Written by Steve Eggs
When it comes to choosing the perfect colour palette to represent your brand, is it really just a case of picking your favourite colours and running with them – or is there more to it than that? Well, the honest answer is that it can be a little bit of both. Colour choices really do make a big impression on your audience and therefore make up an important part of your overall brand identity. Not sure where to start on selecting the right colours for your brand? Don’t worry, our team of creative experts have put their heads together to come up with some top tips, guidance and things to consider when selecting a colourway that represents your organisation in just the right way.
What is colour psychology and should you consider it?
Colour psychology is the study behind certain colours evoking emotions, behaviours and perceptions. Take a moment to think about your own psychological connections with colours; even from a young age you are likely to have been taught something along the lines of ‘red means danger and green means you’re free to go’. A mixture of psychological and learned perceptions are the basis of this fascinating psychology and marketers have been using it to good effect!
So, let’s look into some of the most commonly used brand colours and think about the feelings and behaviours they can stir up in consumers;
When we think about big brands marketed towards children and child-related services and products, we will often see bold and vibrant colours used. Red is a particular favourite in this industry, examples including Lego, Nintendo and Kelloggs, which makes perfect sense when you consider that red is connected to excitement and youth.
How about other colours? What types of brands and feelings come to mind when you think about blue for example? Studies show that blue is the colour of trust and dependability which is why it comes as no surprise that it’s the favoured colour for medical and tech brands like Oral B and Samsung.
If you have no particular colour preferences when creating a new brand then this is probably as a good a place to start as any. Of course, just playing Devil’s Advocate, if there are many brands with similar colour palettes in one industry then there is a strong argument for picking a completely alternative palette so that your brand stands out amongst them all!
Colours and accessibility
Being inclusive and considerate as a brand should be a top priority for all. After all, you don’t want to exclude any potential client from visiting your website or accessing your branded marketing materials. Let’s take a look at how accessibility should be considered when selecting your colours and some potential issues to look out for.
“Colour blindness (colour vision deficiency, or CVD) affects approximately 1 in 12 men (8%) and 1 in 200 women. In the UK there are approximately 3 million colour blind people (about 4.5% of the entire population), most of whom are male. Worldwide, there are estimated to be about 300 million people with colour blindness, almost the same number of people as the entire population of the USA!”. www.colourblindawareness.org
With this in mind, we would strongly recommend exploring colours and combinations that are particularly tricky to decipher to those with colour blindness. Our number one tip here is to avoid significant use of red, green, or colours that are rich in red or green hues. Also, try to avoid the use of black text on red background or vice versa (for some colourblind people red can appear black). There are specific, recommended palettes that are ‘colourblind friendly’ which have been created with this as the main priority, should you want to go the extra mile. Making your brand colours and designs accessible to consumers with all types of visual impairment is certainly worth consideration, and there is some very valuable guidance from RNIB at https://media.rnib.org.uk/documents/Colour_and_contrast_for_people_with_sight_loss_2020.pdf.
Dyslexia is another challenge your consumers may be facing and can certainly be considered when making your brand colours, platforms and marketing materials accessible. Colour preferences can be quite individual amongst those living with dyslexia and so impossible to specifically get it right for everyone. It is probably more worthwhile to focus on colour contrasts, particularly between text and background colour, for optimum accessibility. Some tips on colour usage, according to the British Dyslexia Association (www.bdadyslexia.org.uk) are;
- Use dark coloured text on a light (not white) background.
- Consider alternatives to white backgrounds for paper, computer and visual aids such as whiteboards. White can appear too dazzling. Use cream or a soft pastel colour. Some dyslexic people will have their own colour preference.
- Use sufficient contrast levels between background and text.
There are lots of free tools available online, to check the accessibility of certain colours, contrasts and fonts. One that we find particularly useful is this one at W3C https://www.w3.org/WAI/test-evaluate/.
Accessibility will be a higher priority for some brands and organisations than others, but a good design team will do their due diligence and explore colour combinations and contrasts that will make your brand and related assets as accessible as possible.
