When creating marketing materials, from logo to website, colour is one of the most important decisions you’ll make in the design process. Some of the world’s most memorable colours in the marketing world are thanks to brands like Cadbury’s with their velvety purple and Coca-Cola’s bright red.

So, naturally, when it comes to deciding on a colour for your own brand you’ll want to make sure you’ll be recognisable as well as in-keeping with your industry. There is a lot of information available online, so here’s our 5 quick tips for choosing the right colour.

Understand your audience

This can actually be quite a tricky thing to do. Business owners might have an image in their mind of the typical customer, but the reality maybe quite different! Generally, a 70 year-old female vegetable gardener will react differently to an 18 year-old video-gamer. If you’re having trouble identifying your target audience try looking at your competitors’ customers. Once you have a better idea of WHO, you’ll be on the right path to knowing exactly what you want your brand to say about you.

Do consider colour psychology

There is a plethora of information online, so be sure to research the basics: what reaction does each colour evoke. Well recognised market and advertising studies show that people decide on something within the first 90 seconds of seeing it. Within that first 90 seconds, two thirds of their decision is influenced by their interpretation of colour. It is common knowledge that blue is a popular choice due to its calming and professional qualities, however, a less commonly known discovery is that orange is found to offer emotional strength in difficult times. It has been shown to assist recovery in grief using its optimistic and uplifting properties.

Be passionate

Choose a colour that you like. We realise this sounds obvious, but so many make the mistake of choosing a colour based on what they think others like and ignoring the fact that they themselves do not like it at all! Remember you will be looking at this colour more than any one of your clients, so pick a colour that you like and that inspires you!

Be creative 

Start from scratch and create your own colour palette. If you’re not confident to do this independently, there are a number of “colour palette creators” available online. Remember colours can end up looking very different in-print to on-screen; so be sure to take advice from whichever creative agency you’re using. Staying clear of having too many colours is advisable to avoid becoming unrecognisable. As they say, less is more, and in this case, it really can make the difference between a brand that comes across as complicated and a brand that is straight to the point and eye catching.

Stand out from the crowd

Pick a colour that is different to your main competitor. Research your competitors; and continue to get to know your target audience in more detail. It’s become even more important today, where there is so much choice for customers, to stand out from the crowd. Customers are faced with so much choice, help them justify why YOUR business is the right one to help them. Differentiating your product or service from others helps prevent your business being seen as the ‘me-too’ or copycat!

Despite these 5 top tips to help you get started with deciding on colours for brand, remember different people always interpret colours differently! It is really important not to overthink your decision, or ask too many people for their opinion. Like with all branches of creativity and design… There is no pleasing everyone.