It is probably the only color with such varied and conflicting triggers for the human brain. You can evoke any emotion you seek with the right shade of red. Even more important for you is to know how to design with it for the best results.
Using Shades of Red in Design
Blood red, blush, brick, burgundy, carmine, China red, cinnabar, crimson, fire engine red, flame, Indian red, madder, maroon, rose, rouge, ruby, russet, rust, scarlet, tomato, Venetian red, and vermilion are synonymous with or represent various shades of the color red.
Nature, Culture, and Symbolism of Red
Red is hot. It’s a strong color that conjures up a range of seemingly conflicting emotions from passionate love to violence and warfare. Red is Cupid and the Devil.
A stimulant, red is the hottest of the warm colors. Studies show that red can have a physical effect, increasing the rate of respiration and raising blood pressure.
The expression “seeing red” indicates anger and may stem from the stimulus of the color and from the natural flush (redness) of the cheeks, a physical reaction to anger, increased blood pressure, or physical exertion.
Red represents power, hence the red power tie for business people and the red carpet for celebrities and VIPs.
Flashing red lights denote danger or emergency. Stop signs and stop lights are red to get drivers’ attention and alert them to the dangers of the intersection.
In some cultures, red denotes purity, joy, and celebration. Red is the color of happiness and prosperity in China, where it may be used to attract good luck.
Red is often the color worn by brides in the East, while it is the color of mourning in South Africa. In Russia, the Bolsheviks used a red flag when they overthrew the Tsar, thus red became associated with communism. Many national flags use red. The red ruby is the traditional 40th wedding anniversary gift.
Awareness Ribbons That Use Red
- Diseases and conditions such as HIV/AIDS, blood disorders, congenital heart defects, diabetes, heart disease, alcohol substance and drug abuse, Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, headaches and migraines, polio survivor, and Hirschsprung’s disease.
- Firefighters.
- MADD.
- D.A.R.E.
- Hospice care.
- Cesarean sections.
When designing a website or publication, use the color red to grab attention and get people to take action. A little bit of red goes a long way. Small doses can often be more effective than large amounts of this strong color. Use red to suggest speed combined with confidence and perhaps even a dash of danger.
Multiple shades of red and even pink or orange can combine for a cheerful palette. Red pairs well with other colors:
- Although not normally considered an ideal coupling, in combination with green, red is a Christmas color, a staple of the joyful season.
- Cool blues provide contrast and tone down the heat of red.
- Light pinks and yellows are harmonizing colors that can work well with red if not too close in value, such as dark red with a pale or golden yellow.
- Be careful using purple with red. It can be an elegant combination, but too much could be overpowering.
- Add a dash of red to a soft but sophisticated pink and gray combination.
- For some countries, including the U.S., red, white, and blue is a patriotic trio even if the shades of red and blue differ from those used in the flag.
The Mysterious Color Red
When you think of the color red sexuality and fertility are likely to come to mind. It’s often used in a ‘suggestive’ way to provoke emotion.
By making something or someone appear desirable the color red can help sell products, set a mood or help to tell a story in Films, Music Videos, Posters and Illustrations.
Love, Passion & Desire
We of course think of Red in relation to being in love. This connection is biological because because red is the color of our blood and we often think of love as being tied to the heart.
Think about how many greetings cards you must have seen it on over the years. It’s easy for this to feel a little cliche so perhaps take the attitude of ‘less is more’ and be discreet when using it to portray love.
The example below is from Paperchase is perfect. It uses a combination of a few colors but the red still stands out.
Nature & Danger
Nature is a great example of the color red being used as a warning sign. Usually if something is red it is poisonous or harmful in some way and the color warns us of that. In a way red is natures version of the stop sign which we have adopted and use in traffic signs today.
This is useful to be aware of when creating any work which involves nature especially if you want something to seem menacing or dangerous.
Leveraging Red in Design and Marketing the right way
We know that red in design works really well and has the potential to bring you the leads and conversions you have been looking for. But the case still remains that it is nothing less than a challenging color. With such a wide variety of reds available in the color wheel, it can be a task to pick the right one for your designs in marketing.
Given how important this color can be for you, Kimp brings you a list of design tips that can help you hack your way into the success that comes with red.
This section will solve all your queries about using red, and if you want to implement them, Kimp’s design subscriptions are just a click away.
Designing branding with red
Let’s start at what’s at the heart of all successful marketing campaigns, and that is a stellar brand identity. If you have a striking and powerful brand identity, success is yours for the taking. Some of the most famous brands have red logos, and we all love them. McDonald’s, Dominos Pizza, Pizza Hut, Colgate, and Netflix are just a few examples.
