Package Design: Colour Harmony and Consumer Expectations

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Package Design:
Colour Harmony and Consumer Expectations
Shuo-Ting Wei 1,*, Li-Chen Ou 2, M. Ronnier Luo 3 and John B. Hutchings 3
1
2
3
Department of Visual Communication Design, TransWorld University, Yunlin, Taiwan

Graduate Institute of Applied Science and Technology, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan
The University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
This study investigated the relationship between contextualised colours and psychological responses using a semantic differential method.
Fruit juice cartons were used as model product packs to elicit psychological responses of several aspects: judgments of the colour harmony
of the packages and liking, quality and freshness of the products. Three major findings were concluded. First, colour harmony of fruit juice
packages, liking and quality of the products were highly correlated. Judgments of these three aspects were influenced by the chromatic and
hue differences between the colours of the packages and the colours of fruit pictures on the packages. Second, visual appraisal of freshness
was affected by the lightness and chroma of the package colours. The chroma sum of the package colours and fruit colours also contributed
to the expectation of freshness. Finally, colour harmony principles may differ according to the context within which colours are used. In
the context of juice packaging, only two conventional colour harmony principles are tenable.
Keywords Colour Harmony, Consumer Expectations, Contextualised Colours, Juice Packaging.
Relevance to Design Practice This study shows how colour harmony might differ from the conventional principles when the context
(i.e., fruit juice) is considered. Designers should therefore take into account the properties or categories of the products when using colours
as a medium to communicate the characteristics of the products to potential customers.
Citation: Wei, S. T., Ou, L. C., Luo, M. R., & Hutchings, J. B. (2014). Package design: Colour harmony and consumer expectations. International Journal of Design, 8(1), 109-126.
Introduction
Background
Colour plays an important role in design. It is a trigger to arouse
viewers emotions and a carrier that designers use to deliver
information. Colours that are viewed together and produce
pleasing affective responses are considered to be in harmony
(Burchett, 2002). In product design, it has been suggested that
positive emotion would not only add extra value to a product but
can further increase the possibility of a product being purchased
(Cho & Lee, 2005; Desmet, Overbeeke, & Tax, 2001; Jordan,
1998). Therefore, when designing products, designers endeavour
to establish emotional connections among ideas, products,
services and brands (Crossley, 2003). Using harmonic colours is
one way to create positive emotional connections. Most of the
extant colour harmony principles found in art or design textbooks
are based on well-controlled, simple, uniform colours. How
well these principles are applicable to contexts that are more
representative of real design situations is largely unknown.
The context within which colours are used also affects
how colours are perceived. For instance, the colour brown may
associate with natural and warm feelings when involving wooden
materials in interior design. However, the same colour may
associate with different feelings such as elegant and dignified
when used for a coat. More examples can be seen in a recent study
examining the affective responses for 2-dimensional coloured
shapes and 3-dimensional objects (Lee, Luo, & Ou, 2009).
Therefore, if we are to examine how the use of colours might
www.ijdesign.org 109
associate with different psychological responses or encourage

positive emotions with the goal of obtaining information useful
for future applications in product design, a pre-selected context
(e.g., wooden products or clothes) should be used consistently for
all the colours examined.
Research Aim
In this study, fruit juice containers are used as the context to
establish a practical method for studying the relationship between
colour and psychological responses. Fruit juice is one of the
most popular food products and its market grows almost every
year. Despite the global recession in 2009, the juice market still
increased by 2% globally. In 2010 the market growth went back
to pre-recession rate at 5%. Euromonitor International, a leading
company in strategy research for consumer market, projects that
fruit/vegetable juices will maintain the strong growth (at least)
until the year 2015. (http://www.just-drinks.com/analysis/focusjuices-and-nectar-outlook-to-2015_ id103542.aspx)
Received January 3, 2012; Accepted September 20, 2013; Published April 30, 2014.
Copyright: 2014 Wei, Ou, Luo and Hutchings. Copyright for this article is
retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to the International
Journal of Design. All journal content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
By virtue of their appearance in this open-access journal, articles are free to use,
with proper attribution, in educational and other non-commercial settings.
*Corresponding Author: tim.stw@gmail.com
International Journal of Design Vol. 8 No. 1 2014
Package Design: Colour Harmony and Consumer Expectations
With the context being set to fruit juice, some important

