Colour Theory – pick a colour, any colour.
Is there ever enough colour? A Pantone swatch book can be a designers best friend. Credit: Unsplash
Close your eyes and pick a colour.
Now, are you going to use that for your brand? If you are lucky – you might. It may fit your vision of what you require for your business. But chances are it is not. Let's have a look at colour and brands.
One of the most important elements when branding your business is colour. While many graphic elements come together in creating a brand, the logo's colour alone says a lot about your business. After all, colour is so powerful that it can influence thinking, evoke emotions, and even stimulate certain hormones in the body – look at me getting scientific!
The fact that colour has a psychological impact on people gives graphic designers a chance to utilise it in their work. And with that said, this article will expand on colour theory and how brands can use specific colours to their advantage.
What is Colour Theory? Art lesson coming up!
In essence, a colour theory is a body of rules designers employ to engage users through visually appealing colour schemes in visual interfaces, be it a brochure, a website or a poster for example. Designers use the colour wheel and extensive data collected about human psychology, culture, and human optical ability to pick out the most appealing colour schemes every time. Further on we take a quick look at the big brands and their use of colour.
Walk this way into a spectrum of bright colours. Credit: Unsplash
Colour Wheel Explanation – history lesson coming up!
When he created the colour wheel, Sir Isaac Newton established the colour theory in 1666. Newton recognised colours as subjective perceptions of light wavelengths rather than objective properties. He found three groups by methodically categorising colours:
Primary (red, blue, yellow)
Secondary (a mixture of primary colours)
Tertiary (mix of primary and secondary colours)
On top of that, attributes of colour include the colour's appearance, how pure it is, including whether it has tones, tints, or shades (black or white added) (grey added), and how dark or vivid it looks. To create harmonious, meaningful designs for users, you need a solid understanding of colour theory and the wheel swatches’ help.
I love working out colour palettes for clients and sometimes it’s best to go back to basics and choose complementary colours that are two opposites of the wheel. Or the Pantone swatch book to good use.
Above image shows the colour wheel theory. Credit: Shutterstock
Colour Theory and Emotion. Let's get the colour swatches out!
Talking about logo colours and branding is impossible without bringing up colour psychology. This field of research examines how particular colours affect how people behave.
Colour psychologists say that you can use the theory to influence customers' behaviour in specific ways. Here are some of the worldwide brands and colours used in their branding.
Yellow is one of my favourite colours (can you tell?) It evokes a feeling of optimism. Bright like the sun! Just like National Geographic and Post-its.
Orange It conveys confidence. It shows you are not afraid to be the center of attention—for instance, Soundcloud.
Red This is a warm, and exciting colour that gets your blood pumping. Netflix and Nintendo have used it. Although can be thought of as a warning colour!
Purple sparks the imagination and entrails the eyes. It conjures opulence and mystery and attracts customers looking for experiences that are out of the ordinary. Take Hallmark or twitch. Also, another two companies that come to mind are Cadbury's and Milka. Mmmm both chocolate brands.
Blue conveys the feeling of dependability, strength, and tranquillity. Used mainly by tech brands like IBM, DELL, Intel, and Ford. Ideal for companies that identify as professional and reliable. Can be seen as dull corporate colour – but hey corporates can have funky blues.
Green It's a soft and serene colour that conveys the idea of growth – used by brands that deal with the environment, like Greenpeace and Whole Foods. Other all green logos include Spotify and Starbucks.
Black This is a colour of mystery. It shows strength, sophistication, elegance, and authority. Count on black to give your logo design that element of mystery and power.
White It's a symbol of purity, new beginnings, and guidance. Using white makes everything looks so simple and clean.
I don't think I have designed an all-black or all-white logo. Most clients want to add a bit of colour to the pallet. Plus it will depend on where it is used.
Below is a graphic which shows the colour trends across various industries. As mentioned the top corporates love to use blues. Check out this graphic of the Fortune 500 companies (a lot of blue!):
Looks like blue is the winner with corporates. Credit: Canva
Accessibility
More recently clients have requested the need to consider colour and accessibility. There are various types of colour blindness or called colour vision deficiency (CVD)*
The website color-blindness.com* is a really helpful guide on this. My main takeaway from it was that the red-green colour blindness is the most common - called Deuteranomaly. It makes green seem red. So I try and avoid those colours next to each other. The table below highlights the colours a colour-blind person will see.
If you would like to know more color-blindness.com have produced a list of 50 facts about colour blindness.
Illustration of colour blindness/colour vision deficiency spectrum. Normal vision, achromatopsia, protanomaly, protanopia, tritanomaly, tritanopia, deuteranomaly, deuteranopia.How various colour blindness are seen.
Credit: Shutterstock
What is your favourite colour?
So as you can see. Not so easy just to pick any colour. Although with that said you could pick your favourite colour. It is your business.
Do you need help choosing colours for your brand or creating consistency with your social media posts? Well, you've come to the right place. I can help you choose brand colours that will position your business in a way that stands out to your target audience. Click the button below and let’s talk.
Hi! Thanks for reading!
I’m Angela Lyons and I am the founder and freelance graphic designer at Lyons Creative.
I specialise in both print and digital design, I aim to help businesses enhance their visual appeal by creating compelling and distinct designs. I also help freelancers and share my experiences of freelance life.
If you are interested in learning more about my services and how I can assist your business, please feel free to contact me via direct message, and we can discuss your design needs further. Hit the button below!
