>What I have heard, there was some research and it turned out that blue
>and orange are best for branding. Blue has something to do with an
>image of serious, stable and respectful corporation, orange is for
>vitality and innovation.
>We've had a burst of not so innovative branding later on.
I confess I use a lot of orange in my designs (most of the time
combined with gray shades or blue). I do a lot of design for web applications
that have specific needs and constraints and, in this case, I think it is
important to combine cold and warm colors to create respectively neutral and
impressive zones/elements on the page. I have two reasons for using this kind
of color combination: first, I believe that most oranges are perfect for the
screen (it is kind of easy to create good contrast and lisibility, they're not
too flashy, they create a positive, gay environment); and second: the other
warm colors like red, pure yellow, violet, rose, etc are hard to use. Elements
and zones in red (specially for web applications) can be interpreted as
negative info or be too flashy. Pure yellow/light yellow gives poor content
contrast and on the screen it can be very flashy and stressing. Violet and rose
are far too much "stigmatized" and can be used only in specif situations.
Of course I speak here very superficially. We can do wonderful things
using red or even rose (ok, this one I don't like...). The choice of colors are
always dependent on the site's/client's identity and on the overall desired
look-and-feel. But it is true that when I think about a dynamic, positive,
contemporary look-and-feel for a site, I think right away about orange/gray,
orange/blue.
Cheers!
Angela
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