issues often raised in practice are Do the colours of the package
design look harmonious? and How does the colour scheme
of packages influence consumer expectations of the product?
The first issue is of concern because colour harmony represents
opinions of aesthetics among colours. If positive aesthetic
feelings of a product are perceived, the product is more likely
to be further examined and potentially be purchased (Eckman,
Damhorst, & Kadolph, 1990; Morganosky, 1984). The second
issue is of concern because colours affect consumer expectations,
which would influence initial desire to purchase and subsequent
action to purchase (Hutchings, 2003). Studying colour harmony
for package design and consumer expectations of the product will
lead to a better understanding of these two issues.
Colour Harmony
Colour harmony, as Judd and Wyszecki (1975) suggested, can be
defined as two or more colours seen in neighbouring areas which
produce a pleasing effect. Granville (1987) also defined colour
harmony as colour usage that pleases people. For many years,
Shuo-Ting Wei is an assistant professor of visual communication design at the
TransWorld University in Taiwan. He received his doctorate in colour science
from the University of Leeds, UK in 2010. His recent publications include a
journal paper Optimisation of Food Expectations Using Product Colour and
Appearance (Wei, et al. 2012) and a conference paper TAPOS: A Tactile
Pattern Order System for Blind People (Wei 2013). His research interests
include semantics, imagery and harmony of colour and visual texture. He is
currently working on a research project regarding imageries of colour and visual
texture for different materials.
Li-Chen Ou is an Associate Professor at the Graduate Institute of Applied
Science and Technology, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology,
Taiwan. Dr. Ou received a first degree (B. Eng.) from the Department of
Industrial Design, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan in 1995, an M. A.
from the Institute of Applied Arts, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
in 1997, and a Ph. D. from the former Colour & Imaging Institute, University
of Derby, UK in 2004. Dr. Ou is the Technical Committee Chair of the CIE
TC1-86 Models of Colour Emotion and Harmony, an international committee
for research and standardization of colour emotion and harmony. He is also the
Associate Director of CIE-Taiwan Division 1: Vision and Color. Dr. Ous areas
of interest include colour emotion, colour harmony, image emotion, affective
design, and user experience design.
M. Ronnier Luo is a Professor of Colour and Imaging Science at Leeds
University (UK), a Global Expert Professor at Zhejiang University (China) and
a Chair Professor at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.
He is also the Director of the Division 1 (Colour and Vision) of the International
Commission on Illumination (CIE), which is responsible for providing standards
of colour and lighting specifications. He received his PhD in 1986 at the
University of Bradford in the field of colour since. He has over 400 publications
in relation to colour. He is a Fellow of the Society for Imaging Science and
Technology, and of the Society of Dyers and Colourists. He is also the Chief
Editor of the Encyclopaedia of Colour Science and Technology, to be published
by Springer.
John B. Hutchings is a physicist who was brought up in industry finishing
his time with Unilever Research as a specialist in colour and appearance. The
approach to the subject developed during this period has since been broadened
into studies on colour in biological nature, oral tradition, archaeology, ethics,
language, and an extension of the food appearance philosophy into the wider
world of design. At present he is coordinating industry/academia research
projects in colour and imaging science at Leeds University, where he is a
Visiting Professor. John is the author of Food Color and Appearance, now in
its second edition, and Expectations in the Food IndustryImpact of Color
and Appearance. He holds the Deane B Judd Award of the International Colour
Association, the Newton Medal of the Colour Group (GB), and is an honorary
member of the Colour Group (GB) and the Grupo Argentino del Color.
specialists have sought to understand which colour combinations

produce pleasant feelings. Their studies can generally be
categorised into two groups, including one group of studies based
on the orderly arrangement of colours and the other group based
on the interrelationship between colours (Ou & Luo, 2006). The
former group of studies, such as those by Itten (1961), Munsell
(1921), Nemcsics (1993, 2007) and Ostwald (1916), focused on
the systematic selections of colours in a colour order system. The
latter group of studies, such as those by Chevreul (1839), Chuang
and Ou (2001), Goethe (1810) and Moon and Spencer (1944),
claimed that complementary or analogous colours in terms of hue,
lightness or chroma could produce harmonious combinations.
Previous studies of colour harmony have suggested some
principles of colour combinations that create colour harmony. The
effect of hue difference is perhaps the most consistent effect across
the findings of the colour harmony studies (Moon & Spencer, 1944;
Munsell, 1921; Nemcsics, 1993; Ostwald, 1916; Ou & Luo, 2006;
Schloss & Palmer, 2011; Szab, Bodrogi, & Schanda, 2010).
These studies all agreed that colours tended to harmonise if
the colours are of the same hue. Some theories and studies of
colour harmony also suggested that colours harmonise if they are
complementary in hue (Chuang & Ou, 2001; Moon & Spencer,
1944; Munsell, 1921; Nemcsics, 1993; Ostwald, 1916).
A number of previous studies proposed an equal-chroma
principle, suggesting that when two colours are equal or similar
in chroma, their colour combination would look harmonious
(Moon & Spencer, 1944; Munsell, 1921; Nemcsics, 1993; Ostwald,
1916; Ou & Luo, 2006; Szab et al., 2010). In addition, Ou and
Luo (2006) also suggested a similar principle of colour harmony,
i.e., equal-hue and equal-chroma principle. This principle states
that resemblance in hue and chroma between individual colours
in a colour pair results in colour harmony.
In addition to hue-related and chroma-related principles
of colour harmony, a number of previous studies also suggested
some lightness-related principles. They are equal-lightness
principle (Szab et al., 2010), complementary-lightness principle
(Munsell, 1921; Szab et al., 2010) and high-lightness principle
(Ou & Luo, 2006; Szab et al., 2010).
Since packaging itself represents the image of a product
and a colour-harmonised package design would please people, it
is hypothesised that a product itself will be liked if the package
has a harmonious colour scheme. Hence, the current study aims
to examine the associations between colour harmony of package
design and the degree of liking of the product. It is important to
note that colour harmony and liking refer to different aspects: the
former evaluates the package design whereas the latter refers to
the customers response to the product itself.
Consumer Expectation
Consumer expectations are pre-purchase beliefs or evaluative
beliefs of a product (Oliver, 1980; Olson & Dover, 1979)
which are influenced by customer perception of a product or
service. They can be generated from previous experience,
advertising, hearsay, awareness of competitors and brand image
S.-T. Wei, L.-C. Ou, M. R. Luo and J. B. Hutchings
(Oliver & Winer, 1987), and can also affect purchase decision
making (Hutchings, 2003). In the realm of food products, colour
(including colours of food itself and colours on packages) can
evoke and influence pre-experienced expectations, such as
sweetness, pureness, refreshing, freshness, naturalness, flavour
intensity, liking, etc (Clydesdale, Gover, Philipsen, & Fugardi,
1992; Deliza, Macfie, & Hedderley, 2003; Schutz, 1954; Wei, Ou,
& Luo, 2007; Zellner & Durlach, 2002, 2003).
Deliza et al. (2003) investigated the influences of package
design on expectations. They manipulated six features of package
graphic design and then asked observers to rate their expectations
of sweetness, pureness, sharpness, refreshing, freshness,
naturalness and liking for each stimulus. The six features include
background colour, price, information, brand, language and shape.
The results showed that background colour and information have
significant effects on expectations.
Wei et al. (2007) examined the effect of package colours
on expectations. In their study, package colours referred to the
background colours of a package design. Observers of their study
assessed orange juice packages with 20 different background
colours using six bipolar scales, i.e., quality (poor qualityhigh
quality), the position in the market (economyluxury), healthiness
(unhealthyhealthy), refreshingness (not refreshingrefreshing),
flavour strength (weakstrong) and freshness (stalefresh). They
found that quality, the position in the market and healthiness
showed similar patterns of results and can be further categorised
into a broader category of product quality. A product would be
expected to be of high quality if light or dark colours were used to
design the package. Poor quality would be expected if the colours
with lightness of mid levels were used. In addition, the scales of
refreshingness and freshness showed similar patterns of results
and were categorised into a broader category of freshness.
Freshness was relative to chroma of package colours, such that an
orange juice would be expected to be fresh if vibrant colours were
used to design the package.
Deliza et al. (2003) showed that background colours of a

