Branding: Picking Your Colors

Brand identity can be stressful. Figuring out not only what you want your business to read as, but what you want that business to say about you and your employees. How do you emit that? Yes, having strong core values that are plastered on your website, your walls, your meetings, etc. is a primary way to show "This is who we are." However, before you can get people interested to visit your company, or even your website, you need a hook to draw them in. That my friends is all in your branding.

We've talked about the creation of a strong, cohesive logo, and we've talked about how to get your logo to that final stage. The next step in the branding process is identifying a brands colors. Typically, a brand will have two primary colors and three secondary colors. This ensures that the company can stay cohesive without having to venture into a wide usage of colors. Limiting the palette is the next step in generating a strong connection between your company and your brand. How do you decide what colors to use though?

When talking branding and colors, you need to think about some things, similar to what you had to think about when creating your logo. What do I want the colors to say about my company? How do I want my company to come off based on the colors? What emotion do I want to create for my consumers when they are looking at my brand colors? Do I want the colors to be bold and loud, or subtle and sharp? There are tons of questions to ask yourself and your team when creating a brands color palette, and it shouldn't be brushed off or rushed past.

For instance, if you want your color palette to read "strong, reliable, durable" then warmer colors create that psychological effect. If you want your color palette to read "calming, tamed, sturdy" cooler colors are going to be your friend; however, even when narrowing down the colors to "Cooler" or "Warmer" you still have hundreds of options in shades and hues. Also, when you decide "Cooler" or "Warmer" are you wanting that for your primary or secondary colors? Or are you wanting the whole palette to be "Cool" or "Warm"?

One of my favorite resources for getting started on color palette's is the website Coolors. This website allows you to generate custom palette's to your liking. You can create from scratch, see what colors are trending in the world, and even pull from a picture to help establish a palette. Then, once you have your first draft of palette's you can view each palette with a "color blindness" view, to help you determine what people see with the different color blindnesses. Not only are you catering to those who can see the full color spectrum, but you definitely need to cater to those who don't get to experience the full color spectrum. Once you are satisfied with your palette, you can export the palette and you can choose what all gets exported. Color names, Hues, Saturation, etc. Then you have your start to your colors to review as a team.

Selecting a brands colors doesn't have to be hard. It will be time consuming, yes, but it doesn't have to be hard. So, now we have our logo and our colors, so what's next? I guess you'll have to come back next time to find out.

Sincerely,

Just Your Average Graphic Designer in totally Digital World

#GraphicDesign #Branding #BrandColors #Coolors #Creative #CreativeForward