If you can see the benefits of using promotional bags in your business – great brand recognition and respect, building a quality image, etc – but haven’t thought about the details of your order yet, one of the first things to consider is your colour scheme. Some colour fabrics (and colour schemes for your graphics) will greatly enhance your marketing. Some choices may shorten the life cycle or negate the effectiveness of your promotional bags. We guide you through choice of fabric colour and graphics colour for your promotional bags.
Practical considerations
You might find out about the practical limitations of your colour choice when you order your bags. For example, your promotional bag supplier might tell you that red text won’t show up well on a blue bag, and let you know the other options. Other practical considerations you’ll have to determine for yourself. For example, if your bags will be subject to lots of re-use with dirt-prone items (like at a greengrocer or butcher), lighter fabrics will tend to stain and show dirt more easily.
Remember that the inherent colouring of fabrics like jute means that base colours won’t render exactly on these bags. You’ll need to expect some colour variance with jute bags.
Cost is also a practical consideration in choosing the colours for your graphics, if you are having the green bags screen printed. Every extra colour requires a repeat of the printing process – not cheap! Screen printing is better suited to single or dual colour designs.
Aesthetic considerations
This one is the easiest and the hardest to evaluate, all at the same time! You need to pick a base colour for your bags that will look good:
- With your logo
- In your store’s atmosphere
- With your products
- With any ‘must-have’ graphics that you want on the bag
What looks good to one person might look horrible to the next twenty people, though. Find out from your target market what colour scheme they prefer, by using a ‘free sample with opinion’ type format. These polls can be run either online or instore.
Different colours can influence mood in different ways, as well – take this into consideration when you’re designing your promotional bags. For example, blue is perceived as corporate, red as energetic, yellow as youthful and happy, green as calming … etc. Of course, these guidelines change quite readily with culture – base your choice on your target market. Further guidelines can be found by searching for info on ‘The Psychology of Colour’.
Branding considerations
You’ll need to know that the colour you choose for your promotional bags will match with your corporate colour scheme and the branding you’re trying to achieve. Reading about the psychology of colour will help you determine which ones best suit your corporate aims, if you haven’t already set down a hard and fast branding guide. Also remember that different shades of particular colours can make different impressions – and consider how fabrics like jute might change the shade of your chosen colour in real life.