package affect consumer expectations. Wei et al. (2007) further
manifested that, for orange juice, product quality and freshness
were the two expectations being affected by package colours.
Given Wei et al.s (2007) findings of the relationship between
colours and expectations of orange juice however, their results may
not be applicable to different fruit juices. We believe that different
contexts within which colours are used would lead to different
relationships between colours and expectations. Hence, in order
to gain a more comprehensive understanding with regard to the
influences of colour on expectations, the current study used seven
different fruit juices to empirically investigate the relationships
between colour scheme of packaging and expectations of quality
(poor qualityhigh quality) and freshness (stalefresh).
Methods
The framework of the method employed in this study was, firstly,
asking observers to view digital images of packages projected
onto the screen of a colour calibrated monitor. The observers
then scored the images for colour harmony and expectations.
Finally, colour appearance of the images was compared with
the observers responses. To achieve this, a series of tasks were
carried out, as shown in Figure 1. The first step was to conduct
a market survey in order to obtain a typical layout of juice
packages. This typical layout was then used as a guideline to
design experimental stimuli. In step 2, colour specification and
on-screen colour rendering of juice packages were carried out. To
achieve this, colour measurement technology and uniform colour
space (CIE, 2004; Hunt, 1998; Wyszecki & Stiles, 1982) were
used for colorimetric characterisation of the experimental display,
colour specification and colour rendering of experimental stimuli.
The third step was to perform psychophysical experiments using
the semantic differential (SD) method. In this step, we asked
observers to visually assess the stimuli using semantic scales. The
final step was to analyse data and then examine the relationships
between colours of juice packages and observers responses.
Figure 1. The four steps of tasks accomplished in this study.
CIELAB Uniform Colour Space
Market Survey of Juice Packages
CIELAB colour space is a perceptually uniform colour space

which comprises of three orthogonal scales: L*, a* and b*. L*
stands for the axis of lightness, a* and b* represent two scales of
opponent colour pairs (i.e., rednessgreenness and yellowness
blueness, respectively). Chroma and hue, two of the perceptual
attributes of colours, are specified by converting the rectangular
a* and b* axes into polar coordinates C* and h (CIE, 2004).
The purpose of surveying the package design of fruit juice

was to explore the existing graphic designs in the market. The
findings of this market survey provided a guideline for designing
the experimental stimuli. Thirty-two carton packages of orange
juice, produced by 24 leading brands, were collected from various
UK supermarkets. The 24 brands were ASDA, Britvic, Calypso,
Cawston Vale, Del Monte, Don Simon, Grove Fresh, Just Juice,
Kulana, Libbys, Londis, M&S, Morrisons, Princes, Rubicon,
Safari Vival, Safeway, Sainsburys, Somerfield, Stute, Sunpride,
Tesco, Tropicana and Waitrose. The 32 carton packages were
presented in Appendix 1.
The distance between any two colours in CIELAB space

represents the (visually) perceived colour difference between
them. CIELAB colour difference (E*ab) is defined by either the
three orthogonal coordinates L*, a* and b* or by the cylindrical
coordinates L*, C* and h. A E*ab value of 1 approximately
corresponds to a just visible difference in colour.
The CIELAB colour space and the corresponding colour
difference (E*ab) were used in this study to render colour
stimuli, as given in Table 2. Details of rendering colour stimuli
are given in the section of Stimuli Preparation.
Colorimetric Characterisation of the Display

A 21-inch SONY Trinitron Multiscan 20SE CRT display was
used to present the stimuli. Before manipulating the colours of
the experimental stimuli, a colorimetric characterisation for the
display was carried out. The resulting characterisation model
was used to convert the digital input (i.e., RGB) of the display
to colour appearance attributes (e.g., CIE L*a*b* values). In this
study, a Gain-Offset-Gamma (GOG) model developed by Berns
(1996; also see CIE, 1996) was used to characterise the display.
A set of 20 colours, which cover a wide range of the
CIELAB colour space, was used to test the performance of
the characterisation model. As a result, the average colour
difference (i.e., E*ab) between the measured colours and
their predictive counterparts was 0.95, with a maximum colour
difference value of 2.04.
According to Ampuero and Vila (2006) and Deliza et al.

(1999), the salient features of the 32 packages included package
colours, main images, brand name and product name. On the
basis of the arrangement of these features, the 32 packages were
classified into four groups: those with the brand/product names
located above the main image, those with the brand/product
names separated by the main image, those with the brand/product
name located below the main image, and those with the brand/
product name overlapped with the main image. Table 1 shows
the four types of layouts and their corresponding representative
packages. Among the 32 packages, 18 were found to have the first
type of layout. This type of layout was, hence, used to design the
experimental stimuli in this study.
Stimuli Preparation
Experimental stimuli were generated using an image of an existing
juice product. For each image stimulus, an image was captured in
a controlled surrounding. A VeriVide viewing cabinet was used
to control surround lighting. Inside the viewing cabinet was the
juice product on a uniform grey background and illuminated by
a D65 simulator. The colour-calibrated Canon EOS 350D camera
used to capture photos of the package was set 50cm in front of
the package.
Table 1. Classification of juice packages according to the layout of graphic design.
Types of layouts
and examples
Number of
packages
18
Figure 2. Procedure for modifying the layout of the package.
Figure 3. Seven pictures of fruits used in this study.

