Colors are well-known for making a visible impact on the audience. In fact, people can make purchase decisions solely based on colors in less than 90 seconds. Colors not only get your brand differentiated from the rest but can be the catalyst of influencing moods and feelings, either positively or negatively, to drive product choices.
When colors have so much influence on the choices that we make in everyday life, this understanding must translate into the choices we make to create display banners. An ideal banner must outperform the big brands and must prompt online users to take the desired action. For this to happen, let’s look at a list of possible color combinations best suited for display ads. Here’s is the list:
- Red, Blue, and Yellow: These are the primary colors, it means when they are combined, they give birth the all the colors in the color wheel. A display banner can be soothing with a white background and small patches of primary colors. There are very few brands out there who go with this kind of minimalistic style. This kind of visual approach is best suited when the attempt is all about showcasing the product’s intrinsic value.
- Blue Palette: This color is closely associated with the sky, the ocean, and ice. It is supposed to signify depth and mystery. The darker the color, the more it depicts intensity and seriousness. When used as a color combination, blue stands out to express nature’s beauty and signifies masculinity. No wonder it is commonly seen in men’s brands (hair care and clothing). The color palette is also used by airlines, tourism agencies, and companies selling construction materials.
- Variations of White: Traditionally, the color white symbolizes purity, cleanliness, and heaven. The color generally gets associated with snow, clouds, and even bridal dresses. Although arguments are challenging white as a color, it provides balance when used in combination and accentuates other colors. Using white in a color scheme can help you convey a sense of elegance, simplicity, and also modesty. In advertising, white is closely associated with luxury, coolness, and premium quality.
- Shades of Red: The color red is mostly used in advertising banners to illustrate desire. From beauty products to branded pizzas – designers have traditionally used the color red to symbolize basic human needs of sex and hunger. By playing with various tones of red, one can achieve a stunning effect on the display banner. This color has become integral in promoting women’s clothes & accessories, along with branded food items. Select white as the font color with red as the background to get a display ad that stands out from the rest.
- Pastel Colors: The use of pastel colors can get you noticed on the most crowded web page. It is appealing because it is closely associated with our childhood – a visit to the candy shop and even marshmallow parties. The color may be sweet in its appeal, but this palette is pretty bold and is the right choice for promoting something like cars. It can be used in display banner to advertise confectionery, women’s makeup, bakery, and kid’s brand.
- Ocean Deep Blue: What we have here is a gradient blue palette with various shades of blue. Incidentally, it happens to be Yahoo’s brand colors. Still, it has a reputation for being a versatile color scheme that can promote a range of products right from men’s clothes to universities to bottled water. Gradient color schemes are known to inducing a pleasant experience for the viewer. Remain mindful of using this color scheme whenever an opportunity for using a monochromatic color combination arises.
- Color Purple: This color originates from a combination of red and blue and is a secondary color not extensively found in nature. It is closely associated with lavender flowers. This color comes with a history of being used by the royals and aristocrats because it was rather expensive to produce. However, times have changed, and we find this color getting used to promote everything from clothes to branded food items. The color has the distinction of symbolizing different meanings depending on the tone. While dark purple depicts luxury and high class, light purple represents tenderness and delicateness.
- Black & Yellow: This color combination is one of the most contrasting color pairs out there. Yellow is known to express warmth and demands attention, while black represents being sober and reserved. However, when they come together, they can grab the viewer’s attention by being uncommonly loud. The usage of the same colors in traffic lights is testimony to the fact that it is scientifically proven to attract attention. Use the combination wisely wherever there is a need to make a statement.
- Blue, Green, & White: This combination in the advertising world represents freshness and cleanliness. This a known color combination used in health and cleaning products. On a subconscious level, blue and green are closely associated with nature, especially blue, which symbolizes oceans and rivers that reminders to wash and bath. This color combination in no way sacrosanct and can be played around with. For instance, introducing red into this combination can make the banner more attractive with red standing out to attract more attention.
- Grey & Green: Though the color green represents nature, it can become urban by getting associated with the color grey. Green is known to represent forests, crops, and the season of spring. In recent times, green has started being used to symbolize overall well-being and good health. Grey, on its own, represents industrial and technological advancement. The combination of the two can depict ‘health technology’ especially useful for new-age health products, which are organic in origin but come with strong scientific backing.
Conclusion:
Now that you are familiar with color combinations that work, you must start creating display banners using them. Another thing to be remembered is that you have to take into account the audience’s preference and create banners. For instance, a display banner for a video maker might have a different set of colors that only works in that native country. Lastly, colors have their place in the banner, but equally important is the message you want to convey. Both have equal weightage – color grabs attention, and the ad copy induces interest in the viewer to go forward and take action.
