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Now first and foremost, I want to talk about color theory.
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This is so fundamental to not just digital design, but in fact design everywhere. Because of our retinas
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innate ability to differentiate different frequencies of light waves, we're able to see different colors.
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Of course, you know, you can get very philosophical about this whether it's my version of red is the same
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as your version of red but it's well known that certain frequencies i.e. certain colors or certain shades
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evokes different sentiments in people that are pretty much uniform.
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So let's have a look at some of the various moods that are attributed to different colors and how you
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can use different colors to achieve different ends.
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So the first one we're going to look at is red and this is traditionally associated with love, energy,
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intensity.
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So you end up seeing a lot of car adverts that used red as one of their primary colors in the color
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palette.
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And the reason is it's meant to be exciting, it's meant to be fast and it conveys the intensity that
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people look for in fast cars.
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And also when you're looking at ads that are trying to sell you something relating to love, you see the
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color red being used predominantly in that color palette.
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So I think it's really helpful analyzing adverts because these are essentially really well-thought out
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experiments in persuasion and manipulating human psychology.
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Advertising agencies are essentially really really good at using their print ads or they're moving image
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ads to persuade us to buy certain things. And they do that through different ways either by evoking certain
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emotions within us or by suggesting to us the idea that we could be as happy and successful as the people
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in the adverts
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if only we just bought whatever it is that they were selling to us.
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So I'll leave the ethics and laws aside for the philosophers,
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but in terms of studying what works in design, adverts are really helpful for and helping us identify
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some of those key factors.
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So the next time that you see an ad try to see what techniques they're using or which design principles
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they're using to either make their design look beautiful or try and see what emotion they're trying
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to evoke in you.
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So red sells to people on this idea of intensity, of love, of excitement.
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Now let's look at the next color palette, yellow. And yellow tends to be used for things that try to convey
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joy, happiness, intellect and it's also an incredibly attention grabbing column which is perhaps why if
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you guys remember this advert made the news in the UK certainly about this protein shake company.
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Now of course there's a lot of discussion regarding the message of this advert
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but that's for somebody else to discuss. What I'm interested in is why did this particular ad attract
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so many people's attention
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and in the end criticism when there are so many other adverts that essentially have the same message?
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And I believe part of that is their choice of color palette. The use of this bright shade of yellow is
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incredibly attention grabbing.
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It's like taking a huge fluorescent highlighter and highlighting the whole ad.
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Now I remember seeing them when I was walking around in the London underground system and it was impossible
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to not see it because of how attention grabbing that color is.
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But remember, if you have an app with a background that is this kind of bright yellow because the color
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is so intense,
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people won't be able to stare at it for a very long time and you will get attention fatigue.
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So this is something that is probably better used for attention grabbing purposes, so say for your app
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icon designs or for your apps screenshot designs that go up on the App Store so that when that user
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is scrolling through the App Store that your particular app grabs their attention and becomes the one
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that they download.
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In terms of the actual design for your app for the background or etc. this particular shade of yellow
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is probably a bit too intense.
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And then we've got various shades of green which tend to convey ideas of freshness, safety, growth.
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So you see a lot of food related services using this in that branding
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for example Amazonfresh. What else conveys freshness more than this grassy green color palette?
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And it's also probably why all of these food bloggers managed convince millions of people into this green
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juice craze.
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I mean if you look at the thing it seems to be the very emblem of life and freshness itself even though
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you might be like me and not much of a convert because it tastes absolutely gross, but you can see through
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its color palette why it would appeal to health conscious people.
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So choosing a color palette is not just about you know advertising and attention grabbing,
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it's also about selling your product and appealing to certain instincts or desires that people have.
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Next we're going to talk about blue which has traditionally always been about stability, trust, serenity.
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And you know in fact when you think about anything that's related to medical or medicine or health, it
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tends to be using a blue color palette.
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So here's a tip that you might expect
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from a design class.
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But the next time that you go to a job interview, if you wanted to instantly come across as more trustworthy,
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the tip from the designers is to wear a blue shirt. Without speaking, the color already speaks for you
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and conveys this idea of stability and trust.
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I mean just look at this guy.
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I would give him a job even though he doesn't even have a face.
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So equally when you're making a design that needs people to have faith and trust in you, then blue is
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a good choice.
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And finally we've got purple which is meant to evoke ideas of royalty, wealth, femininity.
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So this is pretty much the color of choice for a lot of payday loan companies and especially those are
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targeting women for some reason.
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But actually it's a beautiful color palette and I wish that more people would use it for projects other
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than payday loans.
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So the next time that you're designing an app, the first thing to think about is what emotions them what
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ideas are you trying to convey in the user and pick a color palette accordingly.