Colors influence purchasing decisions profoundly, but there are no universal colors that represent health and wellness. From vibrant, juicy colors to more muted visual branding, successful brands harness color psychology in wildly different ways.
Many health and wellness brands default to serene greens and calming blues, and those can work, but you can also make some magic when you break free from conventional choices and unearth your brand® identity in your own unique way.
In this blog post, you’ll see examples of branding for health and wellness businesses that use all kinds of different colors – but are always backed by consumer psychology.
The Psychology of Colors
Science backs up the importance of color schemes in marketing powerfully. According to research, 85% of customers make purchasing decisions based on color.
In other words, your brand identity can meaningfully evoke emotions with just the right color palette.
One color psychology study that spanned 30 countries and 4,598 participants revealed fascinating emotional connections to colors across different populations.
Black stirred feelings of sadness in 51% of people, while green evoked contentment for 39%. Orange radiated joy for 44% of respondents, and brown triggered disgust in 36% of participants (among other interesting statistics!).
Ideas for Colors That Represent Health and Wellness
The strongest brand strategies are custom and take into consideration much more than the different emotions associated with colors. But here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Red ignites passion, urgency, and physical energy – perfect for high-intensity fitness brands and sports nutrition companies.
- Blue cultivates trust and reliability, resonating beautifully with medical practices and mental health services (but watch out for ‘sterile’ blues!).
- Green naturally connects with growth, renewal, and vitality, making it powerful for organic food brands and holistic wellness practitioners.
- Purple elevates brands into luxury territory while maintaining spiritual undertones, which is ideal for high-end spas and meditation apps.
- Yellow radiates optimism and mental clarity, speaking to supplement brands and positive psychology practices.
- Orange merges physical comfort with social connection, working wonderfully for community-focused wellness initiatives. It can also be the color for change, which works well for some therapists depending on their therapy approach.
That said, when choosing colors for your health and wellness brand, don’t treat these associations as rigid rules (especially since color associations also vary with hue and tones). Take them as inspiration and always consider who you are serving.
What Are the Colors of Health and Wellness Brands?
There are SO many ways to create psychology-backed branding that speaks to your target audience, so don’t feel like you have to put yourself into a box.
The color shades in your palette should reflect your unique mission, resonate with your specific audience, and amplify your brand’s distinctive voice.
For example, a natural supplement brand might find that its marketing materials do better with earthy metallics that convey premium, science-backed positioning than with predictable greens.
The fact that so many colors and shades COULD represent health and wellness goes to show how important it is to work with a brand designer who understands both the psychological impact of color and its aesthetic application.
When you work with Bethany Works®, we excavate the core of your brand – your mission, values, and audience – to develop a palette that doesn’t just look beautiful but strategically positions your business for growth.
Examples of Colors That Represent Health and Wellness
Here are some of the health and wellness businesses that we designed branding for. You can also find more examples in our Portfolio.
1. Golden Hour Esthetics
Founded by a licensed esthetician, Golden Hour Esthetics is a sanctuary for self-care and skin health. One of their most important brand values is that skincare has no gender or age. Athletes, youth, men, women, those with mature skin or acne-filled skin – all are welcome at Golden Hour.
Naturally, the client wanted their vision board to communicate their commitment to inclusivity and warmth, so we designed this brand to feel uplifting, authentic, down-to-earth, warm, organic, deep, caring, and assured. The colors we used are Mulberry, Sedona, Tiger Eye, Quartz, Roots, and Caramel.
2. CURA Integrative Health
CURA Integrative Health is founded by two psychotherapists and somatic awareness specialists, Jenna and Rachel. It’s a holistic trauma treatment center that helps you get out of your current state of depression, anxiety, lack of sleep, and other consequences of trauma.
At CURA, trauma specialists use research-based and evidence-backed treatments, but they also want to communicate that you’ll find a warm and caring environment. To accomplish this goal, we used colors like light blue and dark blue in their brand identity design, together with some sharper accent colors.
3. Tiny Ladder
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Tiny Ladder is an exercise program that helps women take safe and supported steps to start moving their bodies after a stillbirth or pregnancy loss. It’s science-backed and holistic.
