Readers Respond: How Important is Color Symbolism on Your Web Page Designs?

White is for weddings, no red is for weddings, and white is for funerals, no black is for funerals. Color symbolism by culture can be a big deal. But does it matter for Web designers?

Do you spend a lot of time thinking about the colors you're using for a design? If you do, does the culture of your presumed audience come into play? How much effort do you put into creating color palettes for a global audience?

not very

1 of 9 human males are color-blind. I'm told that red is different than green but, I can't prove it without a spectrometer.

—Guest bbannon

Colours

I used to follow the Henry Ford approach: "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black". Well, actually I mostly use v. dark grey. But I used the club colours for a cricket club website, and I rather like it now that I have become used to it. http://www.demijohns.net/ JPL

—Guest

This is dumb

Why are you making such a big deal out of what color your page uses? You should be more focused on the content on your website, the drop down menus, the organization, homepage outline, etc. Color is the last thing you should worry about. Personally, though, I would go with black letters and a white background. The only color that should be different is your logo. By the way, links should always be blue.

—Guest Areyoukiddingme

I beg to differ.

I personally believe that color schemes should be based on a sequence of rules: first being tradition, and second being color theory. Tradition is about the human eye and what it perceives based on our entire culture. For instance, red when used in political ads or banners easily spells communism; and the same red is also perceived as a good appetizing color and is best suited for those applications. Color theory is when we take the color we want, and then accentuate it with a complementary, monotonous, or analogous color. Nature colors also work well (brown+green, orange+light blue, etc.).

—Guest Thisn2s

Color Symbolism Is Most Important!

I am the owner of Cranberry Corners Gift Baskets. We are constantly updating the colors we use on our website as an impressive colorway is your invitation to your buyer to enter your site. If your colors are not pleasing to the eye, purchasers will simply skip your site in favour one which looks professional and inviting. If your colors are garish or too strong they will turn off many consumers. Before you decide, may I suggest you browse the top 30 sites for your category and analyze their color choices. Don't select colors simply because they appeal to you - mimic the professionals. This is an inexpensive and easy solution for selecting a professional and inviting color palette for your site. Patti, www.cranberrycorners.ca

—CranberryCornersGifBaske

Pink is just for baby girls right?

I had to design a site once for a motorcycle group who's logo was a pink rose (for friendship, I think) and they wanted their site to reflect that color. But there were people in the club who thought pink was only for baby girls. So there were a bunch of fights about the color scheme. I wish thye had decided on the colors befor they brought me in.

—Guest Maos

colors

hot colors and cool colors is used artists, advertisers, symbolic s, graphic media

—Guest pjagadeesan artist

Going for Ohio target

Designing for local dance and music sites really only has me worrying about accessibility issues. (varying degrees of color-blindness) That being said, I will always fall back to Victorian color standards since they influence our (american) perceptions.

—Guest Dwight

Color symbolism

I work on federal govt. websites that always want something close to a red/white/blue color scheme. I try to minimize red and emphasize pale gray or white backgrounds.

—Guest genkichin