Nobody is born knowing what a color means. We learn it, and it changes with place, faith and generation. Here are the six that come up most.
- Red
- Red means energy, appetite and urgency, which is why it sells food and marks a sale. It also means danger, and debt. In Chinese tradition it is luck and celebration, the color of New Year envelopes, and many Indian brides wear it. On a button, red says "now". On a whole page it can say "warning".
- White
- White is space, cleanliness and calm, and it is the ground of most websites. In Britain and the US it is the bride's color. In Chinese and many Hindu traditions it is the color of mourning. A white site rarely offends anyone, but a page with nothing else can feel clinical. That suits a dentist better than a bakery.
- Green
- Green is nature, health and "go". In the US it is also money. It has a special place in Islam, and it stands for Ireland. Political parties in many countries use it, so a bright green can read as a cause. Deep greens read as heritage, bright ones as eco.
- Gold
- Gold means reward, quality and celebration, from medals and festivals to wedding jewelry in many cultures. A touch of it says premium, and a lot of it says flashy. Gold text is also hard to read on a light ground, so on a website it belongs in shapes and lines, not in text.
- Blue
- Ask people their favorite color and blue comes top in surveys in many countries. Banks, insurers and software companies know this. That popularity is also blue's weakness, because a blue site can look like everyone else's. It is political too: blue means the Democrats in the US and the Conservatives in the UK.
- Black
- Black means authority and luxury, and it is the ink on every page. In fashion and jewelry it reads as premium. It is also a color of mourning in many places. A mostly black site feels like evening: good for a cocktail bar, heavy for a nursery.
None of this is a rule, and all of it depends on who is looking. The same green is a garden to one visitor and a political party to another. So before you choose, ask who your visitors are.
