When you’re creating a brief for a graphic designer, it’s tempting to stick to the bare minimum: “Auto shop with older customers driving mid-range cars” is a good start, and it may do you some good. But if you know the target market you’re aiming for, you can give your designer more to work with – such as suggestions for your company identity’s color scheme.
According to psychologists, colors tend to be attached to a consistent set of connotations that impact the way your customers will perceive you. By combining this chart and your understanding of your target market, you can provide your DesignCrowd designers with a good starting point – but always remember to leave it to them to find color combinations that are visually appealing. Your idea might hit the right emotions, but their cohesive palettes will draw the viewer in to begin with.
Finding perfect color harmony
There are many factors designers consider when formulating a color palette. A subtle variation of color can bring a whole design together or make it look unsightly and disjointed.
A successful color palette mostly uses up to three colors for the brand. However, it may start with more like five before adding or subtracting as the designer sees fit through your design process. It’s important to consider combinations you may not have thought of previously, as it could be the difference between having something that is recognizable and market leading as opposed to bland and forgettable.
As part of the process, a designer will look at colors from all angles, and consider techniques for finding perfect color harmony, such as complimentary, monochromatic, shade, triad, and analogous.
For designers looking for inspiration, or business owners who want to become more clued up on the correct color palettes, there are plenty of online tools to help. One of the most popular is Adobe’s Color CC.
Color palettes – meanings and examples
| Color | Palette | Meaning | Examples | |||
| Black | Authority, power, stability, strength, intelligence. Conversely, it can be associated with evil and grieving. | Black Palette, Black Logo Design, Black Web Design | ||||
| #020202 | #1C1C1C | #3E3E3E | #868686 | |||
| White | Purity, cleanliness, neutrality, safety and blank slates. | White Palette, White Logo Design, White Web Design | ||||
| #FFFFFF | #F8FFCB | #FFFFE3 | #D5DBAE | |||
| Gray | Practicality, strong character, aged solidarity. Gray is best used as a tertiary color in a palette, not the primary, to underline the design with a sense of trustworthiness and the long-standing. | Gray Palette, Gray Logo Design, Gray Web Design | ||||
| #333333 | #8C8C8C | #666666 | #C0C0C0 | |||
| Red | The color that most easily catches the eye. Energy, movement, excitement, life, appetite. | Red Palette, Red Logo Design, Red Web Design | ||||
| #801E17 | #BC0000 | #D90000 | #DA0000 | |||
| Blue | A calming color. Blue represents and cultivates focus, attention, and is an uplifting and motivating color. The overuse of blue can appear cold and detached. | Blue Palette, Blue Logo Design, Blue Web Design | ||||
| #23425C | #004FD2 | #002DB5 | #1372EF | |||
| Green | Freshness, particularly in food, nature, luck and fertility. It also represents money and growth, and is a forward-moving “go ahead” color in many systems, including traffic. | Green Palette, Green Logo Design, Green Web Design | ||||
| #061700 | #299300 | #1D6F00 | #BFA81D | |||
| Yellow / Black | Happiness, laughter, light-heartedness and optimism, and the promise of the future. | Yellow Palette, Yellow Logo Design, Yellow Web Design | ||||
| #000000 | #FBB400 | #FFFF00 | #E2C707 | |||
| Orange | Flamboyancy, energy, warmth, fun, excitement and energy. | Orange Palette, Orange Logo Design, Orange Web Design | ||||
| #FF0000 | #FF3B00 | #FFF200 | #FFFF57 | |||
| Pink | Has a proven psychologically calming nature and represents romance, love and gentleness. | Pink Palette, Pink Logo Design, Pink Web Design | ||||
| #833A3C | #FF7DB8 | #FFCEE8 | #FFFFFF | |||
| Purple | Religious connotations, conveys wealth, respect, prosperity and nobility (think royal purple). Lighter shades have almost the opposite meaning, stirring up feelings of youth and femininity. | Purple Palette, Purple Logo Design, Purple Web Design | ||||
| #272037 | #686281 | #A386A3 | #CFBCCD | |||
| Brown | The color of the earth has come to represent reliability, goodwill and stability. When used with green, evokes nature and the home-grown. In some shades it can represent the dirty and unclean. | Brown Palette, Brown Logo Design, Brown Web Design | ||||
| #100C00 | #391800 | #733F15 | #AB5F27 | |||
Finding your business color palette
It’s not hard to make matches between your brand and the psychology of color. What’s difficult is creating a workable execution. For instance, in 10 Ways to Increase Website Conversion Rates we looked at the red and green pairing appearing to be perfectly suitable for food industry businesses, but it’s hard to implement them together without stirring up a Christmas-like mood. So, whe outsourcing or ‘crowdsourcing’ a design project let designers know what sort of color palette you’d like to work with and why – as long as they know what you’re trying to achieve, they can help you get the best of both worlds.
Successful color palettes
Scroll down for are great examples from DesignCrowd of where designers have nailed the color schemes for businesses.
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Article originally published on May 21, 2011.
Want More?
Curious about what color can do for you? Check out these articles:
50 Beautiful Riveting Red Logos
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The Power of Color – 15 Outstanding Blue Logo Designs
Written by DesignCrowd on Thursday, November 10, 2016
DesignCrowd is an online marketplace providing logo, website, print and graphic design services by providing access to freelance graphic designers and design studios around the world.