Color is an important part of any product packaging design.
Color is an important part of any product packaging design.
Why should you care about a good color combination?
Color is an important part of any product packaging design. It can stimulate people's imagination and mood, and colors from an aesthetic color palette can help brands to stand out from their competitors.
Color psychology is incredibly influential in everything we humans do today; the right colors can make or break a design and even influence how people feel.
However, a lot can go wrong when choosing the worst color combination for your product packaging design. Leaving a bad impression is different from what you want to do!
It takes a good eye to spot the perfect color combination for packaging, and picking colors that complement each other is one of the most important parts of packaging design.
So, Why can’t you slap red on your packaging design?
How big a factor does color selection play in packaging design?
People make up their minds within 90 seconds after looking at the product, and 90% of the assessment is based on color alone.
Choosing the perfect colors for your packaging is what sets your brand apart. From a consumer’s point of view, the color dramatically impacts your product's purchasing decision over your competitors.
The color black, for example, is used in many car commercials to illustrate their model since it is associated with affluence and seriousness.
Package colors notably affect consumers and can invoke the right emotions to produce amazing results. Is there a color that has a negative impact?
So, let's look at some of the worst color combinations to avoid.
When we talk about Red and Green, these are some favorite color schemes for the holidays and cereal boxes in grocery shops.
Red and green work together for those homemade Christmas tree ornaments your plan to make during the season, but these are bad combinations when used on packaging or any web design.
When these two are combined, the text printed is hard to read. The clashing colors cause customers' eyes to reach negatively and cause “vibrate” in contrast, tiring the reader’s eye.
In short, the pair results in a confusing mess with mixed signals.
The green and purple colors are attention-grabbing and not attention-keeping. Although it might catch the viewer's attention, it could be more easily readable.
As contrasting colors, purple and green go together perfectly in living rooms.
You may only sometimes land up with a notable color when mixing purple and green. The contrast of both colors makes both pairs look uncomfortable, and the text in the background is too hard to read.
When you want a viewer to get interested, make their eyes comfortable so they can continue reading.
Until you are looking for a patriotic look, red and blue are two bold colors that add a bright mess to your design.
Where it’s okay to use the combination to participate in patriotic functions, but it’s not okay to use them in packaging design. These two colors can majorly create a bold look, decreasing readability.
Further, the red color overpowers the blue and makes customers feel dizzy if they stare for too long. If you want to use both colors, make sure to add white as the main color and add an accent of red and blue.
Green and yellow are both very light colors, so they don't contrast well with each other. This can make your packaging design look washed out and boring.
Additionally, green and yellow are both associated with low-quality, cheap products. So if you're trying to sell a high-quality product, you will need more than this color combination.
It needs to be more professional and make it easier to navigate your design properly.
Brown is a hard color to mix seamlessly with the packaging design, and mixing with yellow is the worst combination.
The combination is unpalatable and can turn away your customers. The brown is unappealing and dull, while yellow makes the text hard to read.
Keep yellow with other happy and fun colors while brown with earthy tones.
Another combination to avoid is green and orange. The combination looks unpleasant as it’s loud, citrusy, and bright, making customers difficult to look at the product.
Further, some customers love to keep staring at the combination, which makes reading the text printed on the packaging confusing.
Bright orange doesn’t go well with a vibrant green regarding packaging because they clash with each other. This is because both colors have similar luminance and are triadic pairs.
What comes into your mind when you see green & purple? The Incredible Hulk, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, right?
Nothing is associated with your business; these colors are great to grab attention but not for too long. The contrast of both colors makes them look uncomfortable, and the text in the background becomes harder to read.
Now, there is always the exception to the above advice. There are no hard rules to combining any color; you can experiment with the color combinations and find the best that works with your brand.
The question is how to choose the best color combination for your brand.
Attractive color schemes on packaging design can grab customers’ attention and help your brand stand out.
Color psychology is all about the relationship between customers and human behaviors. As we said before, colors can affect people's emotions and influence their purchasing decision, so choosing colors that create the right effect for your customers is important.
Here are some principles to follow:
Is your brand already defined by a few dominant or core colors, but do you need more ideas?
Or do you want to create primary & secondary color palettes based on your pre-selected colors?
Using a color palette generator tool will allow you to create a custom palette for your project. Working with a color palette ensures you can avoid wrong color combinations that clash.
Color palette generators can help guide you when choosing a color for your packaging design. In addition, they can help you discover new color combinations.
If you're familiar with the basic color theory, use the color formulas above to start experimenting.
Take inspiration from around the world, whether in nature, food, fine art, and the other endless possibilities around you. You should reflect your brand personality in places where you find inspiration.
For example, if you are selling natural-made products, you might look inspiration in natural beauty like forests, gardens, and more. Compose your color palette based on four to five scenes, and use those colors throughout your branding.
Before deciding on your color palette, get to know who you are as a brand. Your brand needs to be viewed as you want it to be.
You can use the following questions to help identify your brand:
You can create the right color combination using color psychology and the brand's personality. To convey or present your brand's identity, you will need to combine them in the right way.
When it comes to product packaging design, finding the perfect color combinations can be a challenge. But with the help of a professional designer, you can create a unique and eye-catching design that will make your product stand out on the shelves.
A professional designer will help you choose color combinations that complement your product and branding. They will also consider the overall aesthetic of your packaging design, ensuring that everything comes together seamlessly.
A professional packaging designer will have the knowledge and expertise to help you choose the perfect colors for your product packaging design.
It is important to use only consistent colors in your product packaging design. Using colors that complement each other will create a more visually appealing design that is more likely to catch the eye of potential customers.
And believe it or not, Bizongo Desworks can help you with all your packaging design needs with the best affordable solutions for your brand!
We are Desworks, the design arm of Bizongo. We design brands, packaging, products and have delivered 85+ successful projects in the last 5 years of our existence.
Our winning formula for brands, packaging has a mix of aesthetics, functionality, and experience.
We Bizongo Desworks are here to make your (brand, product & packaging) design work.