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