Get The Best Colours For Your Product Labels

_{Ian Renton  | 16/08/2019 | Label Design Tips,Product Labels}

To get the best colours for your product labels there are a number of things you can do.

Firstly, get your logo designed. You may also have special colours for your brand. Here is a quick interpretation of what some main colours can mean. You probably know that red signals danger or warning. Hence, we have red stop signs and traffic lights. Yellow is another strong colour so this colour is also used for road signs such as "SLOW" at road works. Blue is a soothing colour. It is the colour of water and the sky. Well, at least they appear as that colour. Green is related to nature. Hence, we have green leaves, green grass and a political party called the Greens that represents the environment. However, there is more to colour choices than these simple observations.

Blue can indicate trust, security and courage. Our police uniforms are in blue. Green is related to healing, calmness and nature. This is a relaxing colour.

Pink can be romantic and feminine and indicate love.

Orange is a cheerful, creative and fun colour.

Black is powerful, mysterious and elegant.

Reference: https://www.blackbeardesign.com/blog/graphic-designers/understanding-color-the-meaning-of-color/ For a psychological understanding of colour, this reference is also appropriate. https://www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com/meaning-of-colors.html

In the above reference, it is explained that colour can have different meanings. Gold represents success. Hence, athletes strive to win gold medals. Many of our product labels feature the colour gold. Gold can also represent quality and even extravagance.

Red is the most conflicting colour. It represents energy and action and determination but it is also indicates sexual passion and anger. Our faces turn a shade of red when we get angry.

To ensure you design the best labels, you need the very best graphic designers to design your product labels. Obviously, the colours on your product labels will be a mixture of many colours. With the exception of metallic colours such as silver and gold, most colours are a mixture of cyan, yellow, magenta and black. From these four printing colours, you can produce what is called PMS colours. PMS stands for Pantone Matching System. Probably one of the most famous colours is the unusual red produced by Coca Cola. This colour is a mixture of the primary printing colours. You might've heard before of RGB colourways vs CMYK, they're both different colour processing systems that we explain the difference between in our Canva Print Guide for artwork. 

You can choose PMS colours for your printed labels and they can be exactly reproduced if you print your labels offset, i.e. using a letter press or flexographic machine. For short run label printing, it is more economical to produce your product labels digitally. However, there is a wide variation in the colours produced by different digital label printing machines.

We are proud of our Epson Surepress machine as it can match colours very closely to previously printed digital labels and even offset colours. The colour quality is excellent because the multiple passes produces strong and vibrant colours which is important if you wish to create a great impression with your product labels.