The Importance of Brand Colors and How to Pick Them

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The Importance of Brand Colors

Color plays an important role in marketing. When designing the branding and logo of your company, colors play a crucial role. This is because they are the first things your target market thinks of when thinking of your brand. Color is one of the first things your target market sees and can play a significant role in consumer behavior.

When you think of Starbucks, you think green, when you think of McDonalds, you think of yellow arches and when you think of Facebook, you think blue. These brand colors are seen throughout the brands entirety. Facebook’s website is full of blue accents, the logo is blue, and blue is all throughout the user experience. Starbucks has green in their store, on employee uniforms, on the website and app, and on packaging. Colors are a great brand identifier and it is important they relate to your brand.

When you think of Starbucks, you think green, when you think of McDonalds, you think of yellow arches and when you think of Facebook, you think blue. These brand colors are seen throughout the brands entirety. Facebook’s website is full of blue accents, the logo is blue, and blue is all throughout the user experience. Starbucks has green in their store, on employee uniforms, on the website and app, and on packaging. Colors are a great brand identifier and it is important they relate to your brand.

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Colors can elicit specific emotions and affect us in many different ways as they have the ability to create specific moods. Colour sets the mood of brand expression. Emotions are powerful and have the ability to drive decision making. Brands want to cultivate strong emotional connections with their customers and this can’t be done with just a logo; colors are needed to cultivate these emotions. How consumers feel about a brand has more pull than what they think of a brand. Furthermore, if you couple this with the fact that we know certain colors evoke certain emotions, your brand colors then have the ability to impact sales and performance.

With all that being said, you must choose your branding colors carefully as they have a direct influence on your brand identity. Before determining your brand colors, you must determine your brand identity and personality so you can pick colors that elicit that identity.

So you have your brand identity and personality, now you need to determine which colors match that. Here is a chart of brand color meanings and the affect that the different branding colors can have on people.

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Color Meanings and their Affect on People

Red- Passion, excitement, love danger, and anger

• Signifies importance and commands attention
• Makes you feel passionate and energized

Orange- Playfulness, vitality, happiness, and friendliness

• It is invigorating and evokes energy
• Aggressive but balanced
• Makes your feel energized and enthusiastic

Yellow- Happiness, youth, energetic, comforting and optimism

• Makes you feel happy and spontaneous
• Can be attention-grabbing or affordable
• Associated with laughter, hope and sunshine

Green- Stability, health, wealth, prosperity, calming, relaxing and growth

• Has a connection to nature
• Makes you feel optimistic and refreshed
• Depicts growth, security and inspires possibility

Light Blue- Tranquility, trust, openness, calmness, spirituality, and innocence

• Has a calming effect
• Makes you feel safe and relaxed

Dark Blue- Professionalism, security, and formality

• It is mature and trustworthy
• Too much can make you feel cold and disengaged

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Pink- Femininity, romance, sensitivity, tenderness, sweet, cute, charming, youth, and innocence

• It ranges from modern to luxurious
• Makes you feel playful and romantic

Brown- Rugged, aged, stability, support, warm, practical, dependable and earthy

• Has an old-fashioned/vintage look or mood
• Makes you feel down to earth

White- Cleanliness, virtue, pure, health and simplicity

• It can range from affordable to high-end
• Means minimalism and simplicity

Gray- Subdued, classic, responsible, dependable, serious, mysterious, and mature

• Stands for neutrality
• Feels serious and professional

Black- Powerful, elegance, sophisticated, edgy, professionalism, simplicity, luxurious, and modern

• Makes your feel sophisticated, classic and serious
• Can also refer to mourning or sadness

• Makes your feel sophisticated, classic and serious
• Can also refer to mourning or sadness

Purple- Royalty, mystery, creativity, and luxury

• It is wise and imaginative
• Makes you feel creative
• Lighter shades are used to soothe or calm

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Picking your Brand Colors

When picking your brand colors there are a number of things to be considered. First, you need to think of your target audience. Who is your target audience, what do they care about, what mood do they need to be in to engage with your products and brand? What color best anchors the meaning of your value proposition to your target market and distinguishes you from the competition? You must ask these questions before determining which colors suit your brand best. You should also consider where your consumers are using your product; if it is outdoors, you may want to bring in colors from the atmosphere and place your product is used like green and brown for trees or blue and sand for a beach.

