some perfect words for business; you just need to think a little before using them for your designs. After studying purple in detail, I believe it can work if you have in mind the following points. Firstly, it’s a creative color, so it’s ideal for inventions imagination and creativity. Secondly, it’s considered an unlimited or a color that is difficult to define, so it has this mystery attached. . Finally it’s a futuristic color often associated with fantasy. So the positive words should steer you in the right direction.
Other facts about purple
Did you know that Purple Day is a day where people dress in purple and raise awareness for Epilepsy.
Purple is often worn by royalty.
Purple is pretty awkward. Its hard to distinguish, it is a word that supposedly doesn’t rhyme, though there is an exceptional word called curple – a strap under the girth of a horse’s saddle, apparently!
Purple is not seen in any flag of the world except the flag of Dominica which as a purple parrot within.
Electric purple is halfway between violet and magenta.
Purple was a color adopted by a pop star called Prince.
Is Designing With The Color Purple Possible?
In conclusion, purple is going to set you apart from other business. If that’s is what you are looking for then it may be the color for you. If you want to play safe then the closer to blue you choose, the safer your purple is to being main stream. I’ve come across a few websites that have used purple really well. Have you designed using purple? Are you thinking of using purple branding? I would love to hear from you.