Are You Using Enough Color Contrast for Your Vinyl Lettering and Graphics?

Colors play an vital role in design. Colors send a message to the subconscious about your business or organization and helps make the decision if you are right for them. The custom vinyl graphics that you use for your service truck, personal vehicle or storefront window need to have the right colors to portray the image and message that you want possible customers to see. A study was done about the psychological effect of colors on the mind. We found this information to be important enough to pass along so that everyone can take note and improve on their custom vinyl graphics. We hope that this will assist you in the decisions you make while designing your vinyl graphics and vinyl lettering (Or any custom signage, for that matter!)

What do the colors in my vinyl graphics say to my customers? We have put together information about the most commonly used colors for custom vinyl lettering and graphics, and all other signage.

BLACK suggests prestige, power, boldness, seriousness, professionalism, and is distinguishing and classic. Business wise, it’s good for creating drama and makes a good background color. Blackis ideal for text on a light colored background.

BLUE suggests security, authority, faithfulness and dignity. For business it suggests sanctuary and fiscal responsibility. It is the most popular and the second most powerful color. Blue can also be cold. People are more productive in blue rooms.

GREEN suggests health, fertility, freedom, freshness, healing, tranquility and jealousy. Businesses use it to communicate status and wealth. It is the easiest color on the eye and can improve vision. It is a calm, refreshing color.

ORANGE suggests pleasure, cool, excitement, cheer, endurance, strength and ambition. For business it is good for emphasizing information on charts, documents and graphs.

RED suggests excitement, strength, sex, passion, vitality, and aggressiveness. This color is especially good for grabbing attention. Business wise, red is associated with debt, and is great for boldness and accents. Red is an emotionally intense color, and it stimulates a faster heartbeat and breathing.

Other colors send different messages to the brain. We used these because they are the most popular. Brown, pink, purple and others all make unique impressions your subconscious. Be sure to carefully consider what you want your vinyl lettering and graphics to say before you choose your colors.

Color contrast an extremely important element of your custom vinyl graphics. So what is the best way to use color? Contrast is key. So what exactly does that mean? Contrast is the difference in brightness between the light and dark areas present in a single design. A bright yellow background for example, will contrast well with dark letters such as black, navy blue and even purple. The greater the contrast or difference between the light and the dark colors, the more legible text is from a distance. Colors that are closer together like a medium gray letter against a black background won’t contrast as well and therefore will be harder to read.

Generally speaking, white as a background color is by far the most versatile because more colors naturally contrast better against a plain white background than any other color. When you choose a background color for your vinyl graphics other than white, you limit your choices for colors that will both stand out and “go with” that background color. This is neither good nor bad, but rather just something to ponder when making color choices.

There are no “rules” about colors you can use in the design of your vinyl lettering and graphics. There are just some things to consider when contrasting your colors. Just as certain colors send a message to your subconscious, your eyes trigger messages to your brain that effect the way that you see certain contrasts. For the greatest effect you should avoid using hues. Do not diminish the true color that you are using, unless you are adding a shading effect or something of the likes. Hues are harder for the eye to distinguish. Also be aware that some contrast will create an undesirable visual stimulation. Rather than drawing attention to your message you may be causing the potential customer to look away. If the color contrast makes their eyes uncomfortable they won’t even read what you are saying. Yellow text on a white background is hard to read, while red text on a blue background causes illusions. And green text on a red background actually creates a feeling of vibration. Unless this is what you meant to do with your vinyl graphics, those are combinations to steer clear of.

But choosing the colors for your vinyl graphics is not really as difficult as it seems. By deciding the message and image you want to send to your potential customers and selecting an appropriate contrast of the colors, you can design very successful vinyl lettering and graphics to promote your business.