My simple tip to selecting your brand colours

How to choose brand colours – My simple tip how to selecting your Brand Colours

One of the key elements in branding, is the use of colour. I view it as adding the tonic to the gin. It’s the perfect complement to using your branding fonts and graphics. Some people look at a colour and describe them in plain terms such as red or blue. Some would describe them as fire engine red or rose red; maybe deep ocean blue or denim blue. While others people describe colours in terms such as rose quartz pink, rolling stone moss green. None is better than another, in describing colour. I say this to bring your focus on the wide range of colours available.

Famous Brand Colours

Many people have seen this graphic before about what famous brand colours are meant to represent in emotions. But, personally I think this is a little old school and doesn’t take into account the effect of fonts and how graphic elements or flourishes play in the overall image of a brand.

For example, blue is meant to mean trust, strength, and dependability. And if you look at facebook, LinkedIn, Dell, IBM you could get that feeling. However look at how Denise’s has used blue in her branding, it’s anything but that. Her site says calm, fun, and serenity.

Coherent Branding

Creating a coherent range of colours for branding can seem perplexing to some. Today I want to share with you one simple and easy tip I give to people when they are first starting out. Have a browse on the interwebs about something which you love. Nature. Home design. Cooking. Clothes. Make-up. Whatever it is. Start looking at pictures. When you find a picture or an image which makes your heart smile, make a bookmark or screen shot it. You can even create an Pinterest board. The key thing is don’t overthink it. Go with your gut. You will know when it happens. These images are the perfect place to start selecting your brand colours. It may take a little skill and time to see the commonalities and similarities in the pictures you are picking out. But it’s a great place to start.

When picking brand colours I tend to think in terms of 4-6 colours. I look for a pop colour. One which stands out from the crowd. I also look for a body text colour. (I will be looking at this in more detail in a future post). Then I look for one or two headline colours. And depending on the design an additional hyperlink colour. Sometimes you start with a colour palette of 6 colours but only end up using four or three.