The colours 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 colours you can form a suitable colour palette that will help you in forming effective branding and marketing strategies that make a difference. Before you select the colours 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 colour selection easy and effective.
Define your Brand’s Identity
Before deciding the colours for your brand colour 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 – Brainstorming 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 colours works in order to gain the necessary knowledge to apply to selecting our brand’s colours.
Each and every colour holds certain meanings and evokes certain emotions. Red stimulates passion and vibrance while yellow is more cheerful, friendly, and warm. Although our interpretation of colours is subjective and can vary from person to person, there are certain generalizations that can help us make better decisions.
Apart from understanding the meanings that single colour holds, we need to learn how to interpret colour combinations and how they are being used by different brands today. Colour theory gives us useful insights to strengthen our understanding of colours.
Colour Theory and Types of Colors to Use for Your Brand
- Primary colours – The primary colours of your brand are the colours that define the major characteristics of your brand. The colours that fall under this category are – red, blue, and yellow.
- Secondary colours – These colours are created using primary colours. They complement your primary colours. Secondary colours can be used in multiple ways along with primary colors. The colours that fall under this category are – purple, green, and orange.
Choosing Color Combinations
- Using contrasting colours – These are the colours that are located opposite to each other on the colour wheel. To create a contrast, one can also pick colours apart from these that juxtapose well with each other. Choosing contrasting colours can create a lively, quirky, and funky essence. It can also be used to highlight certain elements of the brand.
- Using analogous colours – These colours are the ones that are located adjacent to your primary colour. This colour palette can create visually appealing designs.
- Using monochromatic colours – These colours are shades and tints of primary colours. Using different lighter and darker shades of the same colour together can build a unified and soothing colour 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 colours and colour combinations that convey the same message. Pick up certain colours that strongly support your brand’s identity and colour combinations that justify your brand’s idea. Try different colour combinations and see which one best suits your idea. You can use certain tools to check your colour selection.
Now that you know how to pick up colours for your brand, you can start creating one. Do not forget to follow the process. The brand colour palette is an essential part of brand marketing and business strategy, which is why you need to select your colours thoughtfully. Once chosen, you can add the main colours to your brand’s logo and can use the entire colour 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 colours and a clear story, you can make a difference. Check out the brand logo story of our partner brands on our Instagram account.