2. Red Can Be Both Love and Hate
“The ‘pure’ red of which certain abstractionists speak does not exist. Any red is rooted in blood, glass, wine, hunters’ caps and a thousand other concrete phenomena. Otherwise we would have no feeling toward red and its relations.” –Robert Motherwell
Red is a bit mercurial and is often used to describe opposites:
love and hate
passion and jealousy
celebration and violence, and interestingly
Communism and right wing Conservatism.
It’s also used visually to communicate Stop. Danger. Fire.
If you’re thinking about using red in your branding colors, or in a design project for a client but you’re hesitating because of its intensity, here are a few things to ask yourself and to think about:
Are you designing for a business or an industry where you want to come across as assertive and knowledgeable? Red could be your gal!
Take a walk outside.
Walk down a main street where you live and take note of how businesses have used red in their signage.
What kind of businesses use red?
What various shades of red are you seeing in the signs?
Walk in nature, look at gardens and see what shades of red you find. Do you see it paired with any colors that strike you as beautiful? How do the pairings make you feel?
“A thimbleful of red is redder than a bucketful.” —Henri Matisse
Red has many nuances: A bright tomato red will make a bold statement, where as a warmer brick red will feel earthier.
Use red an an accent color, to direct people to action. For instance on a button or a sign up form. Try it out and see how it looks with your overall design.
Look at red on a white background, and red on a black background—do you see how the white tames the red, just a bit, and the black makes it more vibrant?
Look at it on top of its compliment green, and see how that relationship looks.
And lastly, think about how we use Red in phrases, in idioms, and think about how these phrases hit you, how you could translate the feel into a design, into a painting, into the logo for your company.
Red letter day
Roll out the red carpet
Red light district
Red herring
Caught red handed
Paint the town red
Not a red cent
Red alert
In the red