The images from left to right are orange, apple, cranberry, pineapple, grapefruit, strawberry and tomato.
After capturing the image of the product, Photoshop CS2

was used to modify it. As shown in Figure 2, the original graphic
design of the label and the picture of fruits were first replaced with
newly designed ones, and five such designed packages were then
aligned side by side in order to simulate the products presented
on a supermarket shelf. The modified image of the existing juice
product was used as the base image. The experimental stimuli
were generated by changing package colour and picture of fruit of
this base image.
A total of 140 experimental stimuli were generated using
pictures of seven fruits and 20 package colours. Colours and
designs of the rest of the package appearance, such as covers,
labels and logos, remained unchanged. The seven pictures of
fruits, shown in Figure 3, included orange, apple, cranberry,
pineapple, grapefruit, strawberry and tomato. They are popular
flavours of juices sold in the UK. According to the 2011 UK Soft

Drink Report released by BSDA, they shared over 74% of the
fruit juice market in 2010. In addition, these seven fruits covered a
considerable range of natural fruit colours from red through orange
and yellow to green. These pictures were captured following the
same procedures as described in the first paragraph of this section.
Twenty colours, selected from Ou, Luo, Woodcock and
Wright (2004), provided a guideline here to render package
colours. Specification of the package colours were calculated
by averaging L*, a* and b* of all pixels within the background
areas of packages, see Table 2. The 20 colours gave an adequate
coverage in the CIELAB colour space, as shown in Figure 4.
Note that the package colours used in this study are different from
the 20 colours used in Ou et al.s study (Ou et al., 2004). This
is because some pale colours used in their study failed to render
Table 2. The 20 package colours used in the experiment.

Sample No.
L*
a*
b*
C*
Sample No.
L*
a*
b*
C*
29.46
44.81
40.69
60.53
11
73.69
11.19
42.10
43.56
60.33
35.70
68.60
77.33
12
59.45
-20.34
-12.10
23.67
23.84
-26.33
18.74
32.32
13
50.60
17.65
-36.66
40.69
32.92
4.36
-35.23
35.49
14
33.00
-5.79
21.74
22.50
14.35
13.25
-34.87
37.31
15
20.75
-13.40
-6.35
14.82
13.79
27.03
23.89
36.08
16
16.87
15.47
-14.67
21.32
23.16
10.28
19.23
21.81
17
1.23
7.24
-3.43
8.01
45.12
-21.44
26.64
34.20
18
30.21
4.39
-1.08
4.52
14.42
5.07
-18.68
19.36
19
48.95
0.27
1.65
1.67
10
67.99
23.80
9.76
25.73
20
82.88
0.89
0.10
0.90
package colours. Texture details disappeared when these pale

colours used. To avoid this, package colours were further adjusted
using Photoshop CS2 software. Figure 5 demonstrates three
examples of the stimuli: Figures 5a and 5b show the packages of
orange juice with blue and white package colours and Figure 5c
shows the packages of apple juice with white package colour.
Observers
A total of 20 observers, 10 males and 10 females, participated
in this study. The ages of these observers ranged from 23 to 34
years (average = 26 years; SD. = 3.64). They were postgraduate
students or academic staff members of the University of Leeds,
UK. All of the twenty observers passed the Ishihara test (Ishihara,
2003) and were thus regarded as having normal colour vision.
Semantic Scales
Four semantic scales, colour harmony (disharmonious
harmonious), liking (dislikelike), quality (poor qualityhigh
quality) and freshness (stalefresh), were used in this study to
indicate observers responses of juice packages with different
colour schemes. The scale of colour harmony quantified
observers responses for the colour scheme of the package design.
The scale of liking was used to indicate observers expected
liking for the juice product contained in the pack. With regard
to quality and freshness, they are two underlying factors among
the six expectation scales: product quality, position in the market,
freshness, refreshingness, healthiness and flavour strength (Wei
et al., 2007). Hence, the scales of quality and freshness were then
used in this study to quantify observers expectations.
In the experiment, each of these four scales was presented

in terms of ten categories. These categories were represented by
the integers from 1 to 10. The numbers from 1 to 5 represent
the degree of agreement with the left end of the scale, with 1
being the strongest and 5 the weakest. Numbers from 6 to
10 represents the degree of agreement with the right end of the
scale. 6 represents the weakest and 10 is the strongest. Taking
the scale of freshness for example, the ten categories represented
by the integers from 1 to 10 correspond to very stale, quite
stale, stale, a little stale, slightly stale, slightly fresh, a
little fresh, fresh, quite fresh and very fresh, respectively.
Experimental Procedure
The whole experiment was conducted in a laboratory where the
only light source came from the experimental display. Before the
experiment, the observers were asked to read instructions of the
experimental procedure (see Appendix 2 for the instructions).
A 3-minute adaptation time was given before beginning the
experiment. Due to the high display luminance level, the 3-minute
duration is sufficient for the observers to adapt to the luminance
levels of the screen and the laboratory.
During the experiment, the observers were asked to assess
colour harmony, liking, quality and freshness of the 140 stimuli
using numbers from 1 to 10 to represent their responses. For each
semantic scale, the assessments of 28 stimuli were repeated. These
28 stimuli were packages of the 7 fruit juices using 4 package
colours. The 4 package colours we selected for repeated measure
were red (L* = 29.46, a* = 44.81, b* = 40.69), golden yellow
(L* = 60.33, a* = 35.70, b* = 68.60), green (L* = 23.84, a* = -26.33,
b* = 18.74) and blue (L* = 32.92, a* = 4.36, b* = -35.23). These
colours together cover a wide range in CIELAB space.
Figure 4. The 20 package colour in CIELAB (a) a*b* plane and (b) L*C* plane.
Figure 5. Examples of the experimental stimuli: (a) and (b) are packages of orange juice with blue and white package colours;
(c) shows packages of apple juice with white package colour.
The stimuli were presented in random order on the