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also have to consider what the colors you choose mean in different cultures; especially if your brand is present outside of your home country. Colors mean different things in different cultures so you want to be sure these interpretations are in line with your brand. Furthermore, color perceptions and meanings change with age, social class, gender and religion as well, which is why it is so important to understand your target market. Again, it is critical to understand your brand personality traits too. Your brand personality traits coupled with your target customers should be the foundation of your brand colors.

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How to Pick your Brand Colors

Here is a general framework for picking your brand colors. We are going to plan on choosing 3 brand colors, but there are some schemes that can have up to 4 colors. When working with 3 colors you should pick a base, accent and a neutral.

Base

When picking a base, you need to determine which of your brand’s personality traits is the most important. Your base color should reflect your brand’s most dominant personality trait but also appeal to your target audience. This color will not only be the base color for your brand but it will also help you determine your other brand colors.

Accent

The accent color you choose will be used the most after your base color. This color is critical and difficult to choose as it must match a brand personality trait as well as pair well visually with your base color while also appealing to your audience. We will briefly touch on color schemes to make it easier to pick your colors later on in this blog post.

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Accent

accent color you choose will be used the most after your base color. This color is critical and difficult to choose as it must match a brand personality trait as well as pair well visually with your base color while also appealing to your audience. We will briefly touch on color schemes to make it easier to pick your colors later on in this blog post.

Neutral

Finally, you need to choose your neutral. This color will be present in most of your designs as it will most likely be a background color so with this in mind, be sure to choose something that avoids added attention. Typically your neutral will be a hue of grey or a beige, white or off-white. Black is also an option but it tends to be overpowering. You know your brand and audience though, so choose what you think is best.

Neutral

Finally, you need to choose your neutral. This color will be present in most of your designs as it will most likely be a background color so with this in mind, be sure to choose something that avoids added attention. Typically your neutral will be a hue of grey or a beige, white or off-white. Black is also an option but it tends to be overpowering. You know your brand and audience though, so choose what you think is best.

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Color Schemes

Now onto color schemes. You should keep a color scheme in mind when picking your colors because once you have your base color, you can use color schemes to help determine your accent color(s). Typically, brands will use one of these common color schemes: monochromatic, analogous, complementary, or triadic. You can use the Adobe Color website to play around with different color schemes on the color wheel.

Monochromatic

If you have one brand personality trait that is exceedingly dominant and important over other traits, a monochromatic color scheme could be for you as this scheme will emphasize the meaning of that one brand color. Picking different shades of one color will emphasize that color and in turn, that personality trait.

Analogous

Analogous colors are next to each other on the color wheel. These schemes are safe, as the adjacent colors usually have some similar emotional connotations without being as bold and apparent as shades of one color. Analogous schemes do not typically stand out as much as complimentary or triad schemes.

Analogous

colours are next to each other on the colour wheel. These schemes are safe, as the adjacent colours usually have some similar emotional connotations without being as bold and apparent as shades of one colour. Analogous schemes do not typically stand out as much as complimentary or triad schemes.

Triadic

Triad schemes are a stable branding color scheme. Triadic colors draw in equal parts from three different sections of the color wheel. Triad schemes are on the safer side, like analogous schemes, but offer more stimulating variety like complimentary color schemes. However, triads are difficult because you need these three colors to coincide with your brand identity.

Your branding colors are a key part of your brand as they can be present in many aspects of the consumers journey with your brand. They are on your website, logo, store design, advertisements, packaging and even social media so it is important to take the time and ensure your brand colors reflect your brand personality and appeal to your target market.

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Analogous

Analogous colors are next to each other on the color wheel. These schemes are safe, as the adjacent colors usually have some similar emotional connotations without being as bold and apparent as shades of one color. Analogous schemes do not typically stand out as much as complimentary or triad schemes.

Analogous

are next to each other on the color wheel. These schemes are safe, as the adjacent colors usually have some similar emotional connotations without being as bold and apparent as shades of one color. Analogous schemes do not typically stand out as much as complimentary or triad schemes.

Triadic

Triad schemes are a stable branding color scheme. Triadic colors draw in equal parts from three different sections of the color wheel. Triad schemes are on the safer side, like analogous schemes, but offer more stimulating variety like complimentary color schemes. However, triads are difficult because you need these three colors to coincide with your brand identity.

Your branding colors are a key part of your brand as they can be present in many aspects of the consumers journey with your brand. They are on your website, logo, store design, advertisements, packaging and even social media so it is important to take the time and ensure your brand colors reflect your brand personality and appeal to your target market.

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