How to Pick Colors that Fit Your Brand

By: Katy Rice

Whether you’re starting your own business, re-branding, or launching a start-up, choosing a color palette to represent your brand is crucial in determining whether or not your business will be a success. A study from the University of Loyola revealed that color can increase brand recognition up to 80 percent and that 93 percent of consumers said that they put most importance on visual factors when purchasing products.

Here are a few steps to get started with choosing the right colors that best fit your brand.

1. Know your focus

Having a clear and concise idea of what you want your brand to be about and represent is the first step of the color-choosing process. What are your brand’s goals? Who is your target audience?

2. Think psychologically

Different colors can symbolize different emotions. For example, red can represent energy, excitement, and passion. Blue is known for technologies and trust. Companies such as Facebook. Twitter, Intel, etc. all use the color blue. The list goes on. Think about your brand type and what you want your brand identity to be. Click here for a guide of color symbolism.

3. Analyze your competition

Search other companies and brands that you think might be competing with your target audience.

What colors do they use?
Are their campaigns/ brands successful?
What can you learn from other companies’ successes or failures?

Here is a guide to other brands’ hex code palettes, which are six-digit combinations of numbers and letters defined by its mix of red, green and blue- RGB to specify each individual color.

4. Choose your primary brand color

Your primary color is important. This is the color that is going to represent your brand as a whole. Popular brands such as Facebook, Airbnb, Coca-Cola, etc. all have one main color that they use everywhere for their brand. Your primary color is going to be the dominant color of the brand.Going back to thinking psychologically, what color would best portray your brand?

5. Create your brand color palette

After choosing your primary color, you’re going to want to add an accent color to highlight/emphasize areas in your marketing plan and a standard or neutral color for your text. It is important to keep color schemes in mind, such as monochromatic, analogous, or complementary color schemes. Adobe color is a great place to explore with color and get inspiration.

6. Brainstorm with your graphic designer

After you have an idea of what you want your primary color to be, and your accent colors, it is a good idea to talk with your graphic designer or other team members. Graphic designers tend to have an eye for color and could experiment with the colors you’ve chosen in creating new logos, images, etc. with your new color palette. Having a specific pantone/ hex code for your brand is important because it can give your brand its own identity and the recognition it deserves.

The 1893 Brand Studio graphic design team specializes in logo creation and redesign, whether you need a complete overhaul or just slight tweaks to the current redesign. Don’t know where to start with your logo or brand colors? Come talk to us, we can help.