Marketing Question of the Week: What are the best color palette choices for my branding/corporate identity?

Choosing your color palette isn’t easy. Especially given the vast and infinite color options available in the world at large. In other words, there’s a whole lot of them.

To get your noggin in color-picking mode while avoiding melt-down, think about the mood and essence of your brand. Then begin by looking for images that capture these. 

What are the colors that dominate those images?

Colors with blue undertones offer a sense of cool and calm. Warmer colors with red and yellow undertones have a welcoming or energetic vibe. This thinking is all part of color theory, also known as color psychology.

Color theory postulates that certain colors elicit certain emotions.

Sample some of the colors from the images that spoke to you and then think about what emotion you want your brand to promote and project. Here’s what the color theorists have to say:

Red is symbolic of passion, vitality and excitement.

Orange is associated with cheer, warmth and optimism.

Yellow is connected with fun, humor and energy.

Green fosters growth, healing and freshness.

Blue conveys trust, serenity and strength.

Purple says luxury, imagination and playfulness.

Brown is correlated with nature, comfort and stability.

White is balanced, neutral and calm.

Black represents formality, power and sophistication.

So if you’re business is a gym, you’re probably not going to choose brown and white as main players in your palette. Just as you wouldn’t go with red and yellow to promote your funeral home. 

But picking your colors is more sophisticated than just relying on color theory. Consult with the color wheel.

You’ve seen the color wheel. It’s like a rainbow bull’s eye. Art students use it to study colors and to understand how they relate to one another. Colors directly across from one another are complimentary colors, while those that are neighbors to one another are called analogous. Both of these routes will give you palettes that are agreeable and pleasant to the eye.

If you want something that’s bolder though, you can go with a triadic color choice - choosing three colors that are equally spaced around the color wheel. That way you get three completely different colors that still work well together. This would create a more eye-popping and startling palette. 

Again, it all comes down to what emotion you want to convey through your brand/corporate identity.

Whatever colors you end up choosing, be sure that there is at least one darker and one lighter color in your palette that contrast one another well to keep things interesting.

And finally…

To maintain a brand that’s visually effective and strong, keep your colors cohesive.

Create a set of brand guidelines that will specify exactly which colors you can use. Include a swatch and the HEX code of each color so you have a cheat sheet to refer back to whenever you design a new branded project.

You’ll be glad you did.