Guest Post - Colour Psychology and Branding: What You Need To Know

1. It takes the subconscious up to 90 seconds to make a judgement about an environment or product and 62-90% of that judgement is driven by colour
2. Societies have ‘favourite’ colours. In 2015, the UK’s favourite colour was blue 
3. The meaning a colour has is culturally specific. Red can mean danger, love, luck or beauty, depending on the nationality of the person you ask
4. People prefer to read information that’s presented in colour and understand more of what’s written when it is

So we know it’s important to use colour. But is it enough to just pick some you like or take cues from others in your industry? Not really.

Your brand colours have to strike a chord with your specific audience. Which brings me to…

Whether you’re just starting out, in the middle of a rebrand, or creating new assets for an existing brand, you need to ask yourself some questions. 

To uncover the colours that will work for your audience, ask yourself, is my brand more…

• Masculine or feminine?
• Youthful or mature?
• Loud or meek?
• Luxurious or affordable?
• Playful or serious?
• Rugged or sophisticated?
• Modern or traditional?

These questions define your brand’s personality. And it’s this that should drive your colour choices. 

Your answers to the above will sit somewhere on a scale between more or less of each trait. The extremes of which correspond to specific colours. For example, black represents luxury and yellow affordability. We’ve highlighted these extremes in the infographic below.

Use it as a reference to help you create your colour palette.

Once you have an idea of how your brand’s personality translates into colour, use a tool like Adobe Color to find palettes that follow well-established matching rules, or browse potential palettes in Colors.Co.