One of the first steps in creating a brand is to select your brand colors. It happens to be fun too! Brand colors help establish brand recognition. When people see your color palette, they will soon realize that it’s your business making a post online. And when the colors are consistent across all of your online spaces – website, newsletter, social media posts – it helps establish your company as an authoritative voice in your industry. In other words, your brand colors will inspire trust and encourage people to buy from you.

Wondering how to select your brand colors? We’ve created a valuable guide to help you make this big decision for your business.

Warm vs. Cool Colors

Warm colors include shades of red, orange, and yellow. They’re intense, energetic, and full of life. Cool colors include greens, blues, and purples and convey tranquility and a sense of calm. 

While warm colors communicate passion, strength, and light, cool colors are tied to nature, rebirth, and spirit. When selecting your brand colors, you may find it helpful to look at a color wheel to get a feel for the warm versus cool colors.

The color wheel includes primary and secondary colors in its basic structure. The primary colors include red, blue, and yellow. From these colors, we can create secondary colors: violet/purple, green, and orange. Here’s what each of the primary and secondary colors signifies:

·         Red: Passion, attention-grabbing, love

·         Blue: Security, grounded foundation, financial stability, caring

·         Yellow: Positivity, attention-grabbing, sunny days, joy

·         Violet: Royalty, spirituality, calmness

·         Green: Health, nature, rebirth, wellness

·         Orange: Cheerfulness, optimism, child-friendly vibes

Now, how to choose color combinations?

Monochromatic Colors

Monochromatic brand colors focus on one color and then a few variations of the same color. So, if you choose blue as your primary color, then your other brand colors would be very close to that blue on the color wheel.

Make sure that your monochromatic colors don’t “vibrate” when you look at them. Colors that are too close to one another are difficult to read and can cause eye strain.

Analogous Colors

Analogous brand colors include three colors side-by-side on the color wheel, for instance, orange, yellow, and green would be an analogous color combination since they are side-by-side on the wheel.

Play with the tone, tint, shade, and warmth of your colors to find the right combination for your brand. Canva is a great place to try out brand colors, as it will allow you to adjust the brightness and saturation of a color in the app.

Complementary Colors

Complementary brand colors sit opposite each other on the color wheel. Here are some simple complementary color combinations:

·         Blue and Orange

·         Red and Green

·         Purple and Yellow

·         Turquoise and Tangerine

·         Lime Green and Vibrant Violet

·         Lavender and Lemon Yellow

While the most obvious complementary color pairing might be black and white, avoid large swaths of light text on dark backgrounds. Sometimes this can make it too difficult to read your words.

Triadic Colors

Finally, triadic brand colors sit in a triangle orientation on the color wheel. Some variations include purple, orange, and green; blue, red, and green; or teal, purple, and bright yellow. A triadic combination adds interest while still keeping the palette cohesive and balanced.

However, selecting your brand colors is more than just choosing a few shades.

How Do You Want People To Feel?

Before finalizing your brand colors, ask yourself how you want ideal clients to feel when they visit you online. Refer to the list above to help you decide!

When you select stock photos based on your brand colors, use our color selection filter when browsing the Inspired Stock Shop library.

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