Lauren, the Melbourne-based Founder, wanted her wellness branding to express that this program is a safe space for women to unite, commemorate, and reconnect with their bodies. The color palette we created for Lauren combines colors like Indigo Strength, Soft Touch, Open Heart, Deep Emerald, and Lilac Blue. The overarching light pink/blue/green scheme communicates a path to inner peace.
4. Force Art Therapy
Victoria Force is an art therapist and educator who helps people heal through creative expression when words aren’t enough. Force Art Therapy is a safe space that encourages curiosity and an open mind.
Instead of using colors commonly used for health and wellness businesses like green and blue, we made this brand stand out with bold primary colors like Apricot, Coral Red, and Tangerine. This branding now evokes specific emotions of creativity, honesty, and individuality that instantly improve mood.
Unearth Your Brand® with Custom Branding
Sure, there are websites where you can get a simple color scheme and other free design software. But to stand out, health and wellness brands need a deeper, true-to-you, and psychology-backed approach to their branding.
Building unmistakable brands is exactly what we specialize in at Bethany Works®. Learn more about our design services.
FAQs
What Color Symbolizes Health and Wellness?
No single color exclusively represents health and wellness. Different sectors within the industry leverage various colors effectively – for example, medical practices often use blue for trust, while organic brands might choose green for vitality – but there are ways to use common colors in a way that is unique and true to you. Your unique brand positioning matters more than industry conventions.
What Is the Mental Health Awareness Color?
Green is the primary color for mental health awareness, specifically a lime green shade. The ribbon uses this color to represent mental health conditions broadly. But this doesn’t mean that you must use green in the brand strategy for your mental health business.
What Does the Color Green Symbolize?
Green is often associated with growth, renewal, and natural vitality. It connects deeply with environmental consciousness, organic living, and holistic wellness. But there are many different shades and uses of green to communicate all kinds of emotions.
What Does the Color Blue Symbolize?
Blue often symbolizes trustworthiness, stability, and calm. It’s often used in branding for healthcare and mental wellness spaces to reduce anxiety and create feelings of security. Deeper blues convey professionalism, and lighter shades often evoke tranquility and emotional openness when you feel overwhelmed.
What Does the Color Yellow Symbolize?
Yellow captures optimism, mental clarity, and emotional well-being. It stimulates mental processes and confidence, so it can be an effective color for brands focused on personal development and positive psychology.
What Color Represents Anxiety?
Many different colors could represent anxiety, but there’s a difference between choosing colors that express what anxiety feels like (this could be deep, dark red) and colors that help create calming, supportive environments (like blues, neutrals, and soft greens).
What Color Represents Healing?
Green, white, and blue – especially their lighter shades – often represent healing, but there are other colors that you can use depending on your brand strategy. For example, for one of our clients, an exercise program that helps women start moving their bodies after stillbirth or pregnancy loss called Tiny Ladder, we used shades of pink and green to represent healing.
What Is the Best Color for Fitness?
Fitness brands often use red and orange in their branding because they energize and motivate, but many other colors can work well, too. For one of our clients, an athleisure wear brand SALT, we used various shades of black, white, and gray. There’s no one “best” color for fitness.
What Are the Calming Colors for Well-Being?
Soft blues, gentle greens, and warm beiges can often create soothing environments, but there are many other different options as well, including lavender and light pink. Your overarching brand strategy matters more than just the color wheel.
What Colors Are Associated with Self-Care?
There are so many color possibilities for self-care brands, including pinks, greens, and warm neutrals. You want a color palette that feels both indulgent and restorative, and there are many ways to communicate those feelings. For example, for our client Revival Beauty Tools, we created unmistakable branding with bold shades of pink.
Get Intentional, Psychology-Backed Brand Strategy
Colors shape how people perceive and connect with wellness brands. Different colors serve different purposes, but true success comes from aligning your color choices with your brand’s unique purpose and audience needs.
Let’s make sure that your health and wellness brand speaks for you and says all the right things. Learn more about our design services!
