Blue horizons on a wine-dark sea

Blue sky. Green grass. Yellow sun. Red rose. But – wine-dark sea? Some say, that until recently the colour blue didn’t exist. Ancient languages  like Greek, Chinese, and Hebrew not having a word for blue, can be considered as evidence that humans may not have seen it at all. In Homer’s famous Iliad and Odyssey the expression “wine-dark sea” appears several times, but the sea is never described as blue or green. So why is that, and how do we perceive and determine the value of colour? The language you speak definitely can affect how you see the world – and colour perspective too: Did you know, that the Russian language lacks a single word for blue? It does however make a distinction between light blue and dark blue…

In branding, colour allows you to shout out loud, to be serious, fun, quiet, thoughtful – to speak with a voice more precise than just words. When consumers make purchasing decisions, colour has proved to be a very influential source when communicating brand personality, as without prior experience to a specific brand or logo, we start by associating the brand expression with certain characteristics – based on the primary logo colour. Try thinking about your own way of perceiving brands you are not yet familiar with, how do you think and react? What makes an unfamiliar brand trustworthy, what makes you buy the product?

As humans, we are (to a certain extent) physically predisposed when it comes to colour reactions: As an example, bright, blood red puts us on alert for nearby danger – after years of associating certain colours with particular objects, we seem to have developed specific connections. Of course, there are all kinds of cultural, gender, age, etc. specifics to be accounted for too – but indeed, colours speak their own language.

But back to the colour appliance in branding – colours become part of a brand when give enough exposure, thus helping strengthen the brand awareness when repeated. When it comes to the neuroscience behind decision-making, decisions are largely emotional – not logical – according to a recent study. How we as consumers feel about a brand has more power than how we think about a brand – which basically means, that your brand performance and sales can actually be directly linked to your brands use of colours.

*Top image: Colour scheme based on photo material. Developed by us for FESCA.