We all know that different colors convey different meanings, a ski resort advertisement will most likely be dominated by the color blue, whilst a beach house advertisement will be dominated by colors like orange or yellow.
A lot of you might also already know that colors can be separated into 2 groups, warm and cold. In the examples I've given in the paragraph above, the first example uses warm colors, while the second example uses cold colors.
Let's explore a bit more of this concept, the what and why are colors separated into these 2 groups, how it affects us, and the ways we can use it in our works
What and Why Are Warm and Cold?
To put it simply, warm and cold colors are called such because they evoke the feeling of warmth or coldness. Colors like red, yellow, and orange probably reminds us of the sun, fires, and summer, because it also happens to be the colors of aforementioned things.
While colors like blue, green and indigo reminds us of winter, ice, and rainy days.
In a traditional color wheel, here's how you would divide the colors into warm and cold
Of course, this color wheel only contains 12 colors, so the general rule is that, colors with red or yellow undertone are considered to be warm, and colors with blue or indigo undertone are considered to be cold
But here's where things get interesting, a color can have both a warm and cold version, even if that color is predominantly warm or cold! Here are some examples :
We all know the classic, green, even in the color wheel they are divided, some in warm and some in cold, depending on how the blue and yellow ratio is, you can get a different feel from the same color! Here are some more example:
Notice how they are all still the same color, you can still recognize every color in the first line as purple, the second is brown, and the third is pink, but there is a difference in them, you can see how the right-most colors have a red-ish hue to them, how they seem hot and bright, compared to the left-most colors that have a blue-ish hue, making them seems calmer and in some cases duller
How Warm and Cold Colors Affect Us
In reality, all colors will affect each person differently, the psychology of color covers broad sense of how a color will typically affect a person, but that doesn't mean every person in this world will react the same to the same color.
From the many research I've done, how color affect a person may differ greatly depending on their culture, country, religion, and many more.
That being said, there are some broad example of how a color might affect a person without them knowing! Warm colors are typically inviting, they emulate warmth and comfort, but on the other side it can also express anger and aggressiveness, some studies also say that the color yellow and orange increase appetite.
Cold colors on the other hand are often relaxing and calming and can help with concentration, because it emulates coldness, some says that cold colors will typically decrease appetite.
There are many studies about the psychology of warm vs cold colors out there! If you're interested in the topic, I would recommend doing your own research, as my post is only covering a very broad area of it, here are some website articles that covers the psychology of warm and cold colors in more depths :
How We Can Use Warm and Cold Colors
Both warm and cold colors are good, I'm not here to tell you to only use one or the other, instead you should use both, in balance!
A design that only uses warm color might be a bit intimidating, as I've stated previously, whilst emulating warmth, too much warm color can also emulates aggressiveness or anger. On the other hand, a design with only cold color might not be interesting because it seems to calm and muted, it doesn't have an element that standout.
In the Creating A Color Palette post I've explained how contrast can help balance your color palette and the importance of thinking about the balance in your colors as you create a color palette.
Even in designs for things that is typically associated in warm or cold color, it's better to give a little balance in color. Here's an example, if you're about to make a poster for a ski resort, you might be tempted to use just blue and white, but it might be a good idea to add a bit of warm color like yellow. The use of yellow can be a highlight to help your overall color pops and attract more people. Let's compare the color palettes :
The first color palette is not bad, it's a beautiful monochrome blue palette, and in some cases maybe that's what you need, but in the second color palette, adding a light yellow color makes the other colors pop more, and the soft contrast immediately attracts your eyes more, because in the sea of blue, a yellow stands out more.
Using certain colors to emulate certain feelings can also work into your favor, if you're going to promote a homemade food, using warm colors as your background can give your work that homey and warm feeling, instead of using cold colors. It can also add life to your art.
Here's an example how just the slightest of color change can affect your work :
These are both illustrations I've made, in the first one I use colder colors, it looks nice, but it falls a bit flat, so I added a layer of warm colors and some shadow, and you can see the difference immediately, the second one looks a lot more alive!
So that is how you can utilize warm and cold colors in your work, what do you think? Do you agree that warm and cold colors can greatly affect your works? Let us know in the comments :)