The Basics of Color Psychology In Business Card Part One

One thing is certain: color is essential when it comes to design. This is why it is important to familiarize yourself with the basics of color psychology before deciding on your brand colors. Once you understand why a color arouses a certain emotion, you can use the power of color in your branding to communicate on another, often subconscious level and thereafter create a nice looking business card for printing.

What Is Color Psychology? 

Color psychology is the study of how colors affect our ideas and emotions. However, before we go into color psychology, let's define color. 

Colors are how our eyes and brain interpret varying durations of light waves. We view them as distinct tones and tints. All light travels on an electromagnetic spectrum, spanning from the longest to the shortest light waves. 

A tiny spectrum of light waves in the center, ranging from 400 nanometers to 700 nanometers, includes all light visible to the human eye. The many wavelengths within this range give rise to all of the many colors that humans can see. 

Color psychologists investigate our intrinsic and cultural connections with specific colors and how those colors influence our preferences and behavior. 

Let's look at a few real-life examples. There is evidence from Scotland and Japan showing that blue street lights reduce crime and suicide rates. Researchers in color psychology is attempting to explain occurrences like this. Blue street lights may give the impression that something is wrong, causing them to abandon their intentions.

It's also possible that individuals are more cautious since blue lights are often connected with police presence. Or it might be because practically everyone considers blue to be a relaxing hue, and individuals are less aggressive when exposed to blue street lights rather than reddish or yellowish ones.