21-inch CRT display. The viewing distance was approximately
50cm. Figure 6 shows the style of image used in the experiment,
including the angular sizes (in degrees) of the stimuli and of the
viewing field. An objects angular size is the angle between the
lines of sight to its two opposite sides.
in the field of colour science to evaluate scoring reliability (Ou et

al, 2004, 2006). The RMS has a minimal value of 0, indicating
that the two data sets agree perfectly with each other. The
maximal value of RMS varies, depending upon the scale range
of the data sets. The maximal value occurs when observes give
extreme responses (e.g., 1: very stale and 10: very fresh) to
the same stimulus. In other words, higher RMS values indicate
poorer intra- or inter-observer agreements.
(Eq. 1)
Figure 6. The user interfaces employed in the experiment.
Results
Intra-observer and Inter-observer Agreement
Intra- and inter-observer agreements were first examined to
investigate response consistency. Intra-observer agreement
examines whether or not the responses of assessments agree
with the repeated counterparts from the same observers, whereas
inter-observer agreement investigates whether or not an observers
responses agree with the majority, i.e., the mean scores of all
observers responses.
In this study, the measure of root mean square (RMS)
was used to determine the level of both intra- and inter-observer
agreements, as given in equation 1. RMS determines how well
two data sets agree with each other and is a commonly used index
For intra-observer agreements, yi and xi represent the

scoring of individual observers second and first assessments for
ith stimulus, respectively. n represents the number of repeated
stimuli, which equals to twenty-eight in the current study. For
inter-observer agreements, yi is the mean score of all observers
raw data for the ith stimulus; xi is the individual observers raw
data for the ith stimulus. n is the total number of stimuli, which is
140 in the current study.
Table 3 summarises the results of intra- and inter-observer
agreements in terms of RMS. In the case of intra-observer
agreement, most of the RMSs between repeated assessments were
smaller than 2 units with the mean RMS of 1.38 units for male
observers and 1.45 units for female observers. This indicates high
intra-observer agreement, as the differences between repeated
assessments for both genders were below 1.5 categories of the
10-category measurement scale.
In the case of inter-observer agreement, the values of
RMS were around 2 units with the mean values of 1.84 for male
observers and 1.80 for female observers. That is, the differences
between individual observers responses and the responses
of the majority were less than 2 categories of the 10-category
measurement scale, suggesting reliable inter-observer agreement.
Table 3. Observers agreements in terms of RMS.

Intra-observer agreement
Male
Inter-observer agreement
Female
Observer No.
RMS
0.97
1.41
1.65
0.87
5
6
Observer No.
Male
Female
RMS
Observer No.
RMS
Observer No.
RMS
11
1.11
12
1.15
1.30
11
1.24
1.90
12
1.46
13
1.06
14
1.84
2.51
13
1.96
1.72
14
2.04
1.17
15
1.24
16
1.20
1.39
15
1.63
2.05
1.49
16
2.45
1.35
1.36
17
1.41
2.14
17
1.94
18
1.98
1.85
18
2.03
1.78
19
1.42
2.29
19
2.14
10
2.05
20
1.28
10
1.81
20
1.15
Mean
1.38
1.45
1.84
1.80
Std.
0.36
0.37
0.39
0.42
Gender Differences
Gender differences were investigated using the measure of
root mean square (RMS, see equation 1). Table 4 summarises
the results. In the cases of orange juice and tomato juice, the
differences of expected freshness between male and female
observers were slightly larger than 1 unit of the 10-category
measurement scale. For the other cases, the gender difference was
less than 1 unit.
Table 4. The results of gender difference.
RMS
Colour harmony
Liking
Quality
Freshness
Orange
0.73
0.73
0.70
1.06
Apple
0.70
0.83
0.77
0.88
Cranberry
0.69
0.45
0.72
0.82
Pineapple
0.68
0.70
0.89
0.53
Grapefruit
0.61
0.68
0.76
0.60
Strawberry
0.57
0.69
0.69
0.84
Tomato
0.71
0.52
0.67
1.02
Relationships between Scales

Examinations of the relationships between scales help clarify
which semantic scales were similar and which were different
according to the colour design of the juice packages. These
relationships were described using the Pearson product-moment
correlation coefficient (R) and demonstrated using scatter plots
shown in Figure 7. The probability value p = 0.05 was used to
determine the significance of R.
The scale of colour harmony was highly correlated with

the scales of liking and quality (R 0.87, p < 0.05), as shown
in Figures 7a and 7b. In addition, liking and quality were also
highly correlated (R = 0.89, p < 0.05), as shown in Figure 7c.
Given the findings, we further consider the possibility that quality
is a mediator variable that carries the influence of colour harmony
to liking. When quality was included as a mediator variable, the
regression coefficient for colour harmony and liking reduced
from 0.952 to 0.649. Results from the Sobel test indicated that
quality significantly mediated the relationship between colour
harmony and liking (Z = 5.75, p < 0.001). These findings suggest
that colour harmony of juice packages has significant influences
on observers expectations of the quality of juice products, which
would in turn affect observers liking of the juice products.
Figures 7d to 7f show the relationships between the scale
of freshness and three other scales: colour harmony, liking and
quality, respectively. The correlation coefficients of freshness
and the other three scales were all significantly (0.72 R 0.59,
p < 0.05), although there is a tendency that these three scales agree
better in the higher than the lower scale range (i.e., a wilder spread
was seen when scores were lower than 6). Given that all three
scales are highly correlated, we examined the possibility that
the relationship between colour harmony and liking is mediated
by freshness. The regression coefficient for colour harmony and
liking reduced from 0.952 to 0.857 when freshness was included
as a mediator. The results of Sobel test confirmed that freshness
was a significant mediator between colour harmony and liking
(Z = 3.78, p < 0.001). These findings suggest that juice products
with a colour-harmonised package design are considered fresh
products, which would in turn lead to better liking of the product.
Figure 7. Scatter plots of the relationships between each pair of the four scales.
The Effect of Colour on Observers Responses

