Five Colors You Never See in Print Marketing – But Should

Color printing for business cards, brochures, postcards and other materials is a must in today's sales and marketing environment. The power of color printing is evident: color attracts attention, solidifies brand images, sets the mood to identify with customers, and overall helps tell the story about your products and services. Color printing sets customers at ease, motivates and excites, and ultimately translates into increased sales. Many studies have been done to find the “best” colors for marketing: green for money, purple for power, blue for trust, black for sleekness, yellow contrasted against a dark hue for attention, and so on and so forth. That's all fine and dandy, but have you ever investigated what new and fresh colors can do for your image and attention-getting prowess? Never be afraid to experiment with color, as demonstrated by the following list of five colors you never see in print marketing materials – but should.

1. ]]>Magic Mint]]>

This cool, crisp shade of green would be perfect for a financial postcard or brochure for an up-and-coming company or a fresh, new brand or service. If you're tired of Kelly green, spring green, jade, hunter green or other hues that seem overdone but don't want to lose the money relevance, try magic mint to see what it looks like in your design.

2. ]]>Chartreuse]]>

Bright yellow is often employed to grab attention, so much so that it seems a bit overused. Lime green is just painful to look at. Chartreuse, on the other hand, has the magnificent attention-getting qualities of both without the eye pain – as long as you don't overuse it. Try it contrasted against a jet black background for a car advertisement to see how it pops off the page.

3. ]]>Eggplant]]>

Prestigious professional services love to lend an impression of royalty on their brochures, but deep purples can be a bit too rich for many to wade through for long. Instead, try a more subdued eggplant – you still get the crown jewel effect without the tired eyes.

4. ]]>Mahogany]]>

Mahogany might make you think of a deep, woody, earthy hue; and you'd be partly right. But true mahogany is also orange in nature, and this mix of orange-brown can help establish trust and lend a notion of a strong foundation for your company. There's enough brown to keep your customer's mindsets grounded, yet enough orange to quickly grab attention. That's what makes mahogany such a powerful color for postcards, brochures and other color printing materials.

5. ]]>Arsenic]]>

Want a sleek appearance but feel black is overdone, and gray is simply too bland? Try arsenic, a nice in-between that can pull double-duty alongside a neat silver foil stamp for elegant aesthetics that do not look contrived.