Color Psychology for Powerful Branding

In the world of design and branding, colors hold immense power. They have the ability to evoke emotions, shape perceptions, and create a strong visual identity.

What is Color Psychology?

Color psychology is the study of how different hues can influence human behavior, emotions, and perceptions. You can go deep on this one! Many have studied the impact that colour has on people, and it’s fascinating. Whilst, I take a much more instinctive approach to creating colour palettes for my clients (I’ve long forgotten formal instruction on colour theory) I do find it interesting to read about as I happily find that my instincts are usually accurate.

Here are some colours and their widely understood meanings:

Using your brand's personality to define a palette

Before diving into color selection, it's useful to define your brand's personality. Like humans, each brand has a personality (whether you’ve formally defined this or not) based on how you see and conduct yourself, but this is a topic for another time!

Your brand personality plays a vital role in determining the most suitable color scheme for your visual identity. The colors you choose should align with the traits and values you want to convey to your audience.

Here’s some output from a brand personality exercise from the strategy phase with my wonderful client Future IM/Pact:

Brand exercises like these can help get people thinking about the personality of their brand.

A set of words or personality traits can then be drawn out from the responses which can be used to guide colour selection.

In this exercise each team member came up with an animal that they felt best represented the brand. The value of this exercise is never so much which animal, but rather the reasons behind the choice, and how different perspectives can lead to a stronger and more aligned brand, built by the entire team.

From the initial conversation about animals, we were able to articulate adjectives that described the brand — welcoming, trusted, optimistic, focused, dynamic and bold. This was then top of mind when it came to create a colour palette.

All of the feels

When promoting your brand, do you want your audience to feel a bold and dynamic energy or a more calming and soothing connection? By aligning your brand's personality traits with the appropriate colors, you can more effectively communicate your values and accurately position your brand with your target audience.

For example, leadership consultants might opt for a palette that exudes their personality, while medical organisations or experts might lean towards colors that evoke trust and a sense of calm.

By interpreting the emotions and associations evoked by different colors, you can strategically select a scheme that reflects your brand's personality and has a better opportunity to resonate with your target audience.

The power of primaries

Primary colors—red, blue, and yellow— traditionally hold significant meaning and can be a strong foundation for your any brand color palette. It is understood in Western cultures that red conveys passion and excitement, blue trust and professionalism, and yellow represents optimism and warmth.

Interestingly, orange (a secondary colour created from yellow + red) has traditionally been associated with low-cost brands, so if you’re wishing to position your brand as premium, best to steer clear of this one.

Creating harmonious color schemes

Harmony in color selection is crucial to maintain visual appeal and coherence. The adage ‘red and green should never be seen’ is, unfortunately, correct. Use them exclusively at your peril, unless you specialise in Christmas goods or services.

Here’s where it gets interesting: explore complementary colors that sit opposite each other on the color wheel, such as blue and orange or purple and yellow, to create vibrant and eye-catching combinations. Analogous colors, which are adjacent to each other on the color wheel, offer a more subtle and harmonious palette.

Colour palettes for today’s brands need to work hard. I recommend identifying six to eight - yes, eight! You will likely use between two and four as your primary palette, but it’s useful to extend this if you are going to be using tools such as PowerPoint or Word.

Here’s a useful way to break down a palette:

Definiting a colour palette is possibly one of the most fun parts of the branding process, and it plays a pivotal role in capturing attention, conveying messages, and establishing a strong brand identity. By mastering the art of color selection, you can create a powerful and memorable brand presence that resonates with your audience, aligns with your personality and values, and can play a lead role in a brand suite that has the power to move people’s hearts and minds.