8 Steps to Choosing Brand Colors You Love

If you’ve ever felt like you don’t know how to choose your brand colors, I’ve been there – and I’m a graphic designer!

If you’re wondering if you can choose them, because you don’t feel educated or confident or because you’re not a designer, you’re not the only one – trust me.

If you’re about to start a brand, or re-brand your current brand, or just want to know if your current brand colors are what they should be…  this is for you!

I’m going to teach you the high points of what you need to know not only about color, but about color and your branding, along with how to decide on your color palette all on your own.

Get ready for a crash course on color theory and a deep dive into 3 main color categories you absolutely need (and CAN) choose for your brand.

Are you needing help with your brand colors and style guide? I’ve got you! Click here to create a style guide with me! (No fancy software or design experience needed, I show you my process and you can do it yourself for free!) Get yours >>Learn how here!<<

Step 01: Crash Course on Color Theory

Colors definitely have meaning. If you’re choosing them for your brand, you’re probably wondering if they are the right ones for what you do, and for the audience you want to attract. And let’s be honest, you also really, really want them to be colors you like, too. Here’s what I’ve learned over the years: No one picks colors for their brand that they absolutely hate, but they do sometimes pick colors that may not resonate or connect or convey as intended.

Purchasing intent is greatly affected by colors due to their effect on how a brand is perceived; colors influence how customers view the “personality” of the brand in question.

helpscout.com

You’re probably thinking, “does color really have this kind of power?” And, yes, it’s been proven over and over again that it does. If you want to attract a woman that loves to grow flowers and create arrangements with her hands, she has a group of colors that speak to her most. If you’re trying to get the attention of a guy that enjoys running and making smoothies for breakfast, he also has a color palette that he’s drawn to.

Of course, people are different, and I’m a big believer that statistics and data can be useful, but they can swing one way or the other or be completely different based on the individual – I know this from personal experience.

Bottom line, you’re going to want to choose brand colors that attract the kind of people you want to work with or buy from you, and you’re going to want to stand out.

Before you go any further on your color journey, check out these resources on color theory and the meaning of color:

• A Beginner’s Guide to Color Theory (designer or not, this is for you)
• Color Meanings and the Art of Using Color Symbolism
• The Psychology of Colors Pinterest Pin

Remember, don’t get overwhelmed. Just skim, take note, maybe repeat, and move on to Step Number 2…

Step 02: Pull From Your Brand Messaging

If you have your brand vision, values, tagline, etc. formed, pull those out. If not, just start by answering this simple question: What do you want your customers to walk away feeling when they’ve encountered your product, service, or have worked with you in any way?

Pick 3 words that describe what your brand is or what you want it to be – not physically what you do, but the feeling you want people to have when they buy from you, like confidence, clarity, or creativity.

Jot down your ideas, and keep them next to you as you go through this process.

Step 03: Gather Inspiration

Using your knowledge of color theory, your 3 words, and brand messaging notes (or brand tagline and messaging, etc.), gather your own color inspiration. What do you like, what colors speak to your brand and what you want it to convey?

1. Create a Pinterest board like mine or even just a folder of 10-15 color palettes/images to start imagining your own brand colors. Just choose ones you like, these are just to get ideas!
2. Review them. Do you notice any similarities in color choices in these palettes you’re picking? Are they mainly bright or muted? Are they mostly green or orange? This will tell you what you gravitate towards and give you a good idea of what colors you’re going to like for your brand. 
3. Now, pick 10-15 more images and intentionally choose colors based on your knowledge of color theory, the feeling you want your brand to convey, and your brand messaging.
4. Review again, and look for the similarities in all 20-30 images you have.
5. Drag and drop the ones you notice are similar into a folder, or make notes on your Pins of the colors you keep coming back to.

Step 04: Competitor Analysis

After you gather your own inspiration, but before you firmly decide on your color palette, I encourage you to do some research on your competitors.

You don’t want to copy your competitor or choose colors that are too similar to what they are already using.

You want to stand out in the sea of whatever it is you’re offering.

That’s not to say you can’t use blue if they are using blue, but knowing your competitors branding will help you clarify your own color direction. Take notes of the colors they use in their logo, website, and social media.

Step 05: Choose Your First Color

If you’ve completed the steps above, I’m confident you have a grasp on your color situation and can begin picking your color palette for your brand. In all, plan to pick 2-6 colors, but no more and no less. I’m sure you’re asking why, so here’s the real-real:

• You want at least 2 so you have some variety.
• In my book, 3-4 colors are ideal.
• Any more than 6 will make your brand real-real… too much. Trust me on this one, less is more!

Now, go back to your Pinterest boards and/or images in the folder on your desktop – and choose one.

Just one. Pick the one that you love the most, that speaks to you the most, or better yet, pick the one that – after alllll of that color theory and research and deep thinking you did previously – you feel best suits your brand and the audience you want to attract. Just choose one, you can always change your mind later.

Once you have one color chosen, you’re well on your way.

I honestly think choosing the first one is the hardest part of the whole brand palette-picking process. Don’t worry about assigning a name (primary color, secondary color, etc.) to your color choices just yet. There’s a reason for this, I promise, just keep reading!

A brand “helps your perfect customer find you and instantly know – without a doubt – that they belong in your world.”

