Blue Door Painters Color Consultants Offer Advice on the Right Color for Your Washington, DC Business
Confirming the intuition of artists and designers, psychological researchers have recently accumulated significant evidence proving that colors do indeed produce distinct psychological impressions. While the distinctions between colors may be subtle, and each person’s impression of any given color may be slightly different, by following the code of color established by research you can use color to its maximal advantage in the home and business.
Marketing executives everywhere are aware that color can help you sell. Bright colors draw attention, muted colors command respect, pastels invoke the sympathetic feminine… Manipulating color in brochures and websites is an important enough task that it puts food on the table of many a graphic designer. But color can also be utilized in commercial interior design in order to maximize in-store sales. Depending on what you are trying to sell, and who you are trying to sell it to, you will need to develop a different color placement strategy. If you are decorating or remodeling your business, take advantage of Blue Door Painter’s complimentary color consultation service, or follow the basic guidelines outlined below to make color into one of your star salesmen.
If you are selling . . . food at a restaurant,
You want to use . . . warm, spicy, bold colors (reds, oranges, saffron yellows).
And you want to avoid . . . cool pastels, dull neutrals.
Warm colors stimulate the appetite and produce a lively, down-home atmosphere that encourages customers to relax and eat up! In contrast, cool colors and neutrals have a more serious, formal feel that can keep customers in a more intellectual or professional mood and therefore make them less inclined to kick back, linger, and order a second round.
If you are selling . . . arts and crafts, home decorations, toys, or knick-knacks
You want to use . . . lively red, pink, orange, purple, and/or browns
And you want to avoid . . . gray, dull neutrals, cool blues or greens
Artistic and homey products like those listed above are best sold in an atmosphere that feels like fun. In order to create a ‘fun’ atmosphere, a combination of warm colors (like red and orange) with the “creative” color purple and a little bit of earth tones (like tan or brown) mixed in, you create a lively and earthy feel that showcases your wares.
If you are selling . . . electronics, high-end furniture or jewelry
You want to use . . . cool colors, classic neutrals, dark solids (navy blue, hunter green, maroon) black trim
And you want to avoid . . . bright colors, warm colors
Cool colors and classic neutrals trimmed with other neutrals or, for more contrast, with black (like black and white, black and cream, or gray and pale blue), similar to the deep tones of most of the primary colors (like navy, hunter, or maroon) produce a more elegant, serious visual effect. This decor, while it is more somber than is usually desirable in a storefront, is perfect for more expensive retail items (like electronics, furniture, and jewelry), because it inspires trust in the store that will make customers more likely to make high-dollar purchases.