out of the blue
OUT OF THE BLUE
15/11/2023
A friend of mine tried to sell his four year old Porsche. For a long time. "Nobody will buy it" he concluded "because it is dark blue".
Dark blue, until not so long ago the reigning king of financial institutions when it comes to Visual Identification, seems to have lost its appeal. It is a colour that is supposed to express security, knowledge, authority, stability, reliability. Ideal for a bank, it seems, or jeans; maybe not so ideal for a sports-car?
Blue is for banks
Back in the 1980's, and before, it was uncommon to find a bank that did not use blue as part of its identity. A well known financial institution like ING Group is connoted with orange nowadays. But until 2009, the Postbank, that merged with ING Group, was blue. Postbank - using light blue - emerged from a merger with the dark blue NMB bank. The fact that Postbank used light blue instead of dark was in itself already a revolution; they used to be called the Rijkspostspaarbank - National Postal Savings Bank - and both their name as well as their lead colour since 1881 - dark blue - seem pretty boring nowadays.
source: Delpher "From Rijkspostspaarbank to ING Bank"
Corporate Identities for banks were serious: if not blue, then for sure some coat of arms. Or a dark blue coat of arms, like Rijkspostspaarbank. A benchmark used to be Deutsche Bank, with its minimalistic form, and single, plain navy blue colour, that they are using until today.
Joan Miró's bank logo revolution
It was in fact the Spanish who started a revolution in the perception of bank identifications and use of colours. In 1982, the La Caixa bank presented a logo made up of yellow and red shells and a sea star, designed by artist Joan Miró. Although the sea star is cyan, the form of the logo was a sensation; it was completely different from anything else in the financial world. The logo is characteristic, happy, original, and totally reminds of a travel agency.
More banks followed, especially during the early 1990's, financial institutions started experimenting with more creative and approachable branding, using hand drawn shapes and bright colours.
source: Library of Congress / Caixa Bank "The Caixa Bank logo by Joan Miró"
Branding trends evolve, and so many of those frivolous logotypes have changed into more minimalist designs over the years. But dark or navy blue somehow never made a full comeback in the financial world, and we seem to treat it like a dull or boring colour option.
The world's favourite colour
A 2015 English survey revealed, that blue is people's most common favourite colour, even in China.
An earlier 1941 survey already hinted that blue was the world's favourite colour, and another 2017 UK-based survey with 30.000 participants in a 100 countries declared, that "Marrs Green" had been chosen the world's favourite. Hang on, Marrs GREEN? That's right: Marrs Green is in fact ... blue. It is greenish blue, blue-er even than turquoise?
source: GFSmith / "Marrs Green - is it green or blue?"
Depending on your monitor or abilities of your sight, one can argue about Marrs Green being blue of rather green. I stick with blue. But then again, how many colours do we call 'blue'? Periwinkle, Navy, Prussian blue, Savoy, Neon and Egyptian blue, Baby blue, Liberty, Ultramarine, Cobalt, Celeste, Cyan, Steel blue. Even Tiffany blue and Teal are counted to the blue shades. Teal is just slightly darker than Marrs Green.
And why do we like blue so much, according surveys, since we obviously no longer want our cars, and bank logos, to be blue?
Why do we like blue?
Psychologists Stephen Palmer and Karen Schloss did an research that took them seven years to complete. The study, initially published in 2010, proposes that an individual's affinity for a specific colour can be deduced by calculating the collective level of fondness for all objects linked to that hue. For instance, your inclination towards the colour orange is intertwined with your sentiments towards pumpkins or oranges, traffic cones or the Dutch royal family. Similarly, your fondness for green is influenced by your perceptions of meadows, the backside of American dollar bills, or spinach.
According to Schloss; "Upon closer inspection of the elements associated with the colour blue, a predominantly positive pattern emerges. It becomes challenging to identify negative associations with blue. Many items we typically consider as blue and negative don't inherently possess that blueness." For instance, blue mould tends to lean towards green in appearance, while bruises often exhibit shades of purple or yellow rather than blue.
As a substitute, our affiliation with blue predominantly revolves around the sky and water, along with more ordinary items like ballpoint pens, or blue jeans. This collective alignment contributes to elevating the average preference for blue above other colours in the spectrum.
The sky is blue, especially when it's sunny. A starry sky is more associated with very dark blue than with black. Clean water, oceans, our planet, we define it as being blue. Liking blue seems to be hardwired to our DNA.