This section describes the influences of package colours and
fruit pictures on colour harmony, liking, quality and freshness.
The following indicators were used to examine the interactions
between package colours and the colours of fruit pictures: sums
and/or differences of lightness (L*sum and L*), chroma (C*sum
and C*) and hue angle (h) as well as chromatic difference (C)
between package colours and colours of fruit pictures. Note that
chromatic difference (C) integrates chroma difference (C*)
and hue difference (H*). These attributes were chosen according
to Ou and Luo (2006).
The twenty package colours are given in Table 2. Table 5
lists colour attributes of the seven fruit colours. These colours
were determined according to the results of Wei, Ou and Luos
study (2008) to find out perceived colours of fruit pictures. In the
study observers were asked to define major parts of fruit pictures,
e.g., the skin areas of the images of apple, and then to visually
match colour appearance of uniform colour patches according
to the colours of the major parts. The matched uniform colours,
i.e., the perceived colours, were lighter and more colourful than
average colours of the major parts of the fruit pictures.
The effect of lightness

Previous studies found that small lightness difference (L*) led
to colour disharmony. Ou and Luo (2006) and Szab et al. (2010)
also claimed that high lightness values (L*sum) of constituent
colours tend to enhance colour harmony. However, such
relationships were not found in the current study. The effects of
lightness on colour harmony, liking and quality were limited. As
shown in Table 6, the correlation coefficients (R) of these three
semantic scales across the three lightness-related attributes, i.e.,
lightness of package colours (L*bg), L*sum and L*, were only
weakly correlated (i.e., between -0.14 and 0.08). This result
is inconsistent with previous finding of a significant effect of
lightness on colour harmony (Chuang & Ou, 2001; Moon &
Spencer, 1944; Ou & Luo, 2006).
The scale of freshness, on the other hand, was moderately
correlated with L*bg (R = 0.40). This suggests that light package
colours of fruit juice are associated with freshness.
and the colours of fruit pictures increases. This pattern is similar

to those of the likingC and qualityC relationships, and is
consistent with the pattern of the harmonyC relationship found
in Ou and Luo (2006).
Table 5. Representative colours of the seven fruit pictures.
Fruit
Major parts
L*
Orange
Flesh & skin
63.66
Apple
Skin
63.92
Cranberry
Skin
35.43
Pineapple
Flesh
70.83
Grapefruit
Flesh & skin
Strawberry
Skin
Tomato
Skin
a*
b*
C*
36.36
67.81
77.22
61.84
-30.99
55.34
63.43
119.25
46.21
27.20
53.64
30.07
8.37
65.44
65.97
82.71
51.80
35.46
50.54
64.54
54.44
43.08
55.45
46.52
72.38
40.00
37.27
51.00
46.75
69.19
42.51
Table 6. Correlation coefficients of the four semantic scales

across the attributes of L*bg, L*sum and L*.
R
L*bg
L*sum
L*
Colour harmony
-0.14
-0.10
0.06
Liking
-0.11
-0.05
0.07
Quality
Freshness
0.01
0.01
0.08
*0.40
*0.29
*-0.24
*: the correlation coefficient reached significance level of p < 0.05
Table 7. Correlation coefficients of the four semantic scales

across the attributes of C*bg, C*sum, C* and C.
R
C*bg
C*sum
C*
Colour harmony
*0.31
*0.30
*-0.28
*-0.52
Liking
*0.31
*0.32
*-0.26
*-0.43
Quality
*0.22
*0.24
*-0.18
*-0.45
Freshness
*0.53
*0.54
*-0.44
*-0.30
*: the correlation coefficient reached significance level of p < 0.05
The effect of chroma

Table 7 summarises the correlation coefficients (R) of the four
scales across the four chroma-related attributes, i.e., chroma of
package colours (C*bg), C*sum, C* and C. As shown in Table
7, the effects of C*bg, C*sum, and C* on the scales of colour
harmony, liking and quality were rather weak (0.32 R -0.28).
The results are inconsistent with Szab et al.s (2010) findings
that two colours having small C* or having large C*sum tended
to harmonise.
Chromatic difference (C), which involves both the
attributes of chroma difference and hue difference, was moderately
correlated with the scales of harmony, liking and quality
(R -0.43). Figure 8 shows the scatter plot of the harmonyC
relationship. This diagram reveals that colour harmony tends to
decrease as the chromatic difference between the package colours
Figure 8. Scatter plot of the relationship between colour

harmony and chromatic difference (C).
The results of freshness differed from those of colour

harmony, liking and quality. As shown in Table 7, freshness was
moderately correlated with C*bg and C*sum (R 0.53), but weakly
correlated with C (R = -0.30). Figures 9(a) and 9(b) are scatter
plots of freshness against C*bg and C*sum. As can be seen in Figure
9a and 9b, colourful colours would give rise to an impression of
freshness, except for some cases (see the grey ellipses in Figures
9a and 9b). These cases are the packages of the 7 fruit juices using
white package colour. They were also rated as fresh products.
Figure 10a illustrates the scatter plot of colour harmony

against hue angle of package colours. As shown in this figure,
hue angles ranging from 45 to 135 were more likely to be rated
harmonious. This indicates that orange, yellow and yellowish
green package colours were more likely to produce harmonious
feelings to the observers. This trend, as visualised by the curve
in Figure 10a, also reveals a tendency that the hue angles of
these harmonious packages colours were similar to that of fruit
colours which were red, orange, yellow or green. Figure 10b plots
colour harmony against hue angle difference (h). As shown in
this figure, colour harmony scores around the two ends of this
diagram were larger than those around the middle parts. This
indicates that a package would look harmonious if the hues of
the package colour and the fruit colour are similar or identical.
Complementary colour combinations, on the other hand, would
look disharmonious. These results are in accordance with the
findings reported by Ou and Luo (2006) and Szab et al. (2010),
but contrast with the studies by Moon and Spencer (1944),
Munsell (1921) and Ostwald (1916), who claimed that colours
harmonise if they are complementary in hue.
Figure 9. Scatter plots of the relationships between freshness

and (a) chroma of package colours (C*bg)
and (b) chroma sum (C*sum).
The Effect of Hue

