Choosing Brand Colors

Brands often have between 1-3 colors as part of their brand color scheme. When deciding the colors of your brand, it is essential to think of your brand’s personality and appeal to your target audience.

Brand Color Rules

Of your 1-3 colors, start with the color that is the most important to you. Think Coca-Cola’s red, BestBuy’s Blue, or Starbucks’s forest green. You will choose one color that will define your business.

Many brands have additional colors to complement their primary color. These colors help establish your brand identity, help in designing assets and speak to your target audience. These colors can be different shades of your primary, complementary, analogous, or triad:

Color Meanings

Different colors have different meanings. Choosing brand colors can help shape the immediate emotion that your brand stands for. Remember, you want to build familiarity through your brand and adding emotion makes it easier.

When thinking of colors to represent your brand, remember different colors actually cause different psychological reactions. This image illustrates a few emotions that common colors cause.