Have you ever experienced high school when your friend copied your work but had to change it to make it less suspicious slightly? At that time, the only thing that your friend changed was the color combination of the work.
Somehow, that simple change made the copied work seem wholly different from yours, and instead, it looks better enough than the original to make you feel like you are the one who copied the work. Such a kind of experience should bother you nowadays.
When you were still in high school, such a thing could become an upsetting experience. But since you grew up, you should have known things better to realize that a simple change of colors can drastically upgrade (or downgrade) the quality of something.
The thing is, it also applies to your PowerPoint presentation. When presenting something, the choice of colors you use will affect the audience’s enthusiasm to follow through. That’s why using the right PowerPoint color palette to attract audiences is essential.
Any tips on using the right PowerPoint color palette to attract audiences? Wow, you must be one of the chosen ones to come here because ‘accidentally’ we are here to give you a brief explanation about this matter in this article.
There you go, soldiers!
The ‘feel wrong’ effect
Everything comes with specific colors. The sky is blue, clouds are white, leaves are green, roses are red, and violets are blue. Even children in kindergarten age know well about the difference of colors between any of those things (no offense to those who are colorblind).
But things can be different if we pay a little bit more attention to those colors. The sky is not always blue because it can become orangeish in the afternoon. Leaves are also not always green, especially during the fall season. Even roses are not always red!
Explaining those things to kindergarten children might be too advanced for their age, but we all as adults know the fact well. However, why do we still associate those specific colors with those things even though we fully understand that they are not always in pairs?
Now, try to ask your friends about the color of roses. Most of them, if not all, would answer with red without mentioning any other colors. Then, ask them to ask the same question to you and answer it with ‘orange’ without explaining it further. After that, ask them whether they feel like it’s wrong when they hear your answer.
Most people would feel it is wrong because red is the ‘main’ color of roses. It is the color that people mostly associate roses with. Nonetheless, you will still accept orange as the answer because you know it can be that too. Orange roses exist even though it is not as famous as red roses.
But things will be different if someone says ‘dark blue’ or ‘grey. Even you will find that answer strange and ‘feel wrong’ with that answer. Now, apply it in choosing the right PowerPoint color palette for a presentation about roses. What colors do not make you feel wrong to include? That’s what it means to choose the right PowerPoint color palette.
See also: 20+ Color Tools for Designers to Help You Creating PowerPoint Color Schemes
Why using the right PowerPoint color palette to attract audiences is essential?
You are moving forward into our main topic, using the right PowerPoint color palette to attract audiences. When you are attracting someone, you would want to avoid making them feel uncomfortable or upset.
What you want is for them to feel like they are in a ‘safe place,’ a place that they feel comfortable with, or a place where nothing will go out of their control. We can enact those comforts by applying only the right PowerPoint color palette in our presentations.
Colors have the power to change people’s minds, or at least make them feel different about something without truly changing anything besides the color of it. Even a single change of color can cause a massive tsunami of differences in people’s perspectives.
Have you heard about the placebo effect? There is a reason why most sleeping pills are blue. Blue is a soothing color, which is preferred by people who want a good night’s sleep. On the other hand, stimulants are more likely to be reddish because people associate those colors with high spirits.
Using the right PowerPoint color palette, you can attract people’s attention to pay attention to your presentation and maintain their attention intact. The more attention they pay to your presentation, the more considerable portion of information you can deliver to them. That’s why it is essential.
See also: Best Background Colors For Presentations to Make Your Slides Stand Out
The science behind using the right PowerPoint color palette to attract audiences
So, what’s the science behind all of those things? It is called color psychology, and it is indeed a researched thing under behavioral psychology. When given a different color, people’s minds provide a specific response differently.
Our minds are easy to recognize colors, and it can take just milliseconds for our brains to respond to colors. And the most prominent aspect of our minds that is affected by colors is our moods. That’s why, once your audience is not interested in your PowerPoint presentation because you use the wrong color palette, game over.
