Think Orange
I am an orange fanatic. That’s why Joan Voight’s recent piece in Media magazine initially caught my eye. My front door is orange, my trusty 1971 Peugeot bike is a fiery orange …and the list goes on. I love the way Voight describes the not-shy color here:
Orange may look like an innocent alternative to mainstream red, but don’t be deceived: It is an incendiary color, shorthand for energy, youth and alternative thinking. Orange, like green, is not one of the primaries; it is a step apart from the mainstream, from the status quo. Orange is youthful, energetic, has no apparent sense of heritage and doesn’t seem to care. When Entrepreneur magazine devoted an issue to young millionaires in September, it draped its newsstand covers in an eye-popping shade of orange.
Can a color really represent all that? Yes. This is the perfect moment for orange. A down economy, an administration change, and an all-bets-are-off “effervescence.” If you were marketing with a youthful (not immature), energetic, no-attachment-to- heritage mindset, how would your efforts change? It goes beyond using orange in your logo, but, instead, becoming those qualities in the minds of your customers.
If we were living in a primary color era, I’d say “step outside the box,” but we’ve just GOT to give that process a new, more orange-y label. Any ideas?
