Your Guide to Choosing Your Branding Colours
Not everyone may notice it, but everybody loves colour because it is all around. When you were a child, you were probably fascinated by those big boxes of crayons. As you grew up, you develop favourite colours—leaning towards a particular colour palette when choosing clothes, sheets, accessories, and even phone cases.
Your choice of colours and the way you were drawn to some may have something to do with colour psychology. Aside from helping set the mood and adding life to things around you, every colour is said to evoke emotions and convey particular messages. It’s possible that you like certain colours because they reflect your personality.
Colour psychology is also used by businesses to reflect the messages and personalities they want to convey. In this article, we will take a look at the meaning behind common colours and how some famous brands use them.
Yellow for Optimism
As the colour of the sun, yellow is known to evoke feelings of positivity, warmth, and clarity. Yellow is also a rich colour, bringing to mind a pot of gold. The colour yellow also makes one stay awake.
When used in branding, yellow is very effective in making logos and materials stand out, thanks to its brightness that can be noticed even from afar. Brands that want to incite happiness and optimism can count on the power of yellow.
Some of the popular brands that utilize yellow very well are McDonald’s, which arched yellow M can easily make any child and child-at-heart smile. Meanwhile, UPS’ gold and brown shield, although subtle, exudes dignity and reliability.
Orange for Confidence
Orange screams for attention. It won’t let anyone pass by it without giving a glance. It easily stands out, as if saying that it’s not afraid of being the centre of attention. Orange exudes creativity, enthusiasm, and youthfulness. You can say that orange is a bold colour choice for business materials.
Hooters uses orange, and in case you don’t notice it yet, it’s one brand that isn’t holding back. Harley Davidson also has orange as a key element in its logo. The orange paired with black makes for the perfect contrast. Despite being a strong colour, orange is also kid-friendly, which is why Nickelodeon does so well in its branding.
Red for Energy and Excitement
You may not notice it, but your pulse rate probably jumps whenever you see red. It is such a powerful colour that translates warmth, excitement, sexiness, and urgency. It is the colour of both romance and blood, of passion and danger. Indeed, it’s a colour that sends strong messages.
Nintendo has a rather simple logo, but the use of red makes the brand stand out. Netflix also employs a simple logo design that commands attention because of its colour. Target and K-Mart also use red, sending a sense of urgency (the urgency to buy something). Let’s not forget about Coca-Cola, which can be seen patronized anywhere.
Blue for Reliability
Blue is a calming colour. It symbolizes tranquillity, dependability, and strength. This is why using blue in logos, and business materials send the message that a company is reliable and dependable, that customers need not worry about the services and products offered. Blue is widely used in the technology and electronics industry. Intel, IBM, and Dell are some of the tech brands that primarily use blue in their branding.
Green for Growth
Green signifies peace and serenity. Because it is related to nature, it also symbolizes growth. Many companies in the food and beverage industry use green, such as Whole Foods and Starbucks. It’s also widely used by companies and organizations that have to do with the environment, such as Animal Planet and Greenpeace.
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