Amy Porterfield

Step 06: Choose Your Second Color And Beyond

With that first color choice in hand, head over to google, or Pinterest, or my personal favorite, coolors.co. Coolors is great way to explore color combinations and help you choose ones that go well together. It’s a free app (with paid plans, too) that I use CONSTANTLY. You can start from scratch and have it help you choose colors based on your preferences, or you can start with one color, like I’m suggesting here, and have it help you decide color combinations that compliment your first choice. Here’s what it looks like:

Using Coolors (not an ad, I just love it!) or by pulling up a color wheel or color chart, find 2-5 colors that “go with” your first color choice. You’re welcome to choose more than 2 colors, but no more than 6 total for a really consistent brand. And even then, 4 of the 6 should be less bold, leaving 1 or 2 options for a bolder choice – see below for why!

I don’t want to get too into the weeds on this, but you can accomplish this step through finding complimentary colors of your first choice, or using another method such as one of the ones listed below (click those three dots located at top middle within Coolors to see these options):

Like I said before, choosing your color palette can be intimidating, hard, and overwhelming, but really the best tip I have is to just start. You can change your mind later, and if it helps, you can also grab a few extra color choices to narrow down after you’ve had some time to think!

Step 07: The 60/30/10 Color Rule

For this next step, we’ll use the 60/30/10 Color Rule – I know it’s used a lot in interior design, and I’m sure I’m not the only one that has adopted it for branding, but it really does work! This rule just means that most (60%) of the time you’re using your Primary Color, 30% of the time your Secondary Color, and 10% of the time your Call To Action (CTA) Color.

Side note, in case you were curious: A Call To Action (or CTA) is just a term used in marketing for when you’re asking someone to do something – like download a freebie or purchase a product or book a call. It’s usually presented on your website as a colored button, and gives some sort of direction like “start here” or “buy now”.

Your CTA color is the one you use most sparingly of all of your colors.

This is because you want it to stand out, so people notice, and don’t just skip over it.

If you have one color you’re using for everything, your CTA isn’t really going to stand out. Oftentimes, your CTA color is the bright one, the one that gets the most attention in your palette – but this isn’t necessarily always the case.

For example, if you have mostly gray and navy with some bright pink in your palette, pink would be your Call To Action (CTA) Color – and pink just so happens to be the boldest and brightest.

However, if you plan to use mostly gray and bright pink with some navy, then navy is going to be your CTA. Even though navy is not necessarily the brightest color in that particular palette, it will stand out more in the sea of gray and bright pink you’re using.

This is how this 60/30/10 Color Rule comes into play. You really want your CTA Color to stand out, and be used only 10% of the time so that when you do use it, it gets noticed. It’s this whole thing with color and the eye catching it. Here are some examples of how the 60/30/10 Color Rule could be put into action using the same color palette:

The fastest way I learn is by seeing examples, so I’ll throw some more down here to give you a better idea of what I’m talking about. These aren’t mine – all credit to the makers – they are just good examples of uses of the brand color palette, specifically the CTA color that stands out:

Example 1:

Example 2:

Example 3:

Step 08: Assign Your Colors A Category

This is the last step, I promise! I said you could choose your color palette, but I didn’t say it would be a short process! Now, we’re going to assign each of your colors a color category within your brand.

There are 3 main brand color categories I want you to focus on for this step:

#1. Primary Color
#2. Secondary Color
#3. Call To Action (CTA) Color.

For the sake of this exercise, let’s say you have 3 final brand colors chosen, one to assign to each category.

To start, you’ll want to choose which color will be your Call To Action color.

We’ve talked extensively about that already, so refer above when you need more info about your CTA Color.

Once you’ve assigned your CTA color, move on to assign your remaining two colors as your Secondary and Primary options.

There are no hard rules to this, but from experience, I can tell you that more than likely these are going to be your warm colors, or your more neutral colors, or those easiest on the eye to see a lot of. This isn’t always the case, but a lot of the time.

If you think about it, when you look at orange next to green, you’re going to be able to look at green more than orange, because green is just easier on the eyes. In this case, I would assign green as my Primary Color and Orange as my Secondary.

To help you visualize, here is an example of a 3-color palette that includes an eye-catching CTA color, a slightly bold Secondary Color, and a more subdued Primary Color:

Here’s another example of what a brand might do using this Color Rule:

You don’t need to be a designer to pick your brand colors and here’s why…

You can:

• Learn about color theory + implement those strategies
• Gather inspiration + determine what you’re drawn to + pull from your brand messaging
• Observe your competitors + decide how you can be different
• Use the above tips and tools to choose your color palette + implement the 80/20/10 rule + assign each a category
• Always change your mind + revamp later!

Here’s a little secret:

9 times out of 10, I as the designer do not choose colors for a client’s logo or brand.

They usually come to me with colors in mind, and I help them hone in on the exact shades, tints, and pairings of colors to use to complete their palette.

If you’re ready to get started, take it to the top and follow these steps starting at number 1.

This info is really all you need to go through the process of choosing your brand colors! Once you’ve gone through these steps, I’m confident you’ll have a palette you can plug into your Style Guide.

Need help with other elements of your style guide? I’ve got a Cheat Sheet for you that goes along with this previous post about Style Guides.

Want to know what a style guide needs + 3 ways to create one the DIY way? Click here.

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