Unlike the colour attributes of lightness and chroma, hue angle
is an angular measurement rather than a linear measurement.
Hence, correlation coefficient (R) is not an appropriate method for
evaluating the relationships between hue angle and the four semantic
scales. Instead, the scatter plots of hue angle against the ratings of
the semantic scales were used to investigate the relationships.
Figure 10. Scatter plots of colour harmony against (a)

hue angle of the package colours (hbg) and (b) hue angle
difference (h).
The effects of hue on liking and quality were similar to the

effects of hue on colour harmony, indicating that the observers liked
a juice product and considered it a high quality product if the hues
of the package colour and the fruit colour are similar or identical.
The effect of hue on freshness was not as strong as the
effects of hue on colour harmony. Figure 11 shows the scatter
plot of the freshness against hue angle difference (h). As can
be seen in this figure, the data spread widely and do not show
a clear trend, suggesting no clear connection between hue angle
difference and freshness.
Although the goal of the current study was to obtain

descriptive data to describe the relationships between colour
harmony and psychological responses within the context of fruit
juice, it is also of interest to further consider possible accounts
Discussions
Colour Harmony and Liking
In the current study, we hypothesised that a fruit juice product
will be liked and expected to be of high quality when the package
colour scheme looks harmonious. Our findings support this
hypothesis. We found that colour harmony of fruit juice packages
is highly correlated with observers expectation of quality and
liking of juice products. In addition, results from the mediation
analyses revealed that colour harmony of package colour scheme
influences the observers perception of the quality and freshness of
the products, which in turn influences their liking of the products.
Figure 11. Scatter plot of freshness against hue angle

difference (h).
Table 8. Comparisons between existing colour harmony principles and the findings of the current study.
Colour harmony
principles
Hue-related
principles
Chroma-related
principle
Lightness-related
principles
Conjoint
principles
Descriptions
Studies
Agreed/disagreed
with the current study
Equal-hue principle
Colours harmonise if they are

of the same hue.
Moon & Spencer (1944), Munsell

(1921), Nemcsics (1993), Ostwald
(1916), Ou & Luo (2006), Szab et al.
(2010), Schloss & Palmer (2011)
Agreed
Complementary-hue
principle
Colours harmonise if they are

complementary in hue.
Chuang & Ou (2001), Munsell (1921),

Moon & Spencer (1944), Nemcsics
(1993), Ostwald (1916)
Disagreed
Blue principle
Blues tend to create colour harmony; reds

tend to create colour disharmony.
Ou & Luo (2006)
Was not
examined
in this study
Yellow principle
Bright yellows tend to harmonise with

other colours in a colour pair; dark
yellows (browns) tend to disharmonise.
Ou & Luo (2006)
Was not
examined in
this study
Equal-chroma principle
Colours harmonise if they are of the same

chroma
Munsell (1921), Moon & Spencer (1944),

Nemcsics (1993), Ostwald (1916),
Ou & Luo (2006), Szab et al. (2010)
Did not
agree well
Equal-lightness principle
Colours disharmonise if they are of the

same lightness
Szab et al. (2010)
Disagreed
Complementary-lightness
principle
Colours harmonise if lightness of the two

colours crosses the lightness of 50.
Munsell (1921), Szab et al. (2010)
Disagreed
High-lightness principle
The higher the lightness of individual

colours, the more harmonious the colour
pair generated by them.
Ou & Luo (2006), Szab et al. (2010)
Disagreed
Equal-tone principle
Colours harmonise if they are of the same

lightness and of the same chroma
Ostwald (1916), Munsell (1921)
Disagreed
Equal-hue & equal-chroma

principle
Resemblance in hue and chroma

between individual colours in a colour
pair results in colour harmony.
Ou & Luo (2006)
Agreed
underpinning the associations between package colour and

expectation of juice products. One possible account for the link
between colour harmony of package design and expected liking
of the juice products lies in the effect of hue. In the current study,
we found that similar hues of the colours of the packages and fruit
pictures increased both colour harmony and liking. It is possible
that when the package of a fruit juice product was designed
using a colour that was similar in hue to the colour of the target
fruit, the package colour would activate concepts or thoughts
associated with the target fruit. For instance, for an orange juice
product with an orange package colour, the package colour
might activate the concept of orangeness, which is consistent
with the typical colour of the target fruit. From this ecological
perspective, our findings of a preference over similar hues can be
viewed as a reflection of the goodness of fit between conceptual
representations of the background colour and the target object
(Palmer & Schloss, 2010), which is orange in this case.
Colour Harmony in the Context

of Fruit Juice Package
Most of the conventional principles of colour harmony were
based on research focused on combinations of uniform colours.
In the current study, we examined colour harmony within a
specific context. We stated that the context within which colours
are used affects how colours are perceived and colour harmony.
We found that colour harmony in the context of juice packaging
was different from that of uniform colours. Table 8 summarises
the comparisons between existing colour harmony principles
and the findings of the current study. As shown in the table, there
are four types of colour harmony principles, i.e., hue-related,
chroma-related, lightness-related and conjoint principles. In
comparison to previous findings, only two principles are applicable
to the current data: the equal-hue principle and the equal-hue and
-chroma principle. The equal-hue principle specifies that colours
harmonise if they are of the same hue. The equal-hue and -chroma
principle states that resemblance in hue and chroma between
individual colours in a colour pair results in colour harmony.
Schloss and Palmers study (2011) distinguished colour
preference into 2 conditions: seeing a colour combination as a
whole (similar hues are preferred) and seeing a colour combination
as a figural colour on its background colour (complementary hues
are preferred). Our findings on colour harmony agreed with the
former condition. The observers of the current study tended to
interpret the term colour harmony as a subjective judgment of
preference. In addition, they tended to see the package colour
scheme as a whole, rather than seeing fruit pictures as figures and
package colours as backgrounds.
Expectation of Freshness and Chroma

