The colors of your brand form the first impression of your brand in the minds of your customers. In less than a fraction of a second, they communicate your brand’s idea to the viewers. Being a strong medium of visual communication they have the power to –
- Make your customers feel and behave in a particular way by evoking certain emotions
- Direct your customers to take a particular action
- Grab the attention of your customers to a particular element
- Enhance your brand’s awareness and make it memorable
- Make your website elements better visible and readable
According to scientific research, a person starts to form an impression in less than one-tenth of a second.
By choosing the right colors you can form a suitable color palette that will help you in forming effective branding and marketing strategies that make a difference. Before you select the colors for your brand, you must be able to identify your brand with its values and mission statements. A simple process when followed in a step-by-step manner can make the whole idea of color selection easy and effective.
Define your Brand’s Identity
Before deciding the colors for your brand color pallet, it’s important to know what your brand stands for and what makes your brand stand out from its competitors.
Write down your brand’s value propositions and mission statements in an authentic, clear, and precise manner. Highlight the main words which will help you condense down to certain strong words that define your brand in the best possible manner.
| Quick Tip – Brain-storming followed by mind-mapping of the strong words of your brand can help you expand and then contract the necessary terminologies into categories. |
Understand the Psychology of Brand Colors
By now we have realized how color is a powerful asset to our branding and marketing business. Now, we need to understand how the psychology of colors works in order to gain the necessary knowledge to apply for selecting our brand’s colors.
Each and every color holds certain meanings and evokes certain emotions. Red stimulates passion and vibrance while yellow is more cheerful, friendly, and warm. Although our interpretation of colors is subjective and can vary from person to person, there are certain generalizations that can help us make a better decision.
Apart from understanding the meanings that single color holds, we need to learn how to interpret color combinations and how they are being used by different brands today. Color theory gives us useful insights to strengthen our understanding of colors.
Color Theory and Types of Colors to use for your Brand
- Primary colors – The primary colors of your brand are the colors that define the major characteristics of your brand. The colors that fall under this category are – red, blue, and yellow.
- Secondary colors – These colors are created using primary colors. They compliment your primary colors. Secondary colors can be used in multiple ways along with primary colors. The colors that fall under this category are – purple, green, orange.
Choosing Color Combinations
- Using contrasting colors – These are the colors that are located opposite to each other on the color wheel. To create a contrast, one can also pick colors apart from these that juxtapose well with each other. Choosing contrasting colors can create a lively, quirky, and funky essence. It can also be used to highlight certain elements of the brand.
- Using analogous colors – These colors are the ones that are located adjacent to your primary color. This color palette can create visually appealing designs.
- Using monochromatic colors – These colors are shades and tints of primary colors. Using different lighter and darker shades of the same color together can build a unified and soothing color palette for your brand.
Align your Brand’s Identity with the Right Colors and Color Combinations
Finally, you can align the words and ideas that define your brand’s identity with the colors and color combinations that convey the same message. Pick up certain colors that strongly support your brand’s identity and color combinations that justify your brand’s idea. Try different color combinations and see which one best suits your idea. You can use certain tools to check your color selection.
Now that you know how to pick up colors for your brand, you can start creating one. Do not forget to follow the process. The brand color palette is an essential part of brand marketing and business strategy, that is why you need to select your colors thoughtfully. Once chosen, you can add the main colors to your brand’s logo and can use the entire color palette to design the various tools of your brand marketing.
The logo is a strong visual representation of your brand. It narrates the story of your brand in just a glimpse. With appropriate colors and a clear story, you can make a difference. Check out the brand logo story of our partner brands on our Instagram account.