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How Many Colours Should Be In A Logo?
Building a brand, like building a house or furniture, requires understanding how to utilise all of the materials at your hands, which is exactly what we’ll go through today.
We’ll go into what you need to talk about branding colours in this post. We’ll discuss ideas from the arts, such as colour theory and art history, and combine them with best practises for branding, promotion, and what an organisation wants to succeed in today’s business world. But first and foremost, you must understand why branding colours are so essential.
Why are branding colours important?
What comes to mind when you hear the term “love”? Both optimistic or negative, it almost certainly elicits a greater emotional reaction than the word “bike rack.”
Emotions are powerful and (whether we like it or not) influence our decisions. You want to develop a deep emotional bond with your consumers as a company. The challenge is that you can’t tell your company’s whole life storey through a logo or storefront—but branding colours offer a direct path to the customers’ hearts.
Learn colour theory through our online graphic design course at Blue Sky Graphics. Colours such as red and blue evoke various human reactions in the same way that the words “love” and “bike rack” elicit separate feelings. Perhaps more intriguing, the same colours appear to elicit identical reactions in various people; for example, yellow elicits similar feelings in people from Montana to Timbuktu. This applies to actual colour tones as well, but deep dark blue and light sky blue can have different results.
Colour philosophy is more than just “pink is a pretty colour.” Psychologists attribute that to the development of humans; associations with certain colours formed over time as a result of years of associating them with certain items. A blood red, for example, alerts citizens to the presence of threat nearby; mud and rotting food browns, on the other hand, are unappealing.
This isn’t always true—after all, farmers (and chocolate lovers) can love the colour brown, and humans just recently developed to see the colour blue—but when millions of years of biological conditioning are considered, it’s simple to see how affiliations of colours go beyond simple choice… something mankind has understood for quite some time.
A set of coloured money from across the globe.
Not to mention the ethnic associations. The way Americans equate green with money is a good illustration, since the currency we use every day is green. People from other nations could not recognise the word “spending greens,” but a business “going green” can be understood by nearly all.
And the most cynical businessman cannot deny the psychology behind the psychological benefits of marking shades. With mountains of proof, the question isn’t whether brand colours work, but rather how do I make brand colours work for me.
The use of marking shades
The use of the same colour repeatedly will help to raise brand recognition. What was the last time you noticed a non-red Coke can or a Twitter bird that wasn’t sky blue? Colours become part of a logo after adequate publicity, so you want to promote this affiliation by using the brand colours regularly.
By utilising the same colours in all of your business endeavours, you reinforce the brand’s identification with those colours and, as a result, increase overall brand exposure.
What this all boils down to, at least in terms of branding, is that you must consciously choose the branding colours because they can have a significant impact on your brand name. Pink may be your dream hue, but it may be the worst for your company objectives. But, before you even consider which colours you want to reflect you, you must first determine the perfect brand personality.
How to Establish The Brand’s Identity
Target, who wants their brand personality to be energetic, young, and loud, has done well with red. Red, on the other hand, does not fit with a business like Casper mattresses, which cultivates a brand personality that is peaceful and comfortable, denoting a decent night’s sleep.
Choosing the logo colours is simple if you realise what you’re trying to say. Determining the brand personality is one of the first phases towards creating a brand. Essentially, you want to see your business in the same way as you might see a person: who are they? What is important to them?
How do you know which colours would fit well after you’ve determined the brand’s style goals? It all begins by understanding the emotional connections of each hue.
What do the various branding colours mean?
We’ve covered the abstracts for branding colours, now let’s get into the meat and potatoes with colour definitions (or at least some guidelines). Here’s a rundown of logo colour definitions and how various branding colours can affect people:
Red — The colour red represents passion, excitement, and anger. It may denote significance and order focus.
Orange — The colour orange represents playfulness, energy, and friendliness. It is energising and energising.
Yellow evokes enthusiasm, youth, and hope, but it may also be attention-grabbing or inexpensive.
Green evokes peace, development, progress, and a sense of relation to nature.
Light Blue — A light blue exudes calm, confidence, and transparency. It may also reflect innocence.
Dark Blue — The colour dark blue represents professionalism, stability, and formality. It is mature and reliable.
Purple — The colour purple may represent royalty, ingenuity, and luxury.
Pink represents femininity, beauty, and purity. It varies from contemporary to opulent.
Brown — Brown provides a gritty, earthy, vintage look or atmosphere.
White evokes purity, virtue, fitness, and simplicity. It can vary from low-cost to high-end.
Gray — Gray represents neutrality. It may have a subdued, classic, extreme, enigmatic, or mature appearance.
Black elicits a powerful, elegant, edgy, luxurious, and urban feeling.
Keep in mind that the impact of the branding colours is determined by the type and design in which they are used, as well as the colour variations you use. This is an abbreviated version; our relationship with colour is far more complex than this—for example, too much yellow can potentially induce anxiety. If you want to learn more about how colour affects feelings and behaviour, check out our comprehensive guide.
