3 Quick Tips For Choosing Your Brand Colors
Whether you’re starting from scratch with a brand new business, or you’ve been around the block a few times and your old color is starting to feel a little stale, choosing colors for your brand can get a little daunting.
How do I know what colors go well together?
What if they don’t evoke the right emotions?
My favorite color is (purple, orange, neon green, etc.) … can’t I just use that?
Any of these sound familiar? If so, fear not because I’m here to help make things a little easier on you when it comes to selecting the right color palette for your brand. Here are my 3 quick tips for choosing your brand colors.
Keep It Simple
Too often I see new business owners (and even new designers) going way overboard with 10-color palettes, foils, textures, etc. and to be brutally honest it’s just not necessary, especially if you’re DIY-ing your branding. Adding complexities like these can be awesome when done carefully and intentionally, but more often than not they just over-complicate things and make for a color palette that, while beautiful, is actually pretty difficult to use.
I suggest keeping your color palette to 6 colors or less whenever possible. Now, don’t get me wrong there are absolutely times when you’ll need a more robust palette but I would urge you to start small, and build upon your palette as it becomes necessary.
Within your palette you’ll want to be sure to include an appropriate mix of primary brand colors, secondary brand colors, and neutrals. I generally recommend 2-3 each of primary and secondary brand colors, and 1-2 neutral colors to round out your palette.
Your primary brand colors are just that, the primary colors you’ll be using for your brand. These should be the main colors used on your website, social media, printables, etc.
Your secondary brand colors should be used as accents to support the primary brand colors. Things like buttons, “sale” tags, sub-headlines, etc. are all places where it might make sense to use your secondary colors.
Your neutral colors should be used to help tie everything for your brand together. These should be subtle to ensure that your primary and secondary colors are the star of the show, and are best used for backgrounds, accent graphics, etc.
Use Color Psychology
Believe it or not, there is a pretty precise science used to figure out what colors best represent you and your business. Color theory explains how humans interact with color, how colors mix, match or clash, and the subliminal messages that colors communicate. I’ll spare you the nitty gritty details, but if you’re curious you can read more in my blog post A Beginner’s Guide To Color Theory.
Really all you need to know is that certain colors evoke specific feelings in your audience (it’s all been proven by all sorts of sciency people who are way smarter than me, I promise) and so you can essentially reverse-engineer the emotions you want your audience to feel when the interact with your brand by carefully selecting your colors.
So what does each color mean then? I’ve got you covered.
Red: Love, Passion, Dangerous, Dramatic, Dynamic, Powerful, Strength, Hunger, Urgency, Heat, Warning, Danger
Orange: Warm, Playful, Cheerful, Friendly, Energetic, Happy, Positive, Confident, Successful, Inexpensive
Yellow: Bright, Positive, Happy, Cheerful, Energetic, Joyful, Sunny
Green: Fresh, Organic, Earthy, Calming, Environmental, Positive, Natural, New, Money, Fertility, Healing, Sustainable, Envy
Blue: Calming, Tranquil, Trustworthy, Harmony, Reliable, Secure, Peaceful, Sophisticated, Professional
Purple: Majestic, Vibrant, Wealthy, Royal, Luxury, Abundance, Spiritual, Noble, Ambitious, Mysterious, Moody
White: Innocent, Pure, Fresh, Clean, Simple, Cold, Sterile, ProfessionalBlack: Dramatic, Classy, Formal, Strong, Mysterious, Elegant
Gray: Secure, Reliable, Intelligent, Conservative, Sleek, Gloomy
Brown/Tan: Dependable, Flexible, Conservative, Natural, ModerateHave Fun And Play Around With It!
Now that you’re armed with my two favorite tools for choosing your brand color palette (a good base-template and a little knowledge about color psychology) it’s time to get to work! You’ll definitely want to try out several different iterations of your color palette and don’t expect to land on the perfect one with your first try.
When I’m working with one of my high-end branding clients, I spend several hours researching color palettes before I even begin creating anything, and even then I usually create 10+ variations before showing anything to my client. The magic really is in the process in this case, so I would highly encourage you to spend some time just having fun with the selecting your colors.
Try combinations that seem crazy. Try combinations that seem safe. Look to other brands you love for inspiration, and when you think you’ve finally found the right palette, keep playing with it some more!
Choosing your brand colors doesn’t have to be a complete existential crisis. . . in fact, it can be easy and fun! Just remember these three guiding principles and you’ll be off to a great start:
Keep it simple.
Stick to 6 or fewer colors in your brand color palette to start with . . . you can always add more later, but you don’t want to overcomplicate things and overwhelm yourself before you even get started.
Use color psychology.
It’s important that you pay attention to what feelings and emotions your brand colors elicit. For example, if you’re a high-energy fitness coach, you might not want to use baby blue as it evokes a sense of calmness, security, and quiet.
Play around with multiple options.
Sometimes you have to see it to know what you like and don’t like, so spend a couple hours just trying things out. And most importantly, ENJOY THE PROCESS!
