100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, 2nd Edition

12 Colors Mean Different Things to Different Cultures

I once worked with a client who had created a color map of the different business regions for their company, showing the total revenue for the quarter for each region. Yellow was for the eastern part of the U.S., green for the central states, and red for the western states. The VP of Sales got to the podium and started showing his slide deck to the financial and accounting staff of the company. Up came the colored map and a gasp could be heard in the auditorium, followed by the buzz of urgent conversation. The VP tried to continue his talk, but he had lost everyone’s attention. They were all talking amongst themselves.

Finally someone blurted out, “What the heck is going on in the West?” ...