A guide to color meaning.

Red

Red is a very strong color with associations both positive and negative. On the positive side, red symbolizes strength, passion, and confidence. But it can also be aggressive, symbolizing anger, alerts, or danger. This doesn’t mean you should steer clear of the color altogether; you can use both sides of the color red and its strong connotations to your advantage.

“If you’re designing a UI or UX interaction, for example, don’t use blue on your Delete button,” says UI and UX designer Aliza Ackerman. “You want a color that acts like a warning and says, ‘You’re about to delete this. Are you sure you want to do that?’”

Red can help push people to make decisions faster. Almost every fast food brand has red in its color palette, because red elicits a physical response; it makes people hungrier and stimulates the appetite. Similarly, companies often choose red to announce a sale because it brings urgency to the message.

Orange

Orange is bright and full of energy. Happy, playful, fun, powerful, and attention-grabbing are all attributes that you can infuse into your brand or message with the color orange. A lot of tech brands use orange, possibly because it channels the optimism and youthful energy a tech startup might want to convey.

Yellow

Yellow connotes cheerfulness and adds a pop of refreshment to your palette. “It’s a very strong color and really draws the eye, so I use it sparingly as an accent color most of the time,” says Ackerman. Like red, it can also act as a siren for alerts and bold, informational messages.

Blue

Blue is calming, soothing, and friendly. It’s often a fail-safe, neutral choice and can take on a professional or friendly tone, depending on how you use it. Blue is a trustworthy color, and scores of brands in all industries capitalize on this color to build a positive image for themselves.

Alternatively, blue can evoke sadness, evidenced in common phrases such as “feeling blue,” or “having the blues.” This is partially because blue is on the cold end of the color spectrum, as opposed to warm colors like red and orange. But again, different shades of blue evoke different emotions; keep this in mind when you choose a palette.

Purple

“Purple is a very elegant color. It signifies loyalty, so any time you want to build trust, the color purple is a great option,” says Ackerman. In addition to trust, purple is often seen as mysterious. This rich color is traditionally feminine and also has ancient ties to royalty and luxury.

A color’s historical implications should by no means dictate how you use it, but you should be aware of how deeply ingrained or even subconscious associations like these can unintentionally alter your message

Pink

“A lot of brands that are geared toward feminine audiences use pink,” says Ackerman. By turns nurturing and playful, pink is a powerful color that often makes people think of passion, love, and youth. An intense hot pink packs more urgency, while a minimal, dusty pink is more calming and neutral.

Pink is a great example of how color meaning can change with society over time. Once thought of as a “boy” color, pink is now largely associated with femininity.

White

White often symbolizes simplicity, purity, and cleanliness. Often used to give contrast to your designs, white provides a clean, neutral slate that keeps you from crowding your design too much. “It’s there to give breathing room to other elements and to be a background to showcase something you want to bring more attention to,” says Ackerman.

Brown

Neutral and natural, brown “has some warmth to it and a feeling of security,” says Ackerman. It’s a very earthy color that will effortlessly evoke elements from the natural world. If you’re going for an organic, wholesome feel, brown is an excellent color to include in your palette.

Gray

A true neutral shade, gray is almost always used as a secondary color or accent. It can be used to temper or complement any color, or to serve as a quiet background. Try not to block out your design in all gray, as that can tip the balance from neutral to dreary and boring.

Shade matters just as much as color.

There are three elements to color: Hue, saturation, and luminance. When you make a color palette, the shade and tone of your color matters just as much as the color you choose. A dark blue navy is bold, strong, and more masculine, while a light blue or baby blue is airy, bright, and youthful. When you pick a color, think of the many different shades it encapsulates and the different moods they create.

Speaking from a UX perspective, Ackerman often opts for softer shades, especially when it comes to black and white. “I go a couple brightness notches down from pure black or white. I always try to use a soft gray or a slightly off-white, because it’s easier on people’s eyes, especially on screens.”