Color Psychology in Logo Design - By Demographic
Color psychology can be continually broken down into smaller and smaller sections, but some vitally important demographics to take account of are age and gender.
Some colors are typically seen as either masculine or feminine, while others are viewed as gender neutral. This can change fairly drastically, however, as evinced by the blue vs. pink for infants. For a long time, a gender neutral color (white, specifically) was the choice for little ones, but in the mid 19th century, pastel colors were introduced, and according to the book Pink and Blue: Telling the Girls From The Boys In America, by author Jo B. Paoletti, the colors were not intended to be gender specific — at first.
In a Ladies' Home Journal article in June 1918 published on Smithsonian website states, "The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl."
So it's entirely likely that color psychology according to gender is what we make it, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
According to a study by Joe Hallock, 57% of men polled chose blue as their favorite color, whereas only 37% of women polled said the same. Earlier studies indicated similar conclusions, with one study from 1897 indicating that blue was preferred over red by men, and vice versa for women.
Though the results are somewhat ambiguous when it comes to differences in what colors actually mean to each gender, it is still fairly clear that the appeal differs depending on whether you are male or female. So for design that is intended chiefly for female viewers or consumers, it makes sense to take preferences into account when choosing your color palette for your logo.
Take upscale clothing lines as an example. When related to clothing, black is seen by women as a slimming, fashionable color; when used in a fashion label logo, it can evoke much the same feeling, to the point that a high number of fashion labels, especially those with lettermark logos, stick with black and white. Prada, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, and Kate Spade New York are all prime examples.
Men's Warehouse, on the other hand, dispenses with the suggestion of sleekness and modern style and opts for solid, comfortable army green and dark orange — perhaps not the "favorite" colors of men who were polled, but certainly evocative of a shopping experience that is more about getting it over and done with than taking time along the journey.
Education in color taste is partly responsible for this, as well as experiences that influence how we view certain colors, but it all boils down to the same: knowing your intended audience and reviewing how they’re likely to respond to a certain color is vital for a successful, memorable logo design.
Source: freepik.com
Talia Wolf in her article states that, with age, "the basic "popular" colors such as red and blue stay high on most people's lists but preferences to other colors such as yellow, green and others tend to change a lot.""And researcher Joe Hallock, mentioned above, found that his polls led to more conclusions based on demographics. “With maturity comes a greater liking for hues of shorter wavelength (blue, green, purple) than for hues of longer wavelength (red, orange, and yellow)."
So if the main tendency as we age is to "cool down" when it comes to our favorite colors, that could play a big part in the choice of logo color, especially if your business is age-oriented, such as a company that provides senior services.
A stand out example of age-oriented color psychology logo decisions is the retail clothing company Justice For Girls. It isn’t just the fun, youthful font with the scribbled heart to dot the I — it’s the hot pink color of the letters and the baby blue accent that would make practically any of the target demographic tug on their mom’s sleeve until they’ve pulled them through the door.
