How Color Conveys Trust

While all colors may seem to have an equal playing field, they don't. Over time, humanity has assigned meaning to different colors and shapes based on their experience in the natural world. We are, in a sense, conditioned to understand the meaning of colors based on our human experience. Shape and color convey more than you think. You're impacted by them everyday without ever thinking about it. The blue sky above gives us a sense of peacefulness, and when it goes dark, we know it's time to take shelter. A sharp thorn teaches us that pointy shapes should be approached with caution while the pleasurable soft touch of round rose petals teach us that round shapes are safer to engage with.

When I set out to design the brand for Voura, I knew that the color palette and basic shapes used would be extremely important. These are simple yet extremely powerful elements of design. We wanted Voura to not just feel trustworthy but also friendly.

Here's an example of how color and shape can convey meaning and evoke emotion.

Which of the two shapes below feels more trustworthy?

If you said the blue square, then you'd be in the majority. Blue is a calming color and it's no wonder why many banks and insurance companies have chosen blue hues as their primary color. Furthermore, a square seems solid, balanced, more sturdy and therefore more trustworthy. This is because our human experience has taught us that standing on a block, for example, is much safer than standing on a beach ball.

Now look again - which feels more trustworthy this time?

If you said the blue dot, you'd be in the majority. In this instance, while the square has the shape of security with its equal and balanced four sides, the color red screams insecurity or warning. Blue feels safer.

One more - which of these is both trustworthy & friendly?

With the color now on equal footing, we're reacting more to the shape this time. Most would say that the dot or circle is more friendly than the square. There are many reasons for this, but I will offer one of the most powerful reasons. A circle is more like a human head or face and therefore feels more personal, ergo, more friendly as well as trustworthy.

When exploring shapes and color, I wanted something that was trustworthy and friendly. It would be natural to go with rounded shapes and blue hues, however, Voura is centered around rewarding customers. We wanted people to feel energized when they visited the site too. So I needed a color that was trustworthy, friendly and exciting. This led me to exploring violet hues because red has a certain energy to it. When combined with blue in the right way, you can get a peaceful, yet energetic feel to the color. One of my design hacks is to first explore color in nature. This is because as mentioned earlier, we're conditioned to respond to colors and shapes in the natural world. I took inspiration from plant life around me. Lucky for me it was Spring time in Central Texas, where bluebonnets abound. But it was our Vitex and lavender plants that ultimately won out for me. I used these plant colors as springboards for digital color exploration. The primary purple we chose for Voura is named after the Vitex plant. Purple isn't just found in nature. For centuries it has been associated with royalty, evoking a sense of power and wealth. We felt this was fitting for Voura because while as a brand we want to feel trustworthy and friendly, we also want you to feel empowered to build wealth!

The Voura vitex purple combined with large, rounded corners gave us the foundation we needed to build on. I pulled from nature the other colors as well, and when combined together, bring a certain vitality you don't find with many financial institutions.

Though we will likely adapt our colors as we learn from our users, we will continue to utilize the psychology of color to convey Voura as a trustworthy, friendly and exciting new way to invest, empowering you to build wealth.