Dark blue, until not so long ago the reigning king of financial institutions when it comes to Visual Identification, seems to have lost its appeal. It is a colour that is supposed to express security, knowledge, authority, stability, reliability. Ideal for a bank, it seems, or jeans; maybe not so ideal for a sports-car?
Blue is for banks
Back in the 1980's, and before, it was uncommon to find a bank that did not use blue as part of its identity. A well known financial institution like ING Group is connoted with orange nowadays. But until 2009, the Postbank, that merged with ING Group, was blue. Postbank - using light blue - emerged from a merger with the dark blue NMB bank. The fact that Postbank used light blue instead of dark was in itself already a revolution; they used to be called the Rijkspostspaarbank - National Postal Savings Bank - and both their name as well as their lead colour since 1881 - dark blue - seem pretty boring nowadays.
source: Delpher "From Rijkspostspaarbank to ING Bank"
Corporate Identities for banks were serious: if not blue, then for sure some coat of arms. Or a dark blue coat of arms, like Rijkspostspaarbank. A benchmark used to be Deutsche Bank, with its minimalistic form, and single, plain navy blue colour, that they are using until today.
Joan Miró's bank logo revolution
It was in fact the Spanish who started a revolution in the perception of bank identifications and use of colours. In 1982, the La Caixa bank presented a logo made up of yellow and red shells and a sea star, designed by artist Joan Miró. Although the sea star is cyan, the form of the logo was a sensation; it was completely different from anything else in the financial world. The logo is characteristic, happy, original, and totally reminds of a travel agency.
More banks followed, especially during the early 1990's, financial institutions started experimenting with more creative and approachable branding, using hand drawn shapes and bright colours.
source: Library of Congress / Caixa Bank "The Caixa Bank logo by Joan Miró"
Branding trends evolve, and so many of those frivolous logotypes have changed into more minimalist designs over the years. But dark or navy blue somehow never made a full comeback in the financial world, and we seem to treat it like a dull or boring colour option.
The world's favourite colour
A 2015 English survey revealed, that blue is people's most common favourite colour, even in China.
An earlier 1941 survey already hinted that blue was the world's favourite colour, and another 2017 UK-based survey with 30.000 participants in a 100 countries declared, that "Marrs Green" had been chosen the world's favourite. Hang on, Marrs GREEN? That's right: Marrs Green is in fact ... blue. It is greenish blue, blue-er even than turquoise?
source: GFSmith / "Marrs Green - is it green or blue?"
Depending on your monitor or abilities of your sight, one can argue about Marrs Green being blue of rather green. I stick with blue. But then again, how many colours do we call 'blue'? Periwinkle, Navy, Prussian blue, Savoy, Neon and Egyptian blue, Baby blue, Liberty, Ultramarine, Cobalt, Celeste, Cyan, Steel blue. Even Tiffany blue and Teal are counted to the blue shades. Teal is just slightly darker than Marrs Green.
And why do we like blue so much, according surveys, since we obviously no longer want our cars, and bank logos, to be blue?
Why do we like blue?
Psychologists Stephen Palmer and Karen Schloss did an research that took them seven years to complete. The study, initially published in 2010, proposes that an individual's affinity for a specific colour can be deduced by calculating the collective level of fondness for all objects linked to that hue. For instance, your inclination towards the colour orange is intertwined with your sentiments towards pumpkins or oranges, traffic cones or the Dutch royal family. Similarly, your fondness for green is influenced by your perceptions of meadows, the backside of American dollar bills, or spinach.
According to Schloss; "Upon closer inspection of the elements associated with the colour blue, a predominantly positive pattern emerges. It becomes challenging to identify negative associations with blue. Many items we typically consider as blue and negative don't inherently possess that blueness." For instance, blue mould tends to lean towards green in appearance, while bruises often exhibit shades of purple or yellow rather than blue.
As a substitute, our affiliation with blue predominantly revolves around the sky and water, along with more ordinary items like ballpoint pens, or blue jeans. This collective alignment contributes to elevating the average preference for blue above other colours in the spectrum.
The sky is blue, especially when it's sunny. A starry sky is more associated with very dark blue than with black. Clean water, oceans, our planet, we define it as being blue. Liking blue seems to be hardwired to our DNA.