How colour affects communication

Colour has an important significance in our lives as well as in our communication. A colour can force us to think something and finally to do something. As a simple example, when we see red light in traffic, we are bound to stop and when green light comes, we start moving. This is a universal example of communication between a person and colour. Colour is a very powerful and important medium of communication and it is related to religious, cultural, political and social influences. Most of the human reaction to colour is sublimal and a person is generally unaware of the pervasive and persuasive effects of colour. Normally we are mostly affected by non-verbal communication and colour is an important tool of exchanging ideas.
Sometimes our mind is attracted or affected by a special colour because every person on earth has her/his favourite colour. For example, the energetic persons like red, simple and calm people like white, etc. Yellow colour often makes people feel happier, and blue i brings down blood pressure and slow your heart rate which is why it is often associated with being relaxing. If we combine the happiness of yellow and the relaxing feel of blue you get green, a very pleasing colour for many people.
Colour psychology:
Colour psychology means how we react to different colours in our environment. Colour is a form of light and it travels through waves, on the same electro-magnetic spectrum as radio and television waves, microwaves, x-rays etc. If the sunlight is shown to a glass prism, then we can see the different colour components of sunlight. When light strikes any coloured object, the object will absorb only the wavelengths that exactly match its own atomic structure and reflect the rest wavelengths - which is what we see. It is very easy to understand how the colour of anything is a clear representation of its atomic structure or, in simple terms, what it is made up of. When light strikes the human eye, the wavelengths do so in different ways, influencing our perceptions. In the retina, they are converted into electrical impulses that pass to the hypothalamus, the part of the brain governing our hormones and our endocrine system. The hypothalamus governs the body's biological clock.
Colour is energy and the fact that it has a physical effect on us has been proved time and again in experiments - most notably when blind people were asked to identify colours with their fingertips and were all able to do so easily. The shorter the wavelength, the stronger the underlying physical effect.
Colour is Nature’s own powerful signalling system - the universal, non-verbal language. Scientifically, it is the first thing we register when we are assessing anything: a very simple and obvious example of that is our reaction to a fly in our home: if it is black or navy blue, we will probably find it a minor irritation, but if it has yellow stripes our reaction will be different - most of us will recoil.
Little children, who cannot even speak their feelings, show their interest towards a set of crayons, as children normally love bright things.
It is also true for the adults as they prefer for one colour over another, which reveals their true personality; the characteristics of their “self” and of the eye with which they see from within.
Effect of colour in Business:
Marketing psychologists advise that a lasting colour impression is made within ninety seconds and accounts for 60 percent of the acceptance or rejection of an object, place, individual, or circumstance. Because colour impressions are both quickly made and long-held, decisions regarding colour can be highly important to success.
When people purchase something, normally they are most attracted towards the colour of the product. They discard a good product, if it is packed in a colour, they don’t like.
# Retailers can convert sightseers to purchasers;
# Marketers can know every time precisely what effect their branding and promotional communications will have on their consumers;
# Every company can use the Colour Affects System to reduce absenteeism and raise motivation in the workplace. Sending staff on motivation courses is great - but you are wasting your money if the light of enthusiasm dies in their eyes as soon as they come back, to work in a grey, colourless, world.
# The right colour Packaging will increase sales of your products
# The colours of the Products themselves can attract more sales
#In the Public Sector - prisons, hospitals, schools - colour psychology can make a huge difference, in terms of 'client' behaviour and staff motivation

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