Choosing the right colours for your brand is just as, if not more important, than creating a logo and other design elements. The colours you choose are a direct reflection of your Brand’s personality, and can influence the type of customer that is drawn to your business products and/or services.
Choosing colours is one of the more difficult parts of a branding process - not only are there infinite colours and colour combinations out there, but deciding on what colours speak to your brand’s persona can bring up a multitude of questions and conversations about what you aim to represent.
Below are some tips to assist you in selecting your colours.
1. DEFINE YOUR BRAND VALUES
It is important to pinpoint the core values that your brand holds, and how they may influence your brand’s identity. Your core brand values are the beliefs that you, as a company, stand for. These values will serve as a compass to guide your brand’s actions, behaviours and decision-making processes. It is your brand values that deliver real engagement and direct you towards more powerful bonds with your target audience.
Think about what makes your brand unique from others, what matters to your company, who your customers are and how you help to solve their problems, as well as all that you stand for. Think about what you want customers to believe about your brand, beyond the products and services you offer - how do you want them to remember you? Sometimes it is good to think of your brand as a person and how it would engage with its audience - does it appeal to humour and light-hearted wit, or is it more serious and rooted in fact and science?
2. DEFINE YOUR TARGET MARKET
Knowing who you are reaching out to through the products and services you offer will guide you in your colour choices - if you’re trying to sell biker clothing to a largely male target audience, covering your website in pink and purple butterflies might be a little off-putting, for example. Knowing the things that they may like will be a huge factor when selecting the colours that represent your brand. When figuring out who your brand appeals to, consider age group, gender, location, their interests, as well as any niche that they may fall into.
3. CONSIDER PSYCHOLOGY, COLOUR MEANINGS & SYMBOLS
There is no doubt that certain colours have meanings and can even convey emotion. They can be associated with memories and be symbolic and represent a value that your brand holds close.
It is a good idea to think about these aspects of colours you’d like to use, and even do some deep-digging into the history behind certain colour usage and symbolic meanings. For example, the colour red may convey feelings of power, anger, or even passion, while in some cultures it may represent good luck. Blue may provide feelings of calm, stability and inspiration, while in some cultures may represent sadness.
Questions you may ask when considering the colours you choose could be: Where are my audience located, and what colours are meaningful to their culture? What sector of the industry is my brand in, and what colours are associated with that sector? What emotions do I want my customers to feel when they engage with my brand?
4. CONSULT COLOUR THEORY
Once you’ve done all your research into your brand’s values, personality, and cultural or emotional significance, it’s time to look at the colours you have chosen in terms of Colour Theory: the science and the art of using colour. This will determine how colours mix together, how they contrast with one another, and how they may be seen when viewed side by side. Using this theory, you’ll be able to create a pleasing, harmonious visual experience for the viewer.
Today, the colour wheel can help artists and designers find harmonious colour combinations based on the geometric relationships represented on the colour wheel. Some of the formulas for colour theory involve either analogous colours or complementary colours, though there are certainly many different ways to adapt colour theory to your usage.
5. FIND INSPIRATIONAL IMAGES
There’s nothing like a little stroll through Pinterest or Instagram to spark inspiration as you decide on which colours to use. There are so many visual resources out there with beautiful ideas, that it can be overwhelming. But, if ever you find yourself drawn to a photograph, illustration, or even the branding of another company - take note of it, photograph it, pin it or even screenshot it to reference later when creating your own palette. Create a moodboard of all the ideas you like, and start grouping similar ideas together that inspire you. Think about what part of the image or reference really speaks to you, and try and break it down in a way that translates when determining the design for your own brand.
6. CHOOSE YOUR COLOURS!
Having approached each of the steps above, you may find yourself in a much better and more informed position to select the perfect colours for your brand. Using the knowledge you have gained, play around with some colours on your own applications, or use a colour palette generator to build a palette that references all of your thoughts about your brand colours. I like to use coolors.co when trying to figure out how colours may or may not work together, or even use the Eyedrop Tool on Adobe Illustrator to select colours directly from photographs or screenshots.
When selecting colours, you’ll want to make sure you have at least 5 or 6. One or two of these colours should be light, neutral colours which could be useful for subtle backgrounds or even text on a darker background. You should also select at least one Primary Colour (a colour that speaks the strongest about your Brand’s personality), and at least one Accent Colour (a colour that stands out for any call-to-action buttons or links). Finally, there should be at least one dark neutral colour that will work for text on your lighter backgrounds.
7. FINALISE YOUR BRAND STYLE GUIDE
Now that you’ve done the hard work of selecting your colours, make sure to take note of all the colour codes you may need to reference later. Codes you will need include the colour HEX code, RGB values, CMYK values, and Pantone values - each of which may be valuable to your web designer, printer, packaging specialist or marketing manager. It is useful to keep these codes in a Brand Style Guide - a document which you can hand over to your web designer or social media manager (or anyone managing your brand assets) outlining all of the codes, fonts, and usages that are applicable to maintaining the consistency of your brand. Here, you can have one created and fully customised for you.
I hope you found this article helpful and that it provides some value when selecting your brand colours! I’d love to hear more about the processes you go through to choose your colour palette - make sure to let me know in the comments!
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