Fifty shades of grey? How important is colour selection to a brand?

“The way to get started is to quit talking, and start doing,” said none other than Walt Disney. This is the ethos carried by our workshops, which are designed to be practical to the core, and provide attendees with a host of new marketing ideas to take away with them.

On the horizon is our January workshop on Branding, and as part of the prelude to the event, in this blog we will throw the spotlight on the importance of brand colour and ask the question of ‘how to choose one?’

The cornerstone of colour
The colour you choose for your logo and associated branding is unequivocally central to how it will be received. If a key component of branding is to represent our company exactly as we intend, colour plays a key role.

Colouration of the mind
Why can colour have so much of an influence when it comes to our branding? It is all in the mind. Colours are understood to have a profound psychological effect on the viewer, and while people can interpret colours differently, there is an accepted range of feelings that are commonly provoked.

Which colour should I choose?
While the semantics of your brand name and the font are factors which should not be ignored, there are general emotions and characteristics which are typically triggered by each in relation to how they are perceived. Take a look at our sample list below:

Yellow – optimism and happiness
Orange – friendliness and warmth
Red – youthfulness and boldness
Purple – creativity and innovation
Blue – reliability and strength
Green – growth and peace

Multicolour madness?
Many designers would steer you away from taking the decision to go multi-coloured with your logo in favour of taking a simpler approach. That is not to say that using colour combinations is an automatic no-no. Take the Olympic Games logo for instance – when unity and variety are part of your brand ethos, using different colours can come in handy. eBay is another example of multiple colours used effectively.

Come and join us
We could talk about colour all day, but this is just one element of Branding, a topic on which there is so much to discuss! We will get to the bottom of a number of Branding issues at our 18th January workshop, when your own marketing material will form the basis of topics which we raise. For more information and to book your free space, visit our events page to book.