Color is an integral part of branding. Many brands are forever connected to specific colors. For example, Verizon is red. AT&T is blue. Sprint is yellow. Color can differentiate competitive brands and increase brand recall. It can also stimulate senses and evoke feelings without words.
The color you choose to represent your brand will be used in your logo, your marketing materials, your signage, your website, and everywhere else you can think of. Your primary brand color has to accomplish a lot. It must differentiate you from competitors, fit into your industry, meet customer expectations, reflect your brand promise, and evoke appropriate feelings based on color psychology.
To make things trickier, colors have different meanings in different parts of the world. If your business operates internationally, you need to consider the regional meanings of colors to ensure that global audiences are receptive to your brand and business logo rather than offended by them.
In the United States, color psychology experts have identified some general meanings of colors that you can use to help choose the best color to represent your brand.
Red: Red is typically considered an energetic, active, and aggressive color. It is also though to be attention-getting and provocative. It is associated with passion as well as danger.
Blue: Blue is thought to be a calming color. Cool blues communicate trustworthiness, dependability, security, and fiscal responsibility. There is a reason why many financial companies use blue in their brand color palettes. Blue is also one of few colors that are popular among wide audiences.
Yellow: Yellow is thought to be a motivational color that evokes feelings of optimism and positivity. It is also viewed as an energetic color that stimulates creativity. Research shows that people see bright yellows before any other color. There is a reason why road signs are yellow.
Green: Green is typically associated with nature and the environment. Therefore, it evokes feelings of healthiness and freshness. Green is also closely tied to money, wealth and prestige and is used by many financial companies for that reason.
Orange: When you want to pack a positive punch, orange is a great color choice. It evokes feelings of exuberance and vitality and is often linked with fun.
Purple: Purple communicates royalty, sophistication, and mystery. It is considered to be a creative color.
Pink: No two pinks are alike when it comes to color psychology. Light pinks are considered to be romantic while dusty pinks are sentimental. On the flip side, hot pinks are energetic, exciting, fun and youthful.
Brown: Brown can be a positive or negative color. Since brown is the color of dirt, it can make people subconsciously feel dirty. On the other hand, it can communicate durability and stability. As UPS has demonstrated, brown can work very well in some industries.
White: White is associated with cleanliness and purity. It makes sense that this color is often used for baby brands and health- related brands.
Black: back connotes power and sophistication. It’s perfect for expensive brands and brands that want to appear classy.
Looking at color psychology at its core, all colors can be divided into two categories: warm or cold. Warm colors such as red, orange, and yellow are typically considered energetic while cool colors such as blue and purple are typically thought to be calm.
The color spectrum includes far more colors, tints, and shades than those listed above, so there are many options available to help you create a logo design and brand color palette that effectively communicates your brand promise, appeals to consumers, and differentiates you from your competitors.
