Ms. Locke

Furniture, Fixtures & Equipment

The Vocabulary of Color: What Colors Mean & How They Affect Your Guests

By Amy Locke, Director, Interior Design, Hatchett Hospitality

Color is influential at every level of the marketplace. It communicates with your guests in subtle but powerful non-verbal ways to enhance their lodging experience and to encourage return visits.

If you’re like most hoteliers, color may be one of the last FF&E things you think about – but it’s the first thing your guests see. Indeed, vision is a person’s most important sense. Studies show that about 80% of what we assimilate is visual.

That’s why you can use color to set a tone or mood – from romantic or exotic to upbeat or playful.

You can use color to emphasize architectural elements or define space – such as opening up an area with bright, clean tones or making a room more intimate with soothing, subtle shades.

And at large properties, you can even use color to help guests find their way around more easily.

You can also use color to create a style – such as traditional, contemporary, transitional, tropical, or country.

In short, color can influence moods and feelings. And it’s those moods and feelings that help form attitudes – including attitudes such as brand recognition and brand loyalty.

So how can hoteliers best use the psychology of color to communicate with guests?

Let’s begin with a quick review of the basic colors and the emotions or qualities that are typically associated with them:

• Black is a power color that conveys richness and sophistication. It’s the quintessential symbol of sleek modernism and simple elegance.
  
• White is the color of purity, youth, and cleanliness. Like black, white can be a classy color. It’s thought of as neutral, but actually off-whites are neutral while sharp, pristine white attracts the eye just as much as a brilliant color.
  
• Red suggests excitement, strength, passion, speed, and danger. It’s a color that’s dramatic and attracts the eye – and stimulates the appetite. It makes time stand still.
  
• Blue is the most popular color, especially among men. It’s calm, soothing, and businesslike. It conveys feelings of trust, reliability, and belonging – and also of stretching or lengthening time.
  
• Green is the color of nature, providing a feeling of freshness, tranquility, and calm. It can also signify wealth, stability, growth, and abundance. Today, it is associated with recycling and environmentalism. Blue-greens in particular are non-gender specific, appealing to both men and women.
  
• Yellow is sunny, warm, cheerful, and optimistic. It’s the most visible and attention-getting of colors, but can be fatiguing for the eye.
  
• Purple signifies wealth, royalty, and dignity. It is often perceived as quirky and is the color most associated with creativity. It conveys an exotic feeling and has gained consumer acceptance in recent years, especially with men. When it features blue undertones, purple has a mystical, magical, spiritual connotation – compared to purple-red shades, which are sensual.
  
• Brown is another color of nature, with a feeling of strength and warmth. Depending on the shade, it can be either down-to-earth or sophisticated, but it can also be boring or even evoke an out-dated 70’s feel. During the 90’s, browns gained a whole new panache tied to the phenomenon of coffee houses. Today, browns in coffee and chocolate tones are seen as rich, robust, exotic.
  
• Orange is the combination of red and yellow, so it’s energetic, warm, and enthusiastic. It is the universal safety color so is often used to draw attention. Many people think of it as a retro 70’s color but upscale designers are reinventing the hue. It’s a vibrant, high-energy color that is thought of as playful and fun, often used effectively in a Hispanic or multi-cultural context. It also stimulates the appetite.
  
• Pink is typically associated with romance and love. It’s a calming color for most people, seen as soft, sweet, and nurturing. Just as blue is a “male” color, pink tends to be a “female” color.

Of course, colors no longer have to be flat or one-dimensional – and nothing attracts the eye as quickly as metallic glints and reflective surfaces. Social anthropologists claim that anything sparkly reminds us of water, a substance which is basic to human survival so the human mind is conditioned to seek it out.

Exactly how does all this information come together to enhance the FF&E process?

The short answer is that today’s hotel color trends are diverse – which is not surprising given some travelers are looking for an environment that’s safe, secure, and home-like, while others are seeking a trip that’s uplifting or an escape. Add to these considerations the globalization of our society, which has further expanded the creative palette.

The result is that warm, sophisticated, rich shades – such as true reds, olive greens, purples, blues, chocolate browns, gold, and the neutral natural tones – are popular with guests looking for comfort and security, for the traditional and a sense of history.

Meanwhile at properties that cater to the young and to guests who are looking for excitement, the most popular colors are lush, vibrant, and full-bodied – such as deep magenta, bronzy green, midnight blue, spicy orange, sultry red, and warm, spicy brown.

Properties offering a romantic get-away are using soft pastels such as apricot, peach, pink, and cream.

At every hotel, the guest room is considered a refuge or decompression place – so “tranquility” shades are typically favored such as blue, blue-green, and mint-green.

When selecting colors, the key is to create color harmony – namely, an arrangement that’s pleasing to the eye. If colors are too bland, the brain will be under-stimulated and the person will be bored.

On the other hand, when the brain is over-stimulated it rejects what it can’t understand – so if colors are overdone or chaotic, a person can’t stand to look at the scene. Therefore, the challenge is to create a logical color structure – a balanced visual interest.

There are many ways to achieve this type of harmony – here are two examples:

• A color scheme based on “analogous colors” uses any three colors which are side-by-side on the color wheel, with one of the colors usually predominating.
• A a color scheme based on “complimentary colors.” This uses any two colors that are directly opposite each other on the color wheel. Opposing colors create maximum contrast for the eye and maximum stability for the emotions.

However, when selecting colors, keep in mind a couple of cautions:

• First, remember the impact of lighting on color selection. Your designer can demonstrate how different types of lighting – both natural light and lighting fixtures – will affect the perception of color and brightness in different areas of the hotel.
  
• Second, always match the color palette to the property’s theme, target clientele, and geographic location. For example, colors that look great in warm, sunny tropical locations won’t produce the same results in cold, overcast northern climates.

In summary, specifying and selecting FF&E products means achieving a delicate balance between budget, aesthetics, maintenance, and longevity. Color selections are indeed a critical part of this process – but as we’ve seen, those decisions don’t have to be painful. They can be made easily and confidently to achieve specific design and business objectives.

Amy Locke is director of interior design at Hatchett Hospitality. She works with franchisers and franchisees on a wide variety of hotel brands, styles, and themes – from economy to luxury, from resort to business conference, and from traditional to modern. Previous to joining Hatchett, she held a position in interior design with Ethan Allen Interiors. Ms. Locke earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from the Art Institute of Atlanta. She is completing a degree in feng shuiand is an allied member of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). Ms. Locke can be contacted at 770-227-5232 or Amy@HatchettHospitality.com Extended Bio...

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