Branding has three major components, and it is time to explore how to design them with red:
1) Red logo designs:
Red logos can be a great brand asset to have. You want customers to remember your brand’s visual identity wherever they go, and red is the most striking color you can use. The only thing to remember is that it is also a color that becomes too much too soon. And not everyone likes red.
So, for a great red logo :
- Understand your target audience and analyze if an outright red logo is a right choice. If not, you can pick other colors in combination so that you can mellow it down but grab your audience’s attention.
- If you have a packaged product, understand how the packaging design and logo interact before you pick the right shade of red for your logo design.
2) Red website designs
While we love using red in design, an outright red website might be a tad too much. If you feel that this is the color for your brand personality, then you do need red on your website. So what do you do?
Well, by the power of negative space and visual hierarchy, you can have your cake and eat it too. Get a homepage and website designed that celebrates your brand color without going overboard.
Want to build a balanced and well-designed landing page that features red for your brand? Sign up for the Kimp Graphics subscription to get your designs done for a flat fee.
3) Red Packaging designs
Red is great for spotting a product from a distance. Especially if you have a product that often stands on crowded shelves with a lot of foot traffic. Even if your logo design does not have a prominent red color, you can still experiment with red for your packaging designs.
If you have a food-related product, the bright brick red is a brilliant choice. For feminine and personal care products that relate to bold and energetic personalities, pink and red shades bring about the best effect.
Even tech products such as gaming gear and wearables can adopt red packaging. Overall, if you have a young target audience and you want to bring out energy and excitement in them, go with a red packaging design.
Kimp Tip: Red features in the RGB color scheme and CMYK color scheme, so choosing a print-friendly red color shouldn’t be too much a challenge. But since print toners can change the output, work with your design team to get mockups before you go live to make sure everything looks just right.
Looking to spruce up your packaging design with some red in unique way? Check out Kimp Graphics’ guide on using illustrations in packaging design for some ideas.
4) Choose the right color combination
Red is a difficult color to tame, and most times, you should not try to tame it too much. But what happens if you need to use red in a place that’s not right for such a bright presence. Or maybe there is another color that needs to shine. Well, then you play with color combinations to get the effect you are looking for.
Some prominent color combinations with red are:
- The red in pink palette color combinations make the overall effect mellower, giving us some of the most aesthetic color schemes.
- Do you want red to shine without overpowering the whole design? We suggest pairing red with some neutral colors such as white, gray, black, and beige, to name a few. You can see its effectiveness in the example below. This brings in negative space and makes red shine, but not in a very in your face way.
- Color Block and Color Pop color schemes are trending right now. In these color combinations, you can pair red comfortably with other bright colors such as yellow, green, and blue without the overall design becoming too cluttered.
With the unlimited Kimp Graphics and Kimp Video subscriptions, you can get as many revisions as you need to find what color combinations work best for you. And this is at no additional charge – all part of the subscriptions.
5) Use red in the right places
What do we know about red so far? It is great for clicks, brings you attention, and can even lead to better conversion rates. Based on all this, we have a few Kimp Tips on how you can include red in your everyday campaigns, even if you don’t design with red entirely.
- Having Red on CTA buttons can improve your clicks and also grab the user’s attention right off the bat. The scannability of a design increases by a lot when the customers know what you expect from them. They may even skip what you wrote and just click to get the form submitted. Great, right?
- If your headline is more important than the CTA, then we recommend adding some red to the text or accenting elements to draw the eye there.
- Images with red in them are widely popular because they still appeal to the customer’s emotions without overpowering the entire space. So include berries, watermelons, apples – or shapes or elements that have those bursts of color – in your ad designs. This also works for packaging designs, as you see from the example below. Even if there are more colors there, red still takes up considerable attention.
Maximize the Impact of Red in Design and in your marketing with Kimp
Color is a kingmaker in marketing. It can just change the vibe and aesthetic of your designs within a second. Red, especially, is a big powerplayer. Once it is added, there is no way the attention goes anywhere else.
Using red is a great idea to grab users’ attention and also display your brand personality to your audience. Your customers will know who you are in an instant with the right shade of red.
But picking the right one and using it to maximize its impact is a tricky job.
Kimp offers its two unlimited design service subscriptions (Kimp Graphics and Kimp Video) to help get this challenging task off your to-do list.
Our expert team is here to use red judiciously, yet innovatively, for your marketing and branding needs. And our subscriptions offer unlimited design requests and revisions at a flat monthly fee, so the budget is never an issue in the way of achieving your goals.
So why wait? Sign up for our free trial and experience our design team’s expertise before committing.
