Every June 20th, Yellow Day is celebrated, known as the happiest day of the year. Although the rationale for creating this day is as arbitrary and unreliable as that of Blue Monday (which was conceived as a pseudoscientific excuse to sell trips to the Canary Islands), for Flopicco Studio, it is the perfect opportunity to reflect on three interesting uses of the color yellow in three quite different projects: Eni‘s rebranding; National Geographic‘s editorial guidelines; and Rai‘s Sulle Tracce del Crimine exhibition.
At Eni, yellow is the absolute protagonist. We adopted it not only as a visual legacy from the previous brand, but also because it conveys exactly what the new phase of this brand wants to communicate: energy, optimism, a vital connection with solar energy. At Eni, yellow is more than a color; it embodies character, direction, and a promise for the future.
At National Geographic, yellow plays another role: it serves to frame the amazing. Its famous logo is a window to the world, and sometimes its use in editorial or promotional pieces acts as a visual cue that invites you to look closely. This discreet yet powerful use is evident in a very interesting project we got to work on: creating brand guidelines for its static compositions.
In addition to the psychological component of color that can generate enthusiasm and curiosity, in the compositions of a graphic, editorial, or digital piece, it also tends to work by contrast, since neither the jungles nor the oceans that Nat Geo’s everyday explorers venture into abound in that tone, which is why in practice it has become a distinctive visual accent, as can be seen in the brand guidelines project.
Finally, the yellow used in the Rai Teche‘s exhibition Sulle tracce del crimine takes an unexpected turn, at least for the enthusiasts of Yellow Day, it becomes the color of crime.
In Italy, the crime novel genre is called giallo (yellow) because in 1929, publisher Arnoldo Mondadori brought together the best detective stories, mysteries, crime novels, and noir stories in a series called “giallo” because of the color of the book covers, but they were so successful that the term ended up being used in Italy to refer to the entire crime genre.
That semantic meaning was the focus of the visual identity of this exhibition, which paid tribute to the history of the genre on Italian television. Here, yellow ceased to be cheerful and became enigmatic, demonstrating that there are no universal values in color: its meaning will always depend on idiosyncrasy and cultural context, and this should never be forgotten.
At Flopicco, we celebrate Yellow Day by embracing its vibrant joy and the optimism and energy it exudes, while also recognizing the complexity of this color and its many uses and meanings. 😉
And you? What is your favorite brand, logo, or use of yellow?
—ANA LAYA, Brand Voice & Strategy 🖋
Photos by: Herson Rodríguez, Annie Spratt, Bekky Bekks, Bram, Jiayou Sun, Lauren Mancke, Nadine E., Rodion Kutsaiev, Tim Mossholder, Timothy Dykes, & Vadim Misyuchenko via Unsplash.