Colors create an instant effect on a viewer. Are you a an energetic brand that goes for red & yellow or a stylish designer brand that prefers to stay with black & white brand colors. Colors are a crucial element for your branding that should be analyzed carefully.
The choice of your brand colors is also essential for your marketing strategies. When you apply a consistent choice of colors across your marketing platforms, you will make your brand more memorable and identifiable for your customers. The correct and consistent selection of brand colors will make your brand stand out. Here is a step by step guide to help you understand brand colors to choose the most appropriate for your business.
The meaning of brand colors
Brand colors are a combination of different colors that symbolize a particular brand. A consistent application of the selected brand colors will increase brand awareness. Brand colors are typically applied when designing the logo, when you create a website color scheme, marketing ads, and when creating a business card. Brand colors can be used in brick-and-mortar businesses to put accent colors on the exterior of the store, packaging, uniforms, etc.
Here are the seven steps to take when you are choosing your brand colors:
Define your brand identity
Establishing a brand identity is essential in determining the brand colors. The selected colors reflect the brand's identity and they should relate to the core values, content, mission, and vision of your brand. Therefore, you first need to establish your brand identity by choosing the most appropriate colors. Make a list of the elements that compose your brand, then give them a fitting description. How would you like the existing and potential customers to perceive your brand, and what will set the brand apart from the competition? Consider such questions from a visitor's viewpoint to give them an excellent color language.
Look into the meaning of colors
After defining your brand, you need to explore the meaning of colors that you have chosen to represent it. When deciding on the colors that will help your business to thrive, it is worthwhile looking into color psychology to understand the meaning of various individual and combined colors.
Color combination is purely an art; no exact science is involved in determining the meaning or the combination. A great color combination is essential in getting a visual effect that stimulates the users interest. For instance, when color blue is paired with a golden color it evokes a sense of luxury, as opposed to the blue color paired with pinks evokes a feeling of playfulness.
Colors assume different meanings depending on the color that they are paired with. Also, the context, geography, and cultural factors attach varied meanings to diverse color combinations. However, some uniform color trends are used across different organizations.
Food industry
Most cafes, restaurants, hotels, and other food outlets go for warm shades that visually attract customers and wake up your craving for food by using colors such as red, orange, pink, and yellow. Nutrition and well-being companies may opt for green tones. Deserts and sweets companies go often for a combination of pink and blue.
Health and wellness
The health organizations often select blue to symbolize cleanliness, obligation, and trustworthiness. Companies in this industry may also choose a green color to signify nature and quality, or orange to signify vigor and energy.
Fashion and beauty
The fashion and beauty organizations often use black color for sophistication and charm, as well as cheerful colors such as orange, pink, red, symbolizing passion, assurance, and excitement.
High-tech companies
The high-tech companies often go for blue tones which typically signifies reliance, trust, efficiency, skillfulness, power, and intelligence. They may add other colors, such as orange that are warm, optimistic, and hopeful, and purple, that stands for superiority, quality, creativity, and ability.
Look for inspiration
You may go through your competitor's profile and understand which colors are working for them. Learn from the competitors and other brands and assess what further improvements you can make from their ideas. Look at what motivates those brands to use these colors. Do they match with a feeling or with their brand values.
You may look for inspiration from online color palette generators like Adobe CC. The online color palette generators provide perfect color groupings and amazing color tones that go together to help you choose the best.
Choose a primary color
The brand’s primary or core color plays a significant role in determining the brand identity. Select a single core color that best represents your brand visually and in meaning. Explore the different tones of that color to find a unique one that fits the best.
Choose a secondary colors
After determining the primary color, select about two to four colors that best match with it. You can blend the colors together or use them independently. Ensure that the colors compliment each other correctly and that they pass the intended meaning.
No need to use all these colors in your logo. But there will be times that you will need a few more colors to maybe describe your products or different services. Or to define different sections on your website and presentations.
Consider the following ideas when choosing the secondary colors:
Analogous color group
Analogous colors closely resemble your primary colors. For instance, if your primary color is red, other friendly colors such as orange and yellow can form your secondary colors. These colors variables generally belong to the same group. So they are often in harmony with each other which will create a charming visual appeal.
Monochromatic scheme
The monochromatic color schemes are different shades of the primary colors. For example, if the primary color is blue, the secondary colors can be the different shades and tints of the color blue, such as light blue and dark blue colors. These colors are essential in enhancing the strength of the primary color.
Contrasting colors
The contrasting color schemes can be complementary or chosen from colorful shades. The contrasting colors are essential in helping the primary color to pop with a fun and vibrant feel.
Pick neutral colors
Remember to pick the most suitable neutral colors when selecting the primary and the secondary colors. Please do not overlook the neutral colors as they are essential in passing the intended message, these colors appear in the written content and on the background of most elements in your website, so ensure that you pick them out. Most companies choose white, gray, or black as the neutral colors.
Evaluate the chosen brand colors
Once you have completed the process of selecting the most appropriate colors for your brand, integrate them into your website and determine if they complement one another, and pass the intended meaning test. You may want to try different shades until you get the most suitable option.
We hope that you now know how to determine which colors would fit your brand the best. Do not hesitate to contact our team if you need more information on this topic.