It is essential to keep the moods of your audience up if you want them to be attracted to your presentation. You don’t want them, or at least their minds, to wander around while you are presenting. The next part is the most crucial part, which is…
…How to use a PowerPoint color palette to attract audiences?
The guide that we put in this part is so simple. First, make sure that you know the ‘hidden meaning’ of colors since each color ‘means’ something according to color psychology.
They generate different moods or feelings toward the audience, and you should make sure what kind of feeling or mood you want to harvest. Here is the list according to Neil Patel:
Blue means trust
PayPal, Visa, and Bank of America all use this color to gain their customers’ trust.
Black means elegance, luxury, and boldness
Rolls Royce, Chanel, and Prada all use black to attract high-class customers.
Green is close to the environment
Greenpeace is one of the most famous brands to use green as its base color, and they are dealing with an environmental issue.
Orange is warmth and positivity
Look at how Amazon uses this color, so they can encourage more people to purchase things online.
Yellow signals caution
The police line is yellow because it can stand out easily in any environment and signals caution to people.
See also: Free Color Contrast Checkers for PowerPoint
However, there are some things you need to pay attention to while applying those colors
Here are the things you need to pay attention to:
According to the study, men prefer brighter tones
Thus, if you want to attract more male audience but still have some female audiences, make sure to vary your shades of colors
Use bright primary colors for the essential parts of your presentation
Those bright primary colors give high contrast, which means they will easily stand out and steal the attention of your audience.
Don’t be afraid to add white
Sometimes, you need the ‘clean’ look of white to avoid color cluttering and bad contrasts.
Only mix with complementary colors
Bright blue and bright red are two ‘strong’ primary colors. But combining the two of them doesn’t make your presentation design ‘stronger.’
See also: Best Colors for Presentation Slides That Will Dominate Today’s Trends
The ‘unrelated’ effect of colors
Now, let us tell you a story. Located in Arizona, Sedona is a small town famously known for its red rock mountain view. However, most people outside Arizona, let alone from outside the United States of America, mostly first heard the town’s name, not because of its incredible view.
Instead, most of those people should have known the town’s name from Instagram posts telling unique facts. What’s so special about this town? One McDonald’s outlet in the city exists nowhere else on this planet or even in this universe.
This single McDonald’s outlet is the only outlet not to use the brand’s famously known golden arches. The reason behind it is that local authorities considered that the golden arches’ color would contrast with and disrupt the beauty of its surrounding scenery.
To keep the outlet without having to clash with both local authorities and the surrounding environment, the brand decided to allow only this outlet to change the color of the arches. Pale blue was chosen, and it has been like that since then.
Nowadays, thousands of tourists come to this outlet every year to witness something ordinary, except for the sign with a different color. Why would a simple change of color in its sign affect the outlet significantly? Is it a physiological effect of the blue color? No, there is another effect we have not mentioned in this article: uniqueness.
The reason why tourists would come to the outlet is mere because of its uniqueness. The menu served is no different from the one done in any other outlets. But because the sign has a ‘unique color, the ones visiting this outlet feel like they are the chosen ones.
Examples of carefully curated PowerPoint color palettes we provide for you
Now you know what a simple change of color, even without any scientific reasons, can do. Knowing about this fact might be helpful for you, in theory. However, the practice is a little bit harder and requires trial and error.
If you want to skip those steps, there is a straightforward solution: ask us to create the most appropriate color palette for your presentation. RRGraph Team is highly experienced in this thing, and we have worked with multinational companies on similar projects.
Contacting us might also be the most effective tip we can give in this article. Not only can we give you the right PowerPoint color palette to attract audiences, but we can also even design the whole presentation slides for you. Check our portfolio and see our past works to understand better what we can do for you.
Let’s visit RRSlide to download free PowerPoint templates. But wait, don’t go anywhere and stay here with our RRGraph Design Blog to keep up-to-date on the best pitch deck template collections and design advice from our PowerPoint experts.
