Choosing the right colors for your business is a task that should not be taken lightly.
Colors convey an instant message. It is not a coincidence that brides wear white and the red in a traffic light means “stop”. Colors have the power to communicate information immediately, without using words. This is why choosing the colors that you will use to showcase your business is important.
The color palette that you use for your brand will communicate a message to your customers, so it is worth spending a bit of time thinking about which ones to choose.
In this blog post I will talk you through how to choose the right colors for your business in 6 steps!
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How to Choose Your Brand’s Color Palette
A color palette is the group of colors that you will use to create your business collateral, including your logo, website, social media imagery, ads, stationery and more.
It is considered best practice to choose a color palette (about 4-8 colors) for your business and stick to it, rather than using different colors every time.
The reason behind this is that you want to achieve a consistent look for your brand. You want customers to get familiar with the look and feel of your brand. This will help build a relationship with your audience and, in the long term, make your brand instantly recognizable.
1. Define your brand personality
Your color palette needs to align with your brand’s personality. How do you want your business to be perceived?
It can help to think of your business as a person. If you walked into a room and met your business for the first time, what would they be like? Would they be formal or funny? Outgoing or reserved? What would they wear – high heels or trainers?
To help you define your brand’s personality, I have put together a list of adjectives below. Highlight the ones that best describe your business:
Now choose the top 3 words that best describe your brand’s personality
Now choose the top 3 words that best describe your brand’s personality. Write them down in a piece of paper.
2. Define your ideal customer
Defining your ideal customer will help you showcase your business in a way that will resonate with them. Your favorite color may be yellow, but – what will your ideal customer relate to this color?
Here are some question to get your started when defining your ideal customer:
How old are they?
Where do they live?
Are they male or female?
Married or single?
What are their values?
What type of content do they engage with? Blogs, emails, videos, social media.
How old are they?
Where do they live?
Are they male or female?
Married or single?
What are their values?
What type of content do they engage with? Blogs, emails, videos, social media.
It can be a good idea to create an Ideal Customer Avatar. This is a fictional person (or people) that represents your ideal customer.
It can be very helpful to go through this exercise and create an ideal customer avatar for your business. Give them a name and a photo, and you can refer back to him or her as you brainstorm color options for your business.
3. Explore color meanings
Now that you have defined your brand’s personality, you will need to choose colors that will help you create that vibe for your business. It can be a good idea to check out Canvas’s Library of Color Meanings and Symbolism.
As the name suggests, this is a library that contains information about what different colors portray and symbolize. For example, according to Canvas, this is the meaning of the color pastel red:
“Pastel red is a shade of red, a color associated with intensity. Anger, energy, passion and danger are all linked with the hue, however pastel red’s softer hue means it is less likely to make that impression. Rather, pastel red’s dreamy appearance is more likely to be associated with love and romance, as it is close to the color of rose flowers typically given on Valentine’s Day.” (Source: Canvas)
Pretty interesting, right? Have a look at a few colors and their meanings, and write down the codes of the ones that would best suit your brand (e.g. #FF0000)
4. Search for inspiration
Now that you have chosen the colors that you may want to use for your brand, have a look around and see how other businesses use those colors.
You can have a look at what your competitors are doing. What works for others in your industry? What can you do to come up with a look that is different from others within your field?
Pinterest is also a great source of inspiration. Head to Pinterest and search for your color + branding (E.g.: blue and gold branding) and see what ideas come up.
You can create a board on Pinterest to collect your ideas or use a more old-school (but still effective!) method of cutting and pasting images to create a visual board. Have a look through magazines and collect any color combinations that catch your eye on a scrapbook.
5. Create your color palette
Now that you have a better idea of the colors that you want to use for your business, you can go ahead and create your color palette.
Once again, I recommend that you take advantage of the amazing free tools offered by Canvas. For example, they have a really clever color palette generator with hundreds of existing color palettes up for grabs. Check them out!
Free tools to help you choose colors for your business.
1 – Canvas’s color Palette Library
Browse through thousands of ready-made color palette combinations. You can search by theme, color or keyword.
2 – Canvas’s color Palette Generator
This tool creates a color palette based on an image. So if you have found a photo that you love, upload it into Canvas and the system will create a color palette based on it.
3 – Canvas’s color Wheel
This color wheel tells you which colors work well together. So if you’ve found one color that you love, have a play to see which could be a good secondary option to go with it.
6. Test your brand colors
Now that you have your color palette, you can test it in your business material to see how they work together. Do you convey the message you were hoping for?
It can be a good idea to test your choices with some family and friends and get their thoughts. Or, why not send me an email with your creation? I would love to have a look!
Conclusion
It can take a little bit of trial and error to come up with the right color palette for your business, but it is worth spending the time to choose the right ones.
Follow the 6 six steps above and have a play with the free to create the perfect color palette for your brand.
Source: girlinmotion
