Month: January 2016

The Importance of Color

On January 25, 2016

The Importance of Color

Color is an important element in marketing, branding, web design, or even interviewing for a job. Research has shown that people react differently to colors. Color can sway thinking, change actions, and cause reactions. It can soothe, raise your blood pressure, or even make you hungry. You can drive almost anywhere and assume that a traffic light has red, amber, and green; that red means stop and green means go.

Colors can evoke connotations like aggressive, soothing, cheerful, luxurious—and those connotations differ across cultures.

Color is a powerful form of communication.

Color and its Meanings

Black is a mysterious color that signifies power, strength, authority, and commands respect. It is simple, elegant, and speaks of class.

Blue is a favorite color for businesses and suggests stability. It inspires confidence and is the second most powerful color. Darker shades of blue represent authority while brighter hues signify trust and security. Paler shades imply peace, loyalty, and wisdom. Blue causes a calming effect.

Gray is a cool, neutral, and balanced color and is associated with conservative qualities and considered traditional, business-wise symbolizes high-tech and suggests authority, practicality, earnestness, and creativity.

White is the color of innocence, cleanliness, purity, and neutrality. For this reason, many websites use white as a background. It is considered to be the color of perfection. White is a brilliant color and works well for contrast but, that same brilliance can make white hard to focus on and may cause eye fatigue and can be blinding at times.

Brown is an earthy color and is often associated with nature, warmth, and coziness. It suggests richness, stability, reliability, dependability, and approachability, and wholesomeness.

Red signifies power. It’s an emotionally intense color that ignites thoughts of love, passion, and danger. This can have the effect of raising blood pressure. In contrast, red is also the color of alarm and is used as a shorthand sign for danger.

Green is associated with the color of nature, good health, and money. It is seen as calming and is associated with many foods.

Yellow is an energetic and bright color. It represents sunshine, happiness, and warmth. Yellow is associated with creativity and is one of the most difficult colors to focus on visually.

Orange exudes confidence, cheerfulness, hot, fiery, and excitement. It’s often associated with vibrancy, tropics, and instills a sense of fun and pleasure. Orange appeals to a wide range of people.

Purple is often associated with royalty, nobility, luxury, power, creativity, and ambition. It conveys wealth, extravagance, and creativity.

Color matters and is definitely something to consider whether you’re going on a job interview, designing a website, a logo, or marketing a product.

The Importance of Well-Traveled Employees

By Renee DeVaughn

On January 10, 2016

In Communications, Diversity and Inclusion, Management

The Importance of Well-Traveled Employees

There are some people who never feel the urge to leave their homes. They’re content to stay in the city they came from. Then there’s the rest of us: the people who can’t sit still. Having an incurable case of wanderlust, we returned home from our latest vacation in pursuit of our next big adventure.

In today’s competitive market, you must find ways to differentiate yourself from your peers. The skills and experience gained from traveling abroad can give you a competitive advantage and enhance your career. When traveling abroad you are likely to possess the skills needed in the global economy – economic and geographical knowledge, cross-cultural communication skills, analytical skills, flexibility, an understanding of and familiarity with local customs, an ability to adapt to new circumstances, and may be proficient in multiple languages.

Traveling Improves our Communication Skills

When trying to converse in foreign cultures, verbal and non-verbal communication is necessary to overcome language and cultural barriers. Being able to communicate with other people from diverse cultures and backgrounds is an important skill in any job.

Traveling Improves Negotiation Skills

Whether you’re haggling at a market or negotiating a fare with a taxi driver, bargaining is a regular part of traveling abroad and is an important skill to hone. Employers want people who are savvy negotiators.

Understanding Cross-cultural Sensitivity

Today companies both large and small are effectively competing on the global stage in order to survive and prosper. Living among people as you travel abroad, talking with them, and learning their stories and culture gives you a competitive advantage in the workplace.

Becoming Self-sufficient and Confident

When you’re traveling abroad, you don’t have anyone to call for help. As you figure out how to get around in a foreign country, you build confidence and adaptability in foreign situations. Things can go awry and plans change. As a traveler, you are forced to change plans constantly.

While in Turkey, we were suddenly left without travel arrangements to Greece. Without internet service in our hostel, we found a nearby internet café and had to research a new flight to Greece within time frame and budget. This turned out to be no easy feat.

The ability to adapt is important and appealing to employers.

Learning to Budget and Plan

Prior to traveling, I had to plan and save for each of my vacations abroad. In addition, I had to continue to monitor my budget once we arrived.

In conclusion, employers are looking for people who are versatile and adaptable. By embracing your travel experience on your resume, you are demonstrating your willingness to seek out new experiences. Having relevant global experience on your resume can be an advantage.