Shady business: How to choose the right colours for your logo

Choosing the colours for your logo should be a well thought-out decision, based on multiple factors, writes Shayne Tilley, head of marketing at 99designs by Vista. Getting it right can strengthen how people feel about – and interact with – your brand.

One of the most rewarding moments as a business owner is when someone is instantly drawn to your brand after their first encounter with it. For anyone familiar with colour psychology, you know that colours can have a significant impact on our emotions and behaviours, and therefore play a huge role in this attraction.

When it comes to branding, colours can evoke certain reactions, but also communicate specific qualities about your brand. By using the same colours consistently, you can strengthen your brand’s association with those colours, and moreover, strengthen how people feel about your brand as a whole.

Because of this, when picking colours for your logo, it’s not quite as simple as choosing the ones you love. It should be a well thought-out decision, based on multiple factors from understanding what colours mean to what you are trying to convey about your business.

The meanings behind popular colours

While colour meanings aren’t universal (more on this later), there are common associations as to what popular colours represent and how they make people feel. Here’s a quick cheat sheet. Just remember that colour brightness, shade and tone make a difference as well.

Red

Red is associated with heightened emotions. Think passion, energy, anger and danger, as well as luck and good fortune in many cultures. It’s undoubtedly a powerful colour to attach yourself to. Also for any food-related businesses, red has also been shown to stimulate appetite.

Orange

If you’re looking to stand out, but are turned off by the fierceness of red, orange is an invigorating option. It symbolises creativity and youth, making it more approachable than red. It’s also often associated with change, so could be good for brands that feel they are doing things unconventionally.

Yellow

Yellow radiates youthful energy. It’s cheerful, friendly and unpretentious. From bright hues to more golden ones, it’s quite versatile too.

Green

Even more versatile than yellow is green. Often used by eco-friendly and wellness brands, green is representative of nature and can also signify newness or growth.

Blue

There’s a reason a lot of financial institutions use blue in their logos. It’s because it symbolises trustworthiness and maturity, while lighter shades of blue exude tranquillity and openness.

Purple

Purple often stands for luxury, spirituality and mystery. However, it’s not associated with being serious, so not often the best choice for a more corporate brand.

Pink

Pink is youthful and often conveys a sense of playfulness. The right shade, however, can communicate modern, high-end luxury.

Brown

While not as vibrant as other colours, brown’s strength lies in its earth tones. It feels rugged and serious, making it great for outdoor adventure brands. Of course, it also works well for companies selling natural products, like chocolate or coffee.

Black

To convey modernity and luxury, black is the way to go. Fair warning, though, it can feel quite exclusive, so isn’t a great option to be perceived as approachable or inviting.

4 considerations for choosing the right logo colours

With a basic understanding of what key colours represent, you can dive into picking a colour palette that works best for your brand. Start by asking yourself the following questions.

1. How do you want your audience to feel when they see your logo?

When considering how you want to make people feel when they see your logo, reflect on your brand personality traits. Is your brand more playful or serious? Luxurious or affordable? Modern or classic? As you’ve learned above, specific colours help communicate these traits.

If you are a fun and friendly lifestyle brand that wants to make its customers feel happy, perhaps you want to drench your logo in yellow. If you’re a more serious brand focused on making your customers feel safe and secure, you’ll likely want to consider incorporating a shade of blue.

Part of this is also knowing your audience. Consumers like brands that align with their personal values. Whether consciously or subconsciously, they will be drawn to colours that do just that.

2. Are there cultural associations to keep in mind?

It’s important to be aware that colour meanings aren’t the same everywhere. Feelings that people associate with certain colours can be heavily influenced by learned, cultural associations. This is a particularly important consideration for global brands. For example, Americans often associate green with money and wealth because their currency is green, whereas this is not the case in most other countries.

If your logo will be shown in specific parts of the world, you want to make sure your logo colours say what you think they are saying in that specific culture. A solution to this could be going with a more neutral base logo colour that can be enhanced with other accent colours when appropriate.

3. What colour combinations would work for my brand?

While there is no hard and fast rule for logo colour palettes, you should strive for visual harmony. A good rule of thumb is to choose three colours – a base, accent and neutral colour. Brands often lean on one of the four common colour schemes in the colour wheel to achieve that harmonious aesthetic.

Four main branding colour schemes

Monochromatic

This can work well if there is one particular brand personality trait you want to focus on expressing. It’s made up of one colour in multiple shades.

Analogous

This colour scheme consists of colours that are adjacent to one another on the colour wheel. These colours tend to have similar connotations so they can work well together.

Complementary

Hues opposite each other on the colour wheel are what we call complementary colour schemes. These are popular due to their dynamic and stimulating nature.

Triad

Drawing in colours from three different sections of the colour wheel, triadic schemes can produce interesting combinations. These are often a bold choice, so be careful it doesn’t conflict with your brand personality.

4. What logo colours do your competitors use?

Naturally you want your logo to express who you are as a brand, but you also want it to help distinguish you from other companies. Before finalising your brand colours, check out the logos of your competitors. If you notice a number of your competitors using the same colour, it would work to your advantage to make different colour choices, while—at the risk of sounding like a broken record—still aligning to your brand personality.

Granted it may be easier to simply pick colours you love for your brand. However, the power of colour to attract and connect with your customers is real – and not leveraging this is a waste. The first time a customer enters your store or arrives at your website was because they were attracted to your logo. The time and effort you put in now will be worth it!

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