An update of a popular blog post from May 20, 2013

You have probably used color blocking in your visual merchandising without realizing that you are applying ‘color psychology” to your displays. According to Michael Dillon, “Color psychology has emerged as a powerful tool in shaping customer perceptions, emotions, and purchasing behaviors. Color harmony enhances the visual appeal of displays, creating a pleasing and balanced arrangement that appeals to shoppers.” 

What is color blocking? At its most basic, it’s using the rainbow gradients (ROYGBIV) to create a display that is high-energy and pleasing to the eye, but it goes beyond that. A simple definition of color blocking would be the use of colors that work together to make a visual statement.Your choice of colors should be contrasting/complementary, in other words be across from each other on the color wheel. (Here is a tutorial in case you’ve forgotten your basic color theory — something every visual merchandiser should be familiar with.)

Some window and merchandise displays do try to have every color of the spectrum represented.  When featuring spectrum/rainbow order, use the color wheel to make sure that the degree of saturation is consistent, i.e. a bright red instead of a pink to set off a true blue, green and yellow.

Color blocking can also include the use of different gradients of the same tone. If you have a window of all orange products, for example, you could have both light and dark orange as long as they were within the same range of orange hues on the spectrum.

The advantage of paying attention to color blocking in your windows and store displays is that color is a strong influence on shoppers. Studies have found that the optimal color order for items available in many different hues will increase sales significantly. You may need to experiment a bit to get your use of colors and color blocking to work well — but it will be worth it for the positive effect it has in appealing to customers, and the calm and ordered environment it helps create for your staff.

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder