We all have emotional responses to colors. However, some might have a much deeper association with a color than others. What’s your favorite color and why? A lot of brands use the power of color to emphasize their message and create a memorable experience for customers. Colors can also be used to express their mood. This is called color psychology and it can complement the company’s brand in order to create a certain impression among consumers.
The logo color in your branding is important. It can make or break your brand, depending on if you choose to use light or dark colors. There are many factors that contribute to the success of a logo, but it all starts with color.
What is Color Psychology
Color psychology studies how our experiences are affected by color. For example, you might feel pumped up when looking at yellow, or get a feeling of optimism. Target’s bright red color might make you feel passionate, which is why it may have been chosen as the primary color of the company. Another good example is Whole Foods, which strategically chose green to associate with healthy foods and red for hot & meat. These brands chose colors that not only looked good, but also had associations with their message or tone.
There are too many theories about color and its effects to actually count, but here’s a brief overview of the most popular ways colors can be used to help create a positive mood or response.
Blue: Promotes trust, security, inspiration and peace. It represents power and stability; it is also associated with distance and the sky. This color is soothing, which makes it perfect for healing environments as well as bedrooms and offices. Green: It symbolizes nature, harmony, growth and strength.
Green is a popular color among companies that sell organic products since green signifies life, fertility and health; online casino usa top online casinos use a lot of green in branding because this color relates to money and high rollers.
Red: Is commonly associated with danger or bad things (think stop signs), but red also symbolizes passion and energy so it’s popular for selling products people associate with being excited about want to achieve something such as physical fitness or running a marathon to raise money/awareness for cancer research, hot or meat based food.
So before picking colors for your brand, you might want to take a second and ask yourself what your brand or business is offering and how you want your followers or customers to feel when they think about your brand.
This may be a question to ask yourself before choosing a color for your brand. For example, do you want your customers to think about your brand when they experience laughter or excitement?
Popular Brands and How They Bring Color Into Their Logos
Fast food chains like McDonald’s, Burger King and Arby’s tend to use warm colors in their branding. And there is actually a reason behind that! Warm colors are bright and energetic, which can have psychological effects on people, making them come in or go out more often. They can also evoke appetite, while cool colors are less appetizing.
There’s something to be said about brands that integrate their marketing color scheme into the brand’s logo design, which is likely why many of today’s most popular companies have logos that are built around a dominant color and an already established brand image. For example, Google – the Internet search giant – has used the same contrasting background and font for both its logo and website since the late 1990s.
Heinz introduced purple and green ketchup about a decade ago and it was a disaster. Turns out people didn’t like the idea of purple ketchup so much – however, they corrected later and found perfect balance with them branding.
Cool colors are likely to be seen as more calming and so often will make people want to stay longer. A prime example of this is blue Facebook and Twitter.
This is an example of even if a certain colour looks great to you, does it make sense for your brand? For example, a wellness/ spa brand wouldn’t use super loud or bright colours because the idea is to promote calmness or serenity. So lighter colors would be better.
Some brands prefer to use black or white logos as they are elegant, luxurious and sophisticated colors. This can be to give other elements of the brand more attention.
Some brands stick to black or white for their logo, keeping it clean and classic, luxurious and sophisticated. Another reason for this elegant color selection is to let other parts of the brand shine. In fact, here at PLANOLY, we only ever use our logomark in either black or white in varying opacities for this reason. Another brand you may recognize that showcases black for its logo is The New York Times. The color selection works well for a brand that started as a printed newspaper.
How to Apply Color Theory to Your Branding and Logos
Most people believe that a logo is the most important component of your brand but there are many other factors that affect how consumers view your company. Color, for example, doesn’t just add to the aesthetic appeal of your branding; in many cases, it impacts which companies consumers are willing to do business with. Consider fashion as an example. A woman’s love for a designer’s collection might be affected by everything from both the fabric and the color used on a particular piece of clothing. What this means for businesses looking to create and hone their brands is that prioritising color theory can make all the difference between success and failure in the market. Passing up on this sort of thing should be unthinkable if you want to build a reputation among customers who will feel emotionally connected to whatever your products or services happen to be.
Sometimes the brand colors a company chooses might not stand out, especially if they use a color that is popular among similar brands.
When thinking about branding, take a look around first and conduct some visual research to find out what colors people often use. An example of a brave choice that paid off is lyft.
Not all brands use single-color logos. If you are building your color palette for your brand, don’t limit yourself if it has more than one color. There are plenty of options out there. Find out how to match these colors so they work together.
Try the Adobe Color website while you’re searching for a perfect color! You can find inspiration from others on the platform or experiment with the color wheel. You could go blue with your brand colors or you could be smart and pick the right shade to suit your needs. When creating brand, you need to be mindful of your audience and want they’d like to experience. That will come across in the content you use.
In conclusion, the color of your logo can have a significant impact on how your customers perceive your brand. When choosing the color of your logo, you should try to find a balance between what you feel best represents your brand while also considering how it will be perceived by others.
Here at ROI Centrix we take branding very seriously. For help gaining valuable insights to grow, conatct us today. Our team can provide you with a range of services.
