Colour and Branding on the Web: Blue and Red

I have always been interested in the role that colour plays in psychology and marketing. Obviously, different cultures perceive different colours in a different way. 

The following articles look at colour branding trends for websites and logos - blue and red are the most used colours on the web, and this has been the trend for awhile (1). I think that blue has always been a popular colour in branding because it is a colour that most people respond to; typically it is also a favourite colour of many worldwide. Blue is a colour accepted by other males and females as the most favourite colour worldwide (2).

Using the correct colours or colour combinations in branding is important, and companies spend a lot of money on their image. Blue is one colour that has wide appeal, so I believe that many companies, particularly start-up companies, use this colour. The colour is also widely-used across different types of companies. The colour is a calming and stable colour, but blue can also be used to signify importance and power. Twitter, Facebook, Hewlett Packard, Dell, Paypal, Expedia, CNN, Wal-mart, NHS, and Microsoft are all examples of websites (and corporations) that use blue as a predominate colour.

Red is popular as well, and popular brands that use this colour include BBC, CNN, YouTube, Yahoo!, Adobe, Coca Cola, Canon, and About.com.

Although blue and red are the most popular colours for brands, other brands are spending more money on selecting other colours and getting the shade of colour trademarked, such as T-mobile has done with the colour magenta; if all brands did this, colours would be a limited resource (3).

(2) Anatomy in Colors in Web Design: Blue and the Cool Look, Aidan Huang. January 22, 2010. [http://www.onextrapixel.com/2010/01/22/anatomy-of-colors-in-web-design-blue-and-the-cool-look/].