6 Best Ways to Choose the Best Colors for Your Brand
Let’s be real, why would any brand want to spend millions of dollars perfecting color schemes for their brands if they aren’t worth it. It really wouldn’t hurt Netflix to be blue or Facebook to be yellow- or would it? Read on.
1. Color Psychology
Colors are more than just pallets or hues; they can be an immensely critical cue in igniting mood or feelings in a human. Historically, restaurants have been using the color themes of mustard yellow orange and red to make you hungry, hospitals and medicines use blue or cyan to indicate calm while juices and packaged foods use green to reflect freshness of their content. These color indicators are used across brands with even some going lengths to gain copyrights on the color codes, reason? – the association of a brand with specific feeling, or intended purpose is influenced at large by these very colors.
For you to choose the color themes for your brand It is better to understand the reaction of your customer which you intend to get. If your brand portrays sophistication, luxury, minimalism and exclusivity- color ranges of black, white and grey are meant for you. If your brand shows flashy, flamboyant and bold, bright colors of red, yellow and orange should be your focal, whilst blue indigo, violets show grounded, rich tone-deaf luxury. Still unsure about the color psychology? Let ICON handle it!
2.Simon Says!
Your audience knows and responds to the colors that matter to them and not to the ones you like. Certain colors appeal to certain age groups and even demographically it is suggested to vary the color palette as even indications of colors vary globally. While white can be an indicator of purity in one region, can be a sign of mourning in another region. Or velvet red in one country is intimate while in another can be associated with blood. It is therefore suggested that colors your brand is represented with, lie on the palette of colors that, when varied, can still reflect and represent the core value of your brand. Hard to grasp that one! let the team of experts at ICON decide your brand’s color, it’s a hush hush but we know a lot.
3. Know thy neighbors
Keep your friends close and your competitors at arm’s length, especially when you want to make your brand stand out. There is hardly a brand that follows its competitor in the colors choice, in fact, like two opposite poles, a perfect competitor follows exactly the opposite color palette of their competition. Pepsi is blue and McDonald’s is yellow while Coke cola and KFC are red, Apple is white and dim while Microsoft is bright and vibrant.
Each color aesthetic not only allows a brand to reflect how they vary from their competitor but also allows competitor to understand what not to do with colors to enjoy truce. It is, however, difficult to decide which color palette to not step in to avoid competitors territory, which is why experts at ICON study the competitors perfectly well before deciding a benefiting choice exclusive to your brand.
4. Layers matter
Imagine a house with just one-color paint all over; Its dull and very boring. A brand is exactly like that, each with their own set of windows, doors and ceilings, and therefore to avoid a visual disaster, a balance is needed. A rule of 60-30-10 can be crucial in this regard; 60 percent of primary color decides the base of your brand and gives it consistency, in addition, 30 percent secondary colors support variation in the brand’s identity across product offerings and a mere 10 percent accent colors determine the attention grabbers for the brand.
Brands normally adjust these percentage mix with careful consideration to maintain consistency in visuals and thousands of dollars are spent with ICON by mega brands to find the right balance as we help businesses keep their essence intact with visual brand identity.
5. Screentime is good
A Golden musk color of your brand may look stunning on the laptop screen but might look dirty metal rust on mobile phones or worse- unreadable on tabloids. It is preferable to hire a team of designers that knows the reflection of your brands colors across multiple displays and prints.
As consultants on logo creations, we have seen multiple brand logos and brand colors contradict the colors available on fabric or packaging print, in most cases even destroying the logo completely. Free advice- Save some mega costs and embarrassments and get a team to test your brand colors on multiple displays.
6. AI is your friend
With unlimited free AI open softwares, it is much easier to reduce the amount of effort picking and testing your brands colors. Now with multiple AI integrations across User interface and User experience softwares as well as on digital designing platforms such as ADOBE and Canva, you can design a professional and smart display on your own after learning their use, or you can let ICON use its paid version of similar resources to help ease your troubles and find you, the perfect color balance for your brand.