Most of us have a favourite colour, or a colour we dislike.

But how much do these colours affect our decisions and actions in everyday life?

A Heckmondwike firm is using the psychology of colour to help companies and organisations improve their image - and a humble jellied sweet is being used to get the message across.

In the offices of Bluedoor, director Paula Williamson and her staff - including Jill Peel, pictured - sit around the boardroom making top company decisions - with jelly babies.

Bluedoor, which advises on brand logos and general image, is using four different colours of jelly baby in its work, to represent human personalities.

The idea is to help businesses and other organisations to put across a positive image to the public - by appealing to their subconscious colour preference

"Colour communicates without words, bypassing intellect and working directly on feelings," said director Paula Williamson, who has carried out her own research on colour psychology which she now applies to her work and life every day.

"Colour affects physical and mental wellbeing, sales and morale, and is powerful enough to create the right or wrong image for a company or organisation.

"We have chosen four brightly coloured jelly babies to represent human characteristics - red for energy, strength, and stamina, green for ambition, yellow for optimism and orange for happiness.

"It uses the very basic level of colour psychology to send subliminal messages.

"Using the meaning of colours, we show how they appeal to different sections of the public for different things. Companies can suit this to their own market."

According to Paula, a well known fast food chain discovered that red and yellow had a major psychological effect on its customers and actually encouraged them to enter the premises, spend more money and eat faster.

"Colour comes into everything - from packaging for supermarkets to the atmosphere of a reception area," added account director Marytn Hornsby.

"We make all our decisions on the basis of colour."