Consider The Audience: Color Psychology Depends on Culture, Context.

In other words, colors mean different things to different people in different situations.

From a business standpoint, this is one area where it really pays off to know your target customers, so you can understand what your color choices will mean to them. From your brick-and-mortar lobby to your website to your business cards, the wrong color choice could be an expensive mistake.

Sure, there's the whole "color psychology" thing, where red is stimulating and blue is calming, blah blah blah. But now that we've done actual research, we know that a) the effects of colors have been exaggerated, b) the effects are temporary, c) sometimes, long term effects are the negative extremes of what was intended, and d) the effects and meanings vary according to context and culture.

Let me address a, b, and c together by way of example. A blue room is supposed to be calming. And it is, compared to a more stimulating room, but not compared to an otherwise similar white room (the white one is more relaxing). If you just came from a more visually stimulating room, the moderate calming effect of the blue may last anywhere from a few minutes to a couple hours. After a few months of daily exposure, that blue tends to sink from simply "calming" to somewhere between "de-motivating" and downright "depressing" because of the lack of visual energy.

Takeaway: if you run a funeral home, a somber blue might be calming and ideal for viewings and eulogies, but - I can't resist - deadening in your office. On the other hand, the nearly cliche red-and-yellow theme of the nearest fast food joint is designed to be mildly irritating, so people eat and run, allowing for more customers. But it's also chronically irritating to the employees; is it any wonder they bicker and the drink station is always a mess?

Now, to discuss context, culture and color.

Traditionally, in many parts of Europe and North America, brides wear white as a symbol of purity. You're probably aware that in parts of Asia, white is the color of death! If you're considering colors in the context of global business, you obviously want to be cautious!

Gold is understood globally as a color of wealth and status. But the nouveau riche are much more likely to respond to it than people from "old money", who will consider excessive use as tacky, pretentious, and cheap. It may work in L.A., but limit it to an accent color in New England.

Green is often psychologically linked with money, which might stimulate spending. It's also psychologically linked to mold and toxins, which might not go over well in a restaurant. On the other hand, people may connect green to conservation, freshness and health. If you're designing a logo for a pest control company using organic products, your customers may perceive green as environmentally aware, or as highly toxic. The right hue might be a win-win.

And then there's black. In most Anglo-based cultures, black can be psychologically linked to evil and/or death (the ultimate in serious). Too much, the wrong way, can actually lead people to aggression, passive or otherwise. But when you add an equal share of fluorescent lime green, orange, or pink, you've turned it on its head and made it a fun, edgy, hip color.

Takeaway: even the right color can be wrong in certain contexts or cultures. This is one of those areas where it pays to really know your audience. Before you invest in a graphic designer, website developer, brick-and-mortar decorator, business cards, and company logo polo shirts, consider the cost if your color choice is misunderstood.