Brands have been using colors from time immemorial to convey crucial information and make an immediate impact on their target audience. The suitable color scheme will make your brand unforgettable and give you a competitive edge. For instance, we associate blue with brands such as Facebook and LinkedIn. On the other hand, Netflix is known for its iconic black and red colors. It wouldn’t be wise to use different colors across your various marketing assets, such as your logo and website. Therefore, you should be confident in your color pallet to give your brand a more unified look and feel. Now that you understand the importance of color in brand identity let’s dive into how to choose your brand colors.
Define your core values
The first step to choosing your signature colors would be to look within and determine who you are at your core. Conduct a thorough introspection to determine who your target clients are, why you started your brand, what you want your customers to feel and how you intend to solve their problems. The answers to these questions will help you determine how you can use color to spread your unique message to the masses.
Use color psychology and look into the meanings of colors
Colors have various associative and cultural meanings. You wouldn’t want to use a color that rubs your potential clients the wrong way. Therefore, it would be wise to use color psychology and determine how society perceives specific colors and avoid those with bad connotations. If certain colors are unavoidable, you could control them by changing the tone and using appropriate visual assets such as symbols, slogans, and logos to convey your message more suitably.
Pick one primary and secondary color
When selecting your brand colors, a general rule of thumb is to choose a bright and dark color to create balance. Overly bright colors could make your brand overbearing, while dark colors make everything look dull. At this stage, you could choose two to three colors and optimize them completely or use them as a base for the rest of your colors.
Use pallet-generating tools
Now that you know what colors you want to work with, you can use online tools to create a fitting pallet for your brand. For instance, if you are in the cosmetics industry and would like to formulate high-quality hair dyes, it would help to have a great hair color palette to entice your clients.
Design a mood board
It can be challenging to materialize your idea and ultimately decide on a color pallet without a visual representation. A mood board is a staple in any design project as it helps you create as many collages as you like until you find something that accurately represents your brand’s essence. Your mood board could either be physical or digital. Once you have decided on your preliminary colors, you could search for images and complementary colors that look good together and tell your brand’s story.
Wrapping up
Choosing a color pallet for your brand identity is not a one-size-fits-all affair. Since every brand will differ from the next, it would be wise not to compare yourself to other brands as you embark on the journey to find your signature colors. We hope this article has been insightful.