The Emotional Effect of Color and Packaging Design (I)

Abstract: Packaging and decoration is the final process of product production, and is the external form of the product. As a visual communication tool, color is an important way to strengthen this external form. The use of packaging color is to draw the attention and love of consumers as a starting point , so that consumers have the desire to buy, and finally achieve the purpose of merchandising.

Keywords: packaging and decoration subjective emotion objective emotion color association color

Packaging and decoration is an important part of commercial art. It is an art form with practical value and appreciation value for the purpose of protecting commodities, beautifying commodities, conveying commodity information, and promoting sales of commodities.

Packaging and decoration are strictly two different concepts and have their own meanings.

Packaging is the use of appropriate materials, through a certain number of technical methods to achieve a variety of containers that are compatible with the commodity, the solid, liquid, gas and other different forms of products filled up, so that in the storage and transportation, sales, Xiao Fei process, to achieve The purpose of product protection. It basically belongs to the material production of industry.

Decoration is the packaging container, through the idea, composition, image, text, color and other artistic techniques, beautify, prompt, introduce the product, arouse consumers' attention and love, resulting in the desire to purchase, to achieve the main purpose of merchandising. Basically belongs to the ideological field of artistic creation. Color as one of the components, in the packaging design, how to look at the role of color in the packaging design, how to use color to stimulate the emotional effect of people to promote sales, I talk about personal views on this issue.

The role of color for packaging design and packaging requirements for color

First, packaging can not be separated from color

Packaging and decoration is the final process of product production, and is the external form of the product. As a visual communication tool, it is by no means a non-essential thing, but the face of the product. Color is an important way to strengthen this external form. Color can leave the packaging and decorating independently, packaging can never be separated from the color, packaging not only gives the product a unique personality, but also for the product to establish a perfect visual image.

Second, the color of the package should attract attention

Marx once said: The feeling of color is the most popular form of beauty. In the visual arts, colors tend to have strengths that preoccupy human beings. Japanese scientists have discovered that when people observe objects, regardless of men, women and children, people’s attention to color accounts for about 80% of human vision, and the attention to shape is only 20%. about. Therefore, there is a saying that “look at the colors to see the flowers,” and “look at the colors before looking at the flowers”. Then, if you want to seize the attention of consumers, the primary problem to be solved is that the choice of packaging design should attract people's attention. Most people nowadays like to buy their own goods in unsold supermarkets. Packaged goods must quickly attract the attention of consumers to purchase goods. This will lead to further judgments and purchases by consumers. Is one of the factors that promote the sale of goods.

Third, the packaging color should cause goodwill

The color of the package that can cause consumers to feel good is an important factor that finally prompts consumers to decide to purchase goods.

When people see a colored object, color as a kind of stimulus can make people produce a variety of emotions, which is a well-known phenomenon. Customers never choose products that they do not like. In China, the colors of gift boxes for the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Spring Festival are mostly red, yellow, gold and silver to reflect festiveness, auspiciousness, happiness, reunion, and prosperity. If there is a black-and-white congratulations on the New Year gift box, the majority of Chinese will not buy it. Although black on the black background has been eye-catching and easily recognizable, it does not give rise to the goodwill of consumers in the special days of this festival. Therefore, such packaging loses its promotional function. A market survey in the United Kingdom shows that when a housewife goes shopping in a supermarket, the goods purchased through exquisite packaging are usually more than 45% of the budget, which indicates that the packaging design is very attractive.

There are thousands of colors in the natural world, and there are 2 million to 18 million colors that can be distinguished. There are different consumer groups for different products. In the face of different commodities and different consumer groups, we can create attractive products. Visual image, but also can choose to make consumers psychologically pleasant color, is the special requirements of packaging design for color selection. Exploring the universal laws of color in people's psychological reactions is a fundamental requirement for designers.

First, designers should understand that people’s perceptions of color are generalized from the three attributes of color: hue, lightness, and saturation.

The situation mainly includes two major parts:

(a) Subjective feelings - feelings based on the individual's subjective consciousness. In this respect, each person decided their opinion of color and likeness due to factors such as culture, occupational age, ethnicity, and customs.

1, the relationship between color psychology and age

According to the study of experimental psychology, as people age, the physiological structure also changes, and the psychological impact of color also differs. Some people have done statistics. Children mostly love bright colors. Babies love red and yellow, children aged 4-9 love red, 9-year-olds love green, and 7- to 15-year-old boys have green, red, blue, yellow, white, and black colors; Hobbies are green, red, white, blue, yellow and black. As we age, people’s color preferences gradually shift toward polychromatic and approach black. In other words, the older the age, the more mature the favorite color. This is because children have just entered this vast world, their minds are blank, everything is fresh, they need simple, fresh, and intense colors; as their age grows, their experience grows, and the brain neural memory pool has been Other stimuli take up a lot, and the color sensations become mature and soft.

2. The relationship between color psychology and occupation and culture

Manual laborers love bright colors, and mental workers love to reconcile colors; farming and pastoral areas love extremely vivid colors that complement the surrounding environment; senior intellectuals love more sophisticated colors such as complex colors, elegant colors, and blacks.

3, the relationship between color psychology and ethnic, customs

Due to differences in different ethnic groups, customs, lifestyles, etc., people's aesthetic sense and aesthetic experience are also different. In this regard, when designers choose colors, they must consider the main sales targets of the goods and the preferences and taboos of the sales regions for color.

(b) Objective emotions - Most people have a general understanding of color effects. That is, choose anyone who sees a certain color, no matter who will produce the same feeling. This is a phenomenon confirmed by experts' actual tests. It mainly includes the following aspects:

1, the color of the cold and warm feelings - mainly determined by the hue of psychological feelings.
2, the sense of color - mainly determined by the brightness of psychological feelings.
3, the color of soft and hard feelings - mainly determined by the psychological feelings of lightness.
4, the strong and weak sense of color - mainly determined by the color and brightness of psychological feelings together.
5, bright colors and melancholy feelings - psychological feelings mainly determined by the brightness and chroma.
6, the color of excitement and a sense of calm - mainly by the hue, lightness and saturation caused by psychological feelings, especially the main chroma.
7, color gorgeous and rustic sense - mainly caused by the color, brightness and hue of the psychological feeling, the largest impact of chroma.

Second, to be sure that the color you choose can indeed affect the feelings of consumers, then people's habits of color associations are also something we must understand.

There are two kinds of color associations:

(1) The association of specific things: White can remind people of winter snow, white clouds on the blue sky, and cotton; red can remind people of the sun, red flags, blood, festival lanterns, etc.

(B) The association of abstract concepts. For example, while associating with specific things, red can also remind people of the positive aspects of positive association, enthusiasm, warmth, advancement, excitement, and joy. It can also remind people of The negative side of abstract associations such as war, danger, disaster, explosion, terror, and tyranny.

Understand the emotional factors of color and people's association characteristics after seeing color. In the color selection of packaging and decorating, we should regard consumers as the center, follow people's long-term visual perception of commodities and the customary appreciation concept formed during the specific use. With the aesthetic taste, when choosing colors, it can start to attract consumers' attention and affection. This will enable consumers to have a desire to buy, and finally achieve the purpose of merchandising.