Some colors can have a stimulating effect; others can calm and relax you. Red, according to pantone.com, can stimulate your senses to the extent that it may increase blood pressure. Blue provides an aura of calmness and peace. Sight is a powerful sense, the conduit for you to interpret the world you see around you. Colors are a primary means of differentiating the world that you see and must therefore have particular associations and meanings.
Colors are used by most companies as the center of their branding strategies. They aim to ensure that their brand is associated with a particular color. This might be bold and striking for products such as washing powders or warmer and more alluring for perfumes or relaxants. You choose colors when you buy clothes or even things such as toys for your children. In movies, actors dress in ways that help portray the character they play. Colors can come as mixtures -- contrasts -- or alone. Each color or group has different associations.
Black conveys a notion of strength and power. It can also imply evil and wrongdoing. In most Western cultures, it's strongly associated with death and mourning. The more that black is used or worn, the stronger the signal of power, sadness or wrong intent. You can also use black with other colors to signpost different or mixed messages. One example might be with white -- powerful but with good intentions. White has associations with being good and clean. It has clarity; it provides the clearest background for other colors to stand out on. The associations that it has with cleanliness as well as goodness may partly come from its use as the uniform color for personnel working in hospitals and other medical facilities.
Red, also associated with strength, is the color that draws most attention. It's used in warning signs and often by teachers in marking school work. It's also used in many flags or in sports to show power and danger to potential adversaries. Yellow is associated with happiness and brightness, with optimism and laughter. But it also has another side and is associated with weakness and cowardice. It's also the color of flames. Blue can be a color of warmth and reassurance. We may associate it with calm seas and pleasant scenes. It also can have a different side -- cold and uncaring.
Green is the color of nature, with ecological well-being and with freshness and life. It's also associated with being new and naively inexperienced. Orange has associations with happiness and vigor, with youthfulness and life. It's a color of energy. Purple has some mystique associated with it. It's a color of quality, depth and meaning and is often used in formal robes and attire for formality, quality and prestige.