At some point as a designer, you'll write (or be asked to write) a piece about colour psychology. Red means hunger. Blue means trust. Yellow’s cheerful. Green's calming. It’s the design equivalent of learning the recorder in Year 3. Everyone does it. No one wants to hear it.

And yet, there it is. Blog post after blog post. Designers proudly explaining that actually, red stimulates appetite and that’s why it’s used in restaurants. As if McDonald’s built its empire on a paint chart.

But not once have I ever heard a designer call it for what it is: Reductive, outdated, and—surely, by now?—obsolete. Not because colour doesn’t have power, but because context has more. And now, more than ever, are there opportunities to add context.

People Don’t See Colours in a Vacuum.

No one has ever stood outside a café, clocked the blue signage and thought, "Nope, that suppresses appetite. Better head to the red one."

People judge spaces as a whole. They take in the mood, the layout, the branding, the lighting, the energy, and the 37,000 other micro-cues we use to decode an experience. Colour is just one piece of the visual equation—usually interpreted subconsciously and heavily influenced by the other things around it.

A dusty pink for example, might read as calming in a wellness studio but cloying in a steakhouse. Not because pink is wrong, but because the rest of the brand doesn't support it. Colour psychology might give you a starting point, but relying on it in isolation will give you anything but a compelling brand.

The Real Problem? Everyone’s Using It the Same Way.

If everyone believes blue = trustworthy, what happens? Google finance, tech, or healthcare brands and you'll quickly find out. A sea of blue brands is what happens. And suddenly, blue is more of a big open road to blending in than a signal of trust. What’s being peddled as a way to help you stand out, is doing the exact opposite.

Strategic design isn’t about playing colour-coded emotional whack-a-mole. It’s about crafting a system that works together. Typography, imagery, tone of voice, layout, lighting, materials—then colour. The psychology comes from the cohesion, not the hue. And, in fact, colour is usually the last thing I work on in a design once I've got everything else teed up.

Colour Isn’t the Star of the Show—It’s the Backing Vocal.

My biggest bugbear with colour psychology is it assumes the average consumer is an easily suggestible simpleton. That they’ll see green and immediately relax. Or yellow and find the maniacal merriment of a CBBC presenter. The thing is, not only do most people not consciously register colour that way but subconsciously, they're capable of more complex and nuanced thinking than that. They feel a vibe, get a sense of intention, and make their snap judgement based on the whole.

So, clever brands can get away with "rule-breaking" colour use because the overall concept holds. A punchy yellow in a high-end hair salon might sound unusual—questionable, even. But layer it with sleek lines, sharp messaging, and a forward-thinking service menu? Suddenly it’s bold rather than batshit.

So What Should We Be Doing Instead?

Start with your brand. Your actual one. The one that speaks to your audience. Colour should follow intention (not Google’s top 10 colour meanings in marketing) so, what do you want people to feel? Who are you trying to attract? What emotion are you backing it with? Consider:

• Your brand's voice, mission, and values (yep, those archaic bad boys)

• The full sensory experience: layout, lighting, acoustics, texture, pacing.

• How you want people to feel—and what cues (not just colour) help deliver that.

• Being memorable, not just "on trend."

The Takeaway

If you want to be noticed, relying on an outdated design shorthand isn't the way. It’ll slot you into the same safe box everyone else is hiding in. That’s fine—if your goal is to blend in. But if you’re building something bold? You can't paint by numbers.

And, if your designer starts with colour psychology, ask for strategy. Ask for intent. Ask what the whole thing is saying. And in the event you want interiors that think bigger than the colour wheel, ask me 😉