How to Choose Colors for Your Brand
When it comes to branding, the colors you choose for your company matter. They can set the tone for your business and create a lasting impression with customers. If you're not sure what colors to choose, don't worry - we are here to help with color choices. In this blog post, we will discuss the basics of color theory and how to use it to create a cohesive brand identity. We'll also share some of our favorite education sites to help you choose the perfect colors for your brand. Read on and get started creating the perfect look for your business!
Choosing the right color scheme for your brand is essential in creating a polished and professional look. But with so many options available, how do you choose the right colors? One approach is to consider color psychology. Different colors can evoke different types emotional states, so it's important to choose colors that align with the basic emotions you want to project. The colors we choose for our branding and marketing efforts can have a significant impact on the emotions evoked in our target audiences. By understanding the psychology of color, we can create more effective branding that resonates with our audience on a deeper level.
You'll want to consider the overall emotional tone you want to communicate with your branding. Does your brand need to convey excitement? Peace? Authority? Trustworthiness? If you're aiming for a modern and stylish look, you might consider using black and white as your brand colors. If you want to convey a sense of emotions including fun and playfulness, bright and cheerful colors like red, yellow and blue might be a better fit. If you're a more serious or professional business, then subdued and muted complementary colors may be the best choice. Studio Bicyclette provides a high level summary of a range of emotional responses that can be evoked by different colors here. Test yourself by writing down ten adjectives that you want associated with your brand and see which color combination list they appear on! Each color affects distinct categories of emotion.
Once you've narrowed down your options, it's also important to consider how the colors will work together in a cohesive way. The color wheel can be a helpful tool in determining which hues will work well together in a harmonious color scheme. A color scheme with too many different colors can look chaotic, so it's usually best to stick to a limited palette. Your palette could contain two complementary colors, three triadic colors, or four tetradic colors. The Marketing Greenhouse website employs a more monochromatic palette. Choose 2-3 main colors and 1-2 accent colors that will support your branding goals. Less is more when it comes to color schemes - too many colors can be visually overwhelming. By taking the time to carefully consider your primary and accent colors, you can ensure that your brand has a polished and professional look.
Recommendations for our favorite color palette tools and education
Canva, which we use on a daily basis in our business, has a helpful color palette generator and thorough lessons on color meanings and types of color harmony.
Coolers.co can easily become an addiction. It generates stunning palettes, color lists, and gradients, and extracts palettes from photographs.
Happy Hues provides a ton of color theory and psychology education in an elegant and simple interface, as well as beautiful examples of primary, secondary, tertiary, and highlight colors.
If you are an Adobe loyalist, Adobe color provides a color wheel and will also extract palettes and gradients from your photos as well as feed trends from Behance and Adobe Stock.
Once you have educated yourself on the basics of color theory and how to choose brand colors, it's time to get started on creating the perfect look for your business!