What Are Branding Colors? Guideline to Choosing the Perfect Branding Colors

When it comes to branding, colors play a crucial role in shaping consumer perception and brand recognition. So what are branding colors? How to choose your branding colors? Let's discover more about branding colors with KimEcopak through this blog post. 

What Are Brand Colors?

Brand colors are a palette consisting of five to ten hues that are chosen to represent a certain company. Brand awareness and recognizability can be raised by applying brand colors strategically and consistently.

Brand colors are often applied in a company’s logo, website color scheme, social media channels, business card design, print and digital ads,...

What Makes Branding Colors Important?

Establish brand identity and recognition

One of the great ways to establish brand recognition and identity is to use consistent brand colors. If you are consistent with your branding colors, they become part of your brand in the eyes of your target market. 

For example: Coca-Cola's logos consist of two colors red and white. While red symbolizes passion, determination, youthfulness, and vitality, white represents the allure and elegance of the Coca-Cola brand. People worldwide can recognize this brand when they see these colors. 

Evoke emotions and associations

Each color can evoke different emotions and have varying effects on us as they have the power to create specific moods.

Increase Recall

Customers' minds become associated with your brand when they see the colors of your brand in various contexts regularly. Essentially, brand recall has the power to make or break your business.

Create a competitive edge

Creating a memorable brand makes you more likely to outshine rivals and gain loyal customers. 

What Do Different Branding Colors Mean? How Do They Affect People?

Color	Color Meaning	Affect Branding Colors Can Have On People
Red	Passion, excitement, power, love and anger	Signifies importance and appeals to attention Makes you feel passionate and energized
Orange	Playfulness, vitality, happiness, and friendliness	Invigorating and evoking energy Aggressive but balanced Feel energized and enthusiastic
Yellow	Happiness, youth, energy, comfort, and optimism	Makes you feel happy and spontaneous Can be attention-grabbing or affordable Associated with laughter, hope, and sunshine
Green	Stability, health, wealth, prosperity, calming, relaxing, and growth	Has a connection to nature Makes you feel optimistic and refreshed Depicts growth, security and inspires possibility
Light Blue	Tranquility, trust, openness, calmness, spirituality, and innocence	Has a calming effect Makes you feel safe and relaxed
Dark Blue	Professionalism, security, and formality	It is mature and trustworthy Too much can make you feel cold and disengaged
Purple	Royalty, mystery, creativity, and luxury	It is wise and imaginative Makes you feel creative Lighter shades are used to soothe or calm
Pink	Femininity, romance, sensitivity, tenderness, sweet, cute, charming, youth, and innocence	It ranges from modern to luxurious Makes you feel playful and romantic
Brown	Rugged, aged, stability, supportive, warm, practical, dependable, and earthy	Has an old-fashioned/vintage look or mood  Makes you feel down-to-earth
White	Cleanliness, virtue, purity, health, and simplicity	It can range from affordable to high-end Minimalism and simplicity
Gray	Subdued, classic, responsible, dependable, serious, mysterious, and mature	Stands for neutrality Feels serious and professional
Black	Powerful, elegance, sophisticated, edgy, professional, simple, luxurious, and modern	Feel sophisticated, classic, and serious Refer to mourning or sadness

The Brand Color Formula

The brand color palette should have 2 to 5 colors maximum. Here are some examples:

• One main color: IBM, Spotify, and Apple are companies that keep things simple by using one striking primary brand color.

• One main and one accent color: Some brands use dual-color palettes such as McDonald’s, Pepsi, and Ikea,...

• One main color and 3 - 4 accent colors: Slack, Microsoft, and Burger King have more complex color palettes but are still easy to remember by pairing a bold signature color with complementary accent colors.

How To Choose Your Branding Colors

Step 1: Establish Your Brand Identity

You can compose a list of adjectives that describe your business's character and personality. Ask yourself how you would like the brand to be perceived and what sets it apart from other competition. 

Step 2: Explore color meanings

Combining colors can help to evoke certain stimuli and feelings. For example, when blue is paired with gold it conjures notions of royalty and luxury. In contrast, when blue is paired with pink, it tends to feel much more playful. 

