Colour psychology suggests that colour has physical effects on mood and productivity. For example, certain shades encourage memory recall or creativity. It focuses on the subconscious and how reactions to various colours can influence behaviour, emotion and state of being. Colours can help to improve our well-being, whilst others are damaging on focus and general work flow.
Warm colours, like yellow and red, energise and excite, while cool colours, such as blue and green, relax and calm.
Office colour trends are constantly evolving. Organisations are striving to create colourful and homely environments as the line between commercial and residential continues to blur.
Many companies aim to create workspaces that reflect their brand and embody their values. Therefore, the brand colours have a powerful ability to connect people and provide visual reminders to staff of the associated brand values.
In this way, colour has a major role to play in transforming the office into a strategic branding tool. Therefore, ensuring a suitable colour palette could make all the difference in your office. It also affects perceptions from visitors. Reception is crucial in setting first impressions. This area needs to evoke positive emotional responses and use colours to ensure that the brand is instantly recognisable. Therefore, it is essential to choose colours which adequately present yourself to both internal and external audiences.
According to research red can make people’s work more accurate. It helps with recall and attention to detail such as spell checking and punctuation. It is believed to raise mental energy flow and invoke passion. The alarming colours of red can help employees when trying to start a task. Although encouraging, red can be overpowering. It is associated with problematic features like emergencies or alerts to mistakes. People can make associations without consciously being aware of this. Red works well in statement furniture to empower interior spaces.
Blue can make people feel more creative, enabling innovation and imagination. Shades of blue encourages calm and positive emotional feelings. The colour is associated with stability and boosts relaxation and intellectual thought. It is familiar and symbolises trust. Different shades of blue reduce stress and lighten up the environment.
Yellow signifies the start of something fresh. The colour inspires creativity and design due to the energy and optimism of the shade. Yellow shades stimulate mental activity. It is also associated with confidence, positivity and happiness.
Yellow is perceived as the best colour for teamwork areas. Having meeting areas decorated in this bright tone may help introverted employees to raise their voices.
Similarly, to yellow, orange also stimulates energy. Its eye-catching tone can be overpowering so it’s more appropriate in feature walls or furniture. This highly visible colour is a favourite amongst younger generations as it represents determination, happiness and success.
White creates spacious clean looking spaces, especially effective when a lot of natural light is able to pass-through wide-open spaces. However, whilst white represents an illusion of purity and innocence, it can also create boring and uninspiring workspaces. It can end up looking sterile without a fun pop of colour.
Definitely a favourite right now. Green brings the outdoors in. It lifts mood and represents tranquillity. It is believed to increase concentration and relieve stress. Green walls and office plants helps reconnect us to our natural surroundings.
Use colour psychology when decorating your workspace. If there’s a particularly busy area of your office add blue to add a sense of calm. Alternatively, in high concentration areas research suggests purple inspires and stimulates curiosity.
However, it isn’t as simple as paintwork – it can be injected through furniture, flooring and surfaces like natural living walls. More so, office design needs to explore and understand the relationship between all elements including lighting, furniture and textures whilst focusing on the company culture. There needs to be a balance between comfort and productivity.
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Du Foyer is a sister company of Tsunami Axis; both of which are part of the Torrington Group.
Our Du Foyer online shop is available to individual buyers looking for home furniture and equipment as well as corporates looking to provide a homeworking offering to its employees.
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