The Psychology of
Design and Marketing

Visual design influences our subconscious beliefs about the people behind the product or service, as well as our purchasing decisions. According to studies, it may play the most important role in customer satisfaction after the product’s quality.

In branding and marketing, visual design is everything. The first impression your brand makes on viewers can stay with them for a long time and influence their perception of your company for better or worse.

Color psychology and visual marketing.

Colors can influence how we feel, think, and behave, with some colors even eliciting strong emotional responses.
People, including potential customers, have psychological ties to different colors, and strategically using branding colors and logo colors can have a significant impact on how your brand is perceived by your audience.

Here’s what the rainbow colors (plus a few extras) can do for your brand identity:

• Red: Red is the color of passion and excitement. It’s the perfect choice if your brand identity is loud, youthful, and exciting.
• Orange: Orange is another high-energy color and is great if you want to appear friendly and playful. It’s used less commonly than red, so will also make you stand out.
• Yellow: Yellow, the color of sunshine, is all about happiness. The cheerful vibe makes it a good choice if you want to feel fun, accessible and affordable.
• Green: An incredibly versatile color, green can be used for just about any brand. Culturally, though, when people see green, they think two things: money or nature. If your brand is tied to either of those things, green is an especially good choice.
• Blue: The most universally appealing color in the spectrum, blue can help your branding to appear more stable and trustworthy, so if you’re looking to appeal to a wide demographic—and get them to trust you in the process—go with blue.
• Purple: Purple is the color of royalty, so if you’re going for a luxurious feel in your branding, this a safe bet.
• Pink: Right or wrong, pink is culturally tied to femininity, so if your brand is targeted towards women, pink should be a definite contender for your brand color. It’s also a great color for brands with a soft or luxurious identity.
• Brown: Brown is perhaps the least use color in all of branding, but that could actually work to your advantage! Any time you do something different, it helps you stand out. Brown can also help people to view your brand as rugged or masculine.
• Black: If you want to be viewed as modern or sophisticated, there’s nothing as classic and effective as black.

Companies have used color as a powerful visual marketing tool for decades because it plays such an important role in influencing people’s perceptions.

Typography psychology

The fonts we choose reveal a lot about our personalities. Understanding how typographic psychology affects our audience is critical for marketing and design professionals.
The typography you chose for your branding materials is referred to as typography. Typography is divided into four categories:

• Serif typefaces (such as Times New Roman or Garamond) contain an anchor (or, to some, small feet) at the end of each letter. If you want your business to appear trustworthy, conventional, and a little old school, use this classic typography.
• If “serif” refers to the foot, “sans serif” refers to the absence of the foot. Sans serif typefaces (such as Helvetica or Franklin Gothic) feature smooth edges and lack the anchor or “foot” that serif fonts have. Sans serif typefaces give brands a more sleek, modern look.
• Script typefaces is designed to look like cursive handwriting (so much for cursive lessons in elementary school!). These fonts (such as Allura or Pacifico) can be used to give your brand a luxurious or feminine feel.
• Display fonts are in a class of their own. Each display font has a unique feature, such as an unusual letter shape, outlines, shadowing, or a more artistic/hand-drawn edge. Want to make a bold statement and establish a brand identity that people will remember? A display font is an excellent choice.

Poor typography choices can turn off readers and even harm your brand, whereas well-chosen typefaces will increase sales and foster positive associations with your product or service.

The font we select for a billboard or print advertisement is just as important as the font we use for our website or social media graphics.

Graphical Elements

When it comes to your designs, you should also consider form and shape. This subtle but effective element can be used to reinforce the desired reaction from your customers: for example, a logo with all circles and soft edges will elicit a very different response than a logo with sharp and square edges.

Here are some examples of how different forms can shape your brand identity (pun intended):

• Round shapes, such as circles, ovals, and ellipses, are all about the warm and fuzzy feelings. Round-shaped brands can evoke feelings of community, unity, and love. The rounded edges are also considered feminine.

• Straight-edged shapes, such as squares, rectangles, and triangles, evoke feelings of strength and efficiency. The no-nonsense lines convey a sense of stability and trustworthiness, but be careful: if the shapes aren’t balanced out with something fun, such as vibrant colors, they can feel impersonal and fail to connect with your customers.
• Straight lines have their own meanings: vertical lines imply masculinity and strength, whereas horizontal lines imply tranquillity and mellow vibes.

Responsive design psychology

The rise of smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices has made responsive design a must-have for any company hoping to remain competitive in today’s market.

While many businesses rely on responsive design to make their websites work on a variety of devices, few think about it when developing their marketing strategy.
Responsive design is one method for ensuring that your site works properly across all devices, but there are also ways to use psychology with responsive web design to improve your customer experience (and increase sales).