Color Use: Principles of Design
Color is a powerful tool when creating a work of art, or when designing or styling something such as a car or house. Some colors are able to grab attentions, while others can actually avert attention by seeming mundane. Colors are able to illicit emotions, both because human beings have a natural association with certain colors, and because cultures apply their own meaning to some.
To this end, the designer must be aware of the culture in which the product will enter a market. Associations with color can vary heavily according to both culture and personal association, although norms are becoming more homogeneous thanks to increasing globalization and the dispersal of products internationally.
The shade of White can be associate with many things. In Western societies, there is a strong connection with houses and weddings, with chastity and winter. It is considered the color of purity and of the traditional American household. Of course, white can also connotate paleness, which in Eastern cultures, can signify youth or death. There is no need to market a product that suggests death or immaturity.
Some colors have many associations, are better for illiciting a desired mood. Red suggests passion, the flow of blood and the color of many fruit. People instinctively associate this color with food and blood, but its use creates a cultural reinforcement.