Blue

Almost everyone enjoys looking into a blue sky and across a lake or the sea because there is calming about an expanse. People would stay longer, enjoy the relax atmosphere. The psychological effects of the color blue are probably universal. It is a universal color. It's a spiritual colour.

Base on the color psychological associations and the color effects on consuming, these two reasons can describe why designer choose blue to design flowing objects.

The first reason, a research is about how does colour effect on customers; it shows colour increase Brand Recognition up to 80%. Up to 93% of consumers mostly were influenced by Visual Factors when they were making a buying decision. Also, 85% of shoppers pointed out that colour as the primary reason for purchasing a product.

The second reason, psychological meanings in different blues. Blue is serene in cool tone, it means technology, trustable, professional, financial and integrity. In the warm tones it can feel refreshing, patient, comfortable and soft. Cool, water, infinity, calmness, serenity, health, peace, healing, understanding, Tranquility, telexing, traveling impacts also show in lighter tone of blue. Moreover, in the darker tone, knowledge, power, integrity, seriousness, security, and sadness are showed in it.

It’s a natural color from the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven. Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness. In heraldry, blue is used to symbolize piety and sincerity.Blue represent sky and sea, so it doesn’t have a solid shape, so it also give us a message of open mind.

Blue is a calming, comforting un-confrontational color. You can use blue to promote products and services related to cleanliness (water purification filters, cleaning liquids, vodka), air and sky (airlines, airports, air conditioners), water and sea (sea voyages, mineral water).  blue is linked to consciousness and intellect. Use blue to suggest precision when promoting high-tech products.

Darker blue is associated with depth, expertise, and stability; it is a preferred colour for cooperation， business, banking, financing and school/university.

Blue is also good for branding medical and hospital.This is because it represents calm, cleanliness, fresh air and relaxed, efficiency, dependable. Blue has actually been shown to lower our blood pressure and heart rate.

Blue is not associated well in the mind with eating and is associated with spoiled food.

If over using blue will bring the negative associations are frightening, depressing and cold to audience.

If blue change to other colours, the viewers will obversely get wrong messages and all the mining of design will be totally changed. For example, blue is a calming,un-confrontational,trust,communication and professional; but if the security's uniform change to red, even thought it's a deeper red, but people won't feel he is a serenity, of course no one would trust him. So that's why we don't design red uniform for business man, nurse and security. 

Blue plays a very important role, RGB is a additive colour mode, it's created by mixing lights. Blue as same as red and green, they are the primary colours of additive color system.If without the primary colour of blue, it will lose the secondary colours which are magenta and cyan. Additive colour is in contrast to subtractive colour. The subtractive system using primaries that are the secondaries of the additive system can be viewed as an alternative approach to reproducing a wide range of colours by controlling the relative amounts of red, green, and blue light that reach the eye.Computer monitors and televisions are the most common examples of additive colour.

A subtractive color model, used incolor printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. Blue is the one of the most important colour of CMYK. CMYK refers to the four inks used in some color printing: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black). Though it varies by print house, press operator, press manufacturer, and press run, ink is typically applied in the order of the abbreviation.

 

 Now, we can see the beautiful sky, lively animals and plants, but if without blue. We unable to see the blue sky, we only have the tray sky or night time sky. We can see and flash water, animals and plants are less colourful. Our life will be unattractive.

Cultural meanings: Many believe that blue is the best color for positive cultural associations across the various cultures. In several cultures, blue has been believed to ward off bad spirits, and/or worn as charms to protect against evil. In iconography, blue is the color associated with the Virgin Mary. Blue is used as a patriotic national color in many nations, often along with red or yellow. Blue uniforms for the military, police officers, and even in corporate “power suits” can convey confidence and dependability. Some eastern cultures do not distinguish between blue and green.

Color and cultural design considerations

Western cultures (North America and Europe) The most popular color for bank logos is blue because it represents trust and authority. The color is also masculine and used to represent the birth of a boy. Blue is also considered to be calming, soothing and peaceful although it can also be associated with depression or sadness.

Eastern and Asian cultures The hue is ever-lasting in its association with immortality. In Indian culture blue is the color of Krishna — a central figure in Hinduism and one of the most popular Hindu gods. Many Indian sports teams use the color as a symbol of strength. Unlike in the U.S., where blue is associated with men, it is considered a feminine color in China.

Latin America Because of the high Catholic population of Central and South America, blue is often associated with religion as the color of the Virgin Mary’s robe or headscarf. Moreover, blue can cause an emotional stir because of its association with mourning. It is also the color of trust and serenity in Mexico, and is the color of soap in Colombia.

Middle East Blue is safe and protecting. It is the color associated with Heaven, spirituality and immortality.


There are some great design examples of using blue, blue works well with warm colours like red, orange, and yellow. Complementary and split complementary colour scheme creates dynamic and fun concept. Blue and white work together can bring the concept of communication, team work and energy, so blue is a suitable and popular colours for branding sports products.