Listed below is a summary of common brand colors by several major industries to assist you in selecting the ideal color scheme for your business:

• Food Industries: Many food and restaurant companies often use warm colors that draw attention and evoke appetite, such as red, orange, and yellow. Some others choose green to promote connection with nutrition and well-being, or blue and pink for sweets and desserts.
• Health and wellness: Most health and wellness brands tend to choose blue to signify cleanliness, trustworthiness, and responsibility. Other companies opt for green to represent nature and wholesomeness, and orange can bring up ideas of vitality and energy.
• Fashion and beauty: Brands often use black for sophistication and glamour, and warm colors such as red, orange, and pink for passion, confidence, and excitement.
• High-tech: High-tech industries commonly choose blue to create feelings of trust, intelligence, and efficiency. Or orange symbolizes friendliness and optimism, and purple stands for quality and creativity. 

However, these colors are common in many other industries. Therefore, you can try using a construction logo maker to explore the colors you can use. 

Step 3: Search for inspiration

Before making your brand colors, you can browse your competitors' palettes and find why they work well. And think about what you can learn from their color choices, and of ways in which you can differentiate yourself from the competition. 

You can also refer to online color palette generators, they can help you find ideas for interesting color pairings and mesmerizing shades. Conducting market research is also one great way. 

Step 4: Pick your primary color

For your primary color, let's choose a single color that best embodies your business based on color meanings. To find the perfect color, you can experiment with different shades and tints of the color you have in mind, going from lush and dark to soft and pastel, or even bright neon.

Step 5: Choose your secondary colors

When the primary color is ready, it's time to pick two to four colors to go along with it. These colors will compliment your primary one, and can either appear next to it or independently. 

A brand’s secondary colors can go in a few different directions such as: 

• Analogous color scheme: It means you choose close variants of your primary color. For instance, if your primary color is bright red, you can add other warm colors such as orange or yellow because they belong to the same color family. 
• Monochromatic color scheme: Monochromatic schemes use different tones from the same angle on the color wheel (the same hue). If your primary color is blue, your secondary colors can be light blue and dark blue. Monochromatic color schemes will help strengthen and enhance your core color.
• Contrasting color schemes: Contrasting colors are complementary colors (positioned opposite from each other on the color wheel). This scheme can help your branding colors pop and usually give off a fun and modern feel. 

Step 6: Select neutral colors

Neutral colors will be in charge of most of your communication including (such as the color of your written text) and will appear in the background of most of your assets. Typically, neutral hues consist of white or black, frequently blended with a few shades of gray.

Step 7: Test your brand colors

Once you finished pick colors, you need to place them all together and test them in a few different combinations to ensure that they complement one another, and convey the message you were aiming for. 

Famous Examples Of Brand Colors

Here is the list of 10 brands that use colors to create a visually stunning and memorable identity for their brand.

• Instagram: Purple, pink, orange, and white  
• LinkedIn: Blue and white  
• Samsung: Blue and white  
• Twitter: Blue and white  
• Dropbox: Blue and white  
• YouTube: Red and white
• Red Bull: Blue and red  
• Spotify: Green and black  
• Ferrari: Red and yellow  
• Visa: Blue and gold  

Frequently Asked Questions

Where Should You Put Your Brand Colors?

You can put your branding colors everywhere, for any digital or physical assets related to your business, such as:

• Logo
• Business cards
• Invoices
• Social media assets (banners, posts, etc.)
• Website
• Apparel and accessories

What Are Common Mistakes When Choosing Brand Colors?

Some common mistakes when choosing brand colors include

• Picking too many colors: It's better to opt for a few key colors that you will use throughout your branding. This will help to create a cohesive and consistent visual identity.
• Using colors that are too similar: Your branding may look boring and unmemorable if you use colors that are too similar.
• Not updating brand colors: When your brand evolves, you may need to update your branding colors.

Conclusion 

In conclusion, choosing the right branding colors is essential for creating a strong and memorable brand identity. The colors you use can evoke emotions, convey messages, and influence consumer perceptions. By understanding your brand values, target audience, and industry, you will make the right decisions. 

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