What yellow means in branding

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Surveys in Europe, Canada, the United States and elsewhere link yellow with amusement, gentleness, humour, happiness and spontaneity. It can also suggest duplicity, envy, jealousy and greed. In China and many Asian countries it is the colour of royalty, respect and wisdom.

Four palettes from yellow

Worked out in OKLCH from the swatch above. Open one to get the light and dark themes, the contrast check and the code.

• Analogous
• Complementary
• Triadic
• Split

History

• Yellow ochre was one of the first colours used in art. The Lascaux cave in France has a yellow horse painted about 17,000 years ago.
• Egyptian tombs used ochre and orpiment to show gold and skin.
• In imperial China, bright yellow could be worn only by the emperor and his household.

Brands known for yellow

• Caterpillar

  Its machines are known by their "Caterpillar Yellow" paint.

• National Geographic

  The magazine is known for its yellow rectangular border.

• IKEA

  Stores are usually blue buildings with yellow accents, Sweden's national colours.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Yellow
• Wikipedia: Caterpillar Inc.
• Wikipedia: National Geographic
• Wikipedia: IKEA

The swatch is my own pick of yellow, not an official value.

Other colours

• Redheat, activity, passion, anger, love, joy
• Orangeamusement, warmth, energy, activity, extroversion
• Greennature, life, health, youth, hope
• Blueharmony, confidence, knowledge, intelligence, calmness
• Purplerarity, royalty, luxury, ambition, mystery
• Pinksweetness, innocence, femininity
• Brownearth, nature, reliability
• Blackelegance, authority, secrets, force
• Whiteperfection, honesty, cleanliness, the new, neutrality