Unlike colour harmony, which is mainly affected by the hue of
the package colour scheme, freshness is mainly influenced by
chroma. A product with colourful package and fruit colours was
expected to be a fresh juice product. A possible explanation that
saturated colours produces fresh expectation is that saturated
colours might be associated with the concepts of pure and new, as

opposed to less saturated or dull colours. Hence, a juice product
with a colourful package would give rise to the impression of
recently-made and therefore freshness. To our best knowledge,
few previous studies examining the influence of package colours
on freshness have inspected the connection between freshness and
chroma. Future studies should further examine the relationship
between package colours and the expectation of freshness in order
to gain a better understanding of this issue.
Practical and Educational Implications

In the current study, we found that colour harmony of juice
packaging influences consumers expectations of the products
(quality and freshness), which in turn affects consumers liking
of the products. For designers who attempt to create positive
psychological or emotional connections between their package
design and a fruit juice product, the current findings suggested
that white package colour or package colours with hue identical
to the representative colours of fruit pictures would give rise to
a harmonic impression. In addition, colourful package colours
could enhance expectation of freshness for juice products.
Colour harmony, as a concept, is often represented in
the form of rules or principles in art or design textbooks. These
rules or principles are mainly based on uniform colours. While
putting colours in context, we found that the conventional colour
harmony principles cannot fully account for the current data.
In training students to develop skills and knowledge needed
to work with colours, it is important to emphasize the fact that
colour harmony does not constitute a fixed set of principles.
Instead, it changes according to the context in which colours
appear. While it is important to acknowledge the fact that colour
harmony is not a fixed concept but can vary with the context, a
better understanding of colour harmony is still to be achieved by
extending investigations of colour harmony to different contexts.
Conclusions
In the current study, we found that colour harmony of fruit juice
packages is associated with observers liking of the products, and
the association was mediated by the observers expectation of the
quality and freshness of the products. Colour harmony, liking
and quality are mainly influenced by chromatic difference (C)
and hue angle difference (h) between package colours and fruit
colours. The effect of lightness on the three semantic scales was
weak. We suggest that a package design with its colour scheme
having low C and similar hues between package colour and fruit
colour will look harmonious. Customers are more likely to expect
this product to be a quality product and would tend to like it.
The relationship between colours and freshness do not
agree well with the other three semantic scales, especially in the
cases of mid or low scale scores (see Figures 6d to 6f). Freshness
is mainly affected by chroma of package colours (C*bg) and
chroma sum (C*sum). Lightness of package colours (L*bg) also
contribute to the perception of freshness. Hue effects on freshness
are weak. This suggests that a juice product will be expected to be
fresh if the colour scheme of its package has bright colours.
We also found that the principles of colour harmony may

differ according to the context in which the colours are used.
The results of comparisons suggest that only two existing colour
harmony principles, i.e., the equal-hue principle and equal-hue
and equal-chroma principle, apply to colour combinations in the
context of juice packaging.
Fruit juices proved to be a convenient model material for
this project. The experimental design and methodology employed
and developed can be applied to other foods as well as to other
packaged products.
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Appendix
Appendix 1. The 36 carton-packed orange juices surveyed in this study.
Type 1: The brand/product names located above the main image. Type 2: The brand/product names separated by the main image.
Type 3: The brand/product name located below the main image. Type 4: The brand/product name overlapped with the main image.
Type 1
Type 2
Type 3
Type 4
Appendix 2. The Instruction of the Experiment.
Thank you for taking part in this experiment.

This experiment is a series of visual assessments for digital images. All you need to do is to see the images shown
on the screen and provide your answers by clicking bottoms.
You will be presented images of fruit juice packages. These images of packages have different package colours
(i.e., background colours of package design) and different pictures of fruits. Please assess each image of packages
using the following 4 bipolar scales:
The scales of expectations:
(Poor quality High quality)
2. Freshness
(Stale Fresh)
3. Liking
(Dislike Like)
To assess the above scales of expectations, the question is:
1. Quality
What do you expect the product to be when you see these packages?
The scale of colour harmony:
4. Colour Harmony
(Disharmonious Harmonious)
To assess the scale of colour harmony, the question is:
How do you feel about the colour design of these packages?
There are 10 steps between each bipolar scale, representing the feelings of different levels. For example:
A
very A
quite A
a little A
slightly A
slightly B
a little B
quite B
very B
10
Please click one of the 10 bottoms on screen to represent your answer.
Appendix 3. Scatter plots of the 4 semantic scales (y-axis) against hue of the package colours hbg (x-axis) for the 7 fruit juices.
The dashed line in each figure represents the hue of the corresponding fruit images (see Table 5).
Liking
Quality
Freshness
Apple
Pineapple
Orange
Grapefruit
Tomato
Strawberry
Cranberry
Colour harmony
Appendix 4. The most and the least harmonious and fresh colour design of juice packages.
The least harmonious
package design
The freshest
package design
The least fresh

package design
Tomato
Strawberry
Grapefruit
Pineapple
Cranberry
Apple
Orange
The most harmonious

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Department of Visual Communication Design, TransWorld University, Yunlin, Taiwan

associate with different psychological responses or encourage

International Journal of Design Vol. 8 No. 1 2014