Tailoring your colour palette to your target audience
When choosing your colours, is it more important to go with your preference, or the preference of your target audience? Well, your own preferences are certainly important so be sure not to dismiss them. You need to love your own brand to fully get behind it, and it needs to reflect your identity, personality and message to convey that successfully to your audience. However, your target audience also needs to find the colour palette appealing to be attracted to the marketing and your brand so, as always, we are striving to find a solution that works for all of the above, in order to acheive the best outcome.
Knowing your consumers is key for this part and is an important element for your whole marketing plan. Once you have established your user profiles / personas, their preferences for colours can be researched and considered for your colourway. Colour preference studies have been carried out based on gender, sexual orientation, educational background and many, many more criteria. The results for these are widely available and make for very interesting reading when selecting the right colours to suit your brand’s target audience.
Following brand colour trends
Like all trends, colour trends are subject to evolve and change regularly. The key is to choose colours in your brand palette that are true to your brand and remain as classic and timeless as possible. It’s all well and good to be led by Pantone’s Colour of the Year (https://www.pantone.com/articles/color-of-the-year) (Peach Fuzz for 2024, in case you were wondering!) or the colour combination that EVERYONE seems to love at the moment but what happens when that trend moves on? Your colours will be in danger of looking dated and ‘so last season’ very quickly. Whilst it’s always worth taking trends into consideration, they should perhaps be used more for inspiration, where appropriate, as opposed to dictating the full decision.
Heritage brand colours
If it’s a re-brand or a brand refresh you’re looking at, then you will also need to take the existing colour palette into consideration and explore the heritage behind it. It’s useful to know why these colours were selected in the first place and how much of an impact they have on your overall visuals. It’s also important to understand the objectives of the re-brand and whether the intention is to completely transform the look and feel, or to modernise it whilst maintaining the heritage. Often, the existing colour palette can be expanded upon or the shading tweaked to provide a fresh new feel whilst keeping it recognisable. Below is an example of exactly this with a re-brand our design team carried out last year. The company felt they were known for their brand colour of green and it helped them to stand out in a competitive market place. They wanted to update the look without completely losing their identity. Our designers worked on a fresh and modernised palette that was still very much based on green but by introducing new shades, fonts and usage were able to completely improve the overall style.
Is it ok to use multiple colour schemes within one brand?
Whilst the knee-jerk response to this question, from a brand design perspective, is a resounding negative, there certainly are many instances where multiple colour schemes have been successfully utilised to show a diversification of services or divisions. Some noteworthy examples of this approach are with BBC, who changed their main brand to monochrome and use a broad selection of other colours to represent different channels and stations. Fedex also took this approach, sticking with their original purple but combining it with several different colours to represent the multiple services they offer.
This technique can be implemented to great effect, but certainly needs to be thought through and executed by a skillful and experienced designer to make sure the overall brand identity isn’t lost or confused in the process.
Should you consider a monochrome brand?
With many household brand names such as Apple, Mini, BBC and Audi making the move to eradicate colour altogether, are monochrome brands the future? There is definitely a movement towards monochrome branding which is in line with the increasingly popular ‘less is more’ design ethos and we are here for it! Our advice on taking this route is to keep it simple and use it well.
The flipside of this is that studies like one carried out by User Testing https://www.usertesting.com/blog/color-ux-conversion-rates have shown bright brand colours to be more memorable to consumers. There is a place for bright and bold as well as for monochrome colour palettes in most market spaces so it’s important to consider all of the previous factors and make the decision that’s right for you and your individual brand.
Who knew there was so much involved in choosing the right colours to represent your brand, right? Well, us. Whilst everyone has their own favourite colours and opinions on what looks pretty, it really is knowledge, experience and science that makes a skilled designer. Be sure to appoint a designer who has plenty of experience with brand design so that you can be safe in the knowledge that your brand is in the best hands possible, giving you the best start possible.
