Colour psychology: Choosing the right palette for your brand

It’s a fact – your clients respond to colour.

92% 85% 90%of consumers prioritise

visual factors when purchasing products1.

of consumers believe colour is the biggest visual motivator when choosing

a particular product1.

of snap judgements made about products can be based on colour alone

(depending on the product)2.

Colours are stereotyped ...

Purchase decisions are made not with logic, but emotion. Colour psychology dictates that different colours make us feel different things.

While this always depends on the individual’s personal experiences with the colour, there are some general emotional ties to colour that are almost universal.

TRUST

CONFIDENCE

BALANCE

PEACEFULNESS

EXCITEMENT

OPTIMISM

CREATIVITY

... but the golden rule is context.

Don’t let these conventional colour associations dictate your palette without considering the context.

For example, brown is stereotypically associated with ruggedness, but when

Cadbury use it in their colour palette it’s associated with chocolate.

Six steps to finding your brand’s palette

Define how you want to be perceived

Create a physical mood board

Choose your colour ratio

Rather than choosing the palette for your brand based on colours you find

visually pleasing, start with a mind map of words that describe how you

want people to perceive your brand.

With this research complete, source images that reflect

how you want your brand to be viewed and see if there

are any noticeable colour patterns. This exercise will inspire the next step…

Once you have chosen your colour palette, decide which

will take the most prominence. Many designers abide by the

60-30-10 rule.

This suggests that you use the ratio of 60%, 30% and 10% for distribution of your three colours.

1

3

5

2

4

6

C R E A T I V E

R E L I A B L E

A F F O R D A B L E

T R U S T W O R T H Y

P I O N E E R I N G

Y O U R

C O M P A N Y

603010

Analyse your competitionResearch the logos, websites and colour schemes other

brands in your industry use and how they make people feel.

To get you started, look at the trends in these big-business colour schemes and how they correlate with our preconceived emotional

understanding of the colour.

BLUE Trust, intelligence, strength and progress.

• Facebook• IBM

GREY/BLACK Calm and neutral.

• Apple• Nike

ORANGE Friendly, cheerful and confident.

• Nickelodeon• Bankwest

GREEN Growing, healthy and peaceful.

• Starbucks• Animal Planet

RED Excited, bold, youthful and energetic.

• Coca-Cola• Target

YELLOW Warm, optimistic and happy.

• McDonald’s • Yellow Pages

PURPLE Creative and imaginative.

• Hallmark• Cadbury

M

Create a digital mood boardNow you should have a long list of colours in front of you. Use a colour-picker tool, such as ColorPic3, and extract the hex code of these colours to start placing combinations together. Aim for a palette of three colours.

#FED200 #212121

#0062B0

Take time and testDon’t make a quick decision. Put your chosen colour scheme through a consumer research panel to find out whether it works as intended.

If you don’t have the budget for this, ask employees, friends and family for their honest opinion before you sign off.

1 http://www.colorcom.com/research/why-color-matters 2 http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/3\abs/10.1108/002517406106733323 http://www.iconico.com/colorpic/

9 810 9

With your colour scheme signed and sealed, it’s time to deliver.

Start weaving it through all your design and communication assets

– including logos, packaging, websites, business cards and any

branded goods – to keep your message clear and consistent.

Contact Snap for all your design needs.