The Psychology Of Colour: How To Choose Your Brand's Colour Palette

Chase. Citibank. Barclay's. Bank of America. All banks. All use blue for one of their dominant branding colors. Obviously it's more than a coincidence that these money-related companies all chose blue for their brand identity.

Why branding colours matter

According to neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, how consumers feel about a brand has more pull than what they think about a brand. Pair that with the fact that we know certain colors evoke certain emotions: your brand colors have the ability to impact your sales or performance even more than the products you offer.

What do different branding colours mean?

• Red — passion, excitement and anger. Signifies importance and commands attention.

• Orange — playfulness, vitality and friendliness.

• Yellow — happiness, youth and optimism.

• Green — stability, prosperity, growth and connection to nature.

• Light Blue — tranquility, trust, openness.

• Dark Blue — professionalism, security and formality.

• Purple — royalty, creativity and luxury.

• Pink — femininity, youth and innocence.

• Brown — rugged, earthy, old-fashioned.

• White — cleanliness, virtue, health or simplicity.

• Gray — neutrality, classic, serious.

• Black — powerful, sophisticated, luxurious and modern.

Formula for building a brand colour scheme

1. Plan on choosing 3 colours — Your base, accent and a neutral.

2. Choose your base — Your base color should reflect your brand personality's most dominant trait.

3. Choose your accent — Used most after your base color; must pair visually with your base.

4. Choose your neutral — Most likely a background color, typically different hues of gray.