All (127)
Calm (18)
Melancholy (17)
Creativity (12)
Trust (10)
Confidence (12)
Nature (19)
Cultural & Traditional (14)
Fashion (7)
Psychological (22)
Airy | Allegiance |
Aristocracy | Authenticity |
Authority | Awareness |
Balance | Boyhood |
Calm | Chivalry |
Christianity | Clarity |
Classic | Cleansing |
Comfort | Commitment |
Confidence | Conservative |
Contemplation | Coolness |
Cornflowers | Courage |
Creativity | Curiosity |
Day & Daylight | Democracy |
Dependability | Despair |
Dignity | Dreaminess |
Dreaming | Elegance |
Emotional Depth | Emotional Distance |
Enlightenment | Eternal |
Faithfulness | Flow |
Fog | Freedom |
Freshness | Friendship |
Gentleness | Grief |
Harmonious | Heartache |
Heartbreak | Honesty |
Honor | Hope |
Hopefulness | Horizons |
Ice | Imagination |
Institutional Strength | Introspection |
Lakes | Liberty |
Light | Loneliness |
Longing | Lost Love |
Loyalty | Majesty |
Masculinity | Mist |
Monarchy | Natural |
Neutral | Nostalgia |
Oceans | Openness |
Peace | Peace Movements |
Personal Strength | Planet Earth |
Political Parties | Positivity |
Possibilities | Potential |
Power | Prestige |
Professionalism | Quiet |
Quietude | Rain |
Reassurance | Refinement |
Reflection | Regret |
Relaxation | Reliability |
Resilience | Restfulness |
Rivers | Royalty |
Sadness | Sapphires |
Sea | Self-Reflection |
Sentimental | Serenity |
Sky | Softness |
Solidarity | Solitude |
Soothing | Sorrow |
Sovereignty | Stability |
Stillness | Storms |
Tender-hearted | The Moon |
Timeless | Tradition |
Tranquility | Transcendence |
Trust | Trustworthiness |
Understanding | Unknowns |
Unrequited Love | Virgin Mary |
Vision | Water |
Waterfalls |
Calm
Blue is arguably the most pervasive color in nature as the color of sky, sea and ice. Unlike green, which is also pervasive in nature, blue is often in the background as a somewhat passive and dependable element of nature. For this reason, blue is an overwhelmingly calm color that never feels dramatic or edgy.
Melancholy
Just as blue is associated with sunny skies and tranquil seas, it is also associated with rain, puddles and dreary conditions such as mist. As such, it has associations with sadness, heartbreak and sentimental feelings. For example, having "the blues" is common slang for sadness.
Creativity
The seemingly endlessness of blue environments such as skies and the haziness of blue elements such as rain and mist cause the color to feel open, mysterious and dreamy. This by extension can be used to symbolize creative things such as vision, flow, freedom and curiosity.
Trust & Confidence
Blue pigments and dyes were extraordinarily rare and expensive in ancient Europe through to the late middle ages. For this reason, dark blues came to symbolize high status institutions such as Christianity and royalty. These meanings were continually adopted by new institutions in the modern-era such that blue has come to symbolize institutional strength, stability and power.
Nature
Blue can feel like a natural color and tends to feel cold due to its association with relatively cold elements of nature such as water, sky and ice.
Cultural & Traditional
Western civilization has adopted blue as a symbol of royalty, masculinity, chivalry and various political institutions including democracy.
Fashion
Dark blue fashions can feel formal and refined. Denim blues can feel authentic, informal and working-class. Light blues can feel feminine and youthful.
Design
Light blues are prominently used in design as a neutral color. Other neutrals such as white, black and beige aren't colorful such that blue stands out as the only colorful neutral. This is again due to blues association with the sky that is a background color for life on Planet Earth. Blue also tends to feel airy and light, cool or cold and classic and timeless. It is a conservative color that doesn't attract attention. For example, a blue logo may feel confident but can be easily ignored in a busy color environment where it competes with louder colors.
Psychological
Although blue can symbolize sadness, it doesn't at all make people feel this way and tends to have a completely positive perception. For example, there are very few people who name blue as their least favorite color. It tends to feel calm and reliable yet can also feel somewhat stimulating.
