Introduction
Building a brand is a little like putting a jigsaw puzzle together, except the jigsaw puzzle is the size of London’s Trafalgar Square and all of the pieces look completely different!
There are a few easy ones to piece together, of course. Your name, your product, and your logo are all pieces you’d expect to see when building a brand. But others – like tone of voice, customer experience, and yes, even your color palette – can be a little less obvious, to the point where they’re often overlooked in the process of creating that bigger picture.
Color palette, specifically, is one of those subtle yet powerful elements that can quietly shape how your brand is perceived – long before someone even reads your tagline or tries your product. It isn’t just something to haphazardly pick because it “looks nice” or follows a certain trend. The color you choose – whether you intend it to or not – will speak volumes about your brand’s personality, values, and target audience, so it’s important to get it right, and make sure it’s one of the first pieces you fit into place.
Choosing a Brand Color Palette
When we say “color palette”, we’re talking about the intentional selection of colors that represent your brand across all touchpoints, including your logo, your website, your social media pages, your advertising, and more. This will typically include a primary color – the most recognisable hue associated with your company – one or two secondary colors – to add some versatility and depth – and an accent to balance everything out.
You might be thinking at this point: but I’m not an artist! And yes, it can be a little daunting to choose a set of colors that are going to have such a big impact on how your brand is perceived and understood! But just because the color palette is important, doesn’t mean you have to come up with the ideas all by yourself.
Using a color palette generator can be more than enough to get you started on the right track, especially if you use one that offers customisation options and works to intuitively put certain colors together – based on your brand’s needs and personality. These kinds of tools can take the guesswork out of color matching by suggesting combinations based on proven principles of color harmony and psychology, but it’s your job to actually use them and pay your color palette the attention it needs and deserves.
Why is Your Color Palette So Important
As for why you need to do this, it all comes back to first impressions and emotional impact. According to a recent study, people make subconscious judgments about a brand within 90 seconds, with a significant portion of their assessment being based on color. This makes color one of the fastest and most powerful ways to communicate with your audience, with the right color palette working to instantly convey your brand’s personality and, ultimately, influence purchasing decisions.
Let’s say you’re running a wellness company that focuses on selling natural skincare products made from natural ingredients. Your color palette should reflect this commitment to purity and nature with soft colors, such as light greens, earthy browns, or calming blues – colors that famously evoke feelings of freshness, tranquility, and sustainability. If a potential customer visits your website and sees these colors, they’ll immediately get the gist of what you’re putting out there and, subsequently, feel more confident that they can browse further.
Imagine, on the other hand, you’re running a wellness company and utilise darker, more vivid colors like deep reds or intense purples. While these colors are great for evoking luxury or passion, they would easily send mixed signals, making your brand feel less approachable or at odds with the natural, gentle image customers have come to expect.
As we mentioned before, the right color palette isn’t just about looking good, it’s about ensuring your visuals align perfectly with your brand’s story and the emotions you want to inspire. This is even more important considering the attention span of internet users today. In another study, it was reported that most people leave a website within the first few seconds. That gives you a minimal amount of time to show those people who you are, what you’re doing, and why they should trust you.
Conclusion
It’s like painting your house in such a way that people can tell what might be inside. You’ve only got a small window to give them that impression, and oftentimes, the colors associated with the emotions and virtues you’re trying to evoke are the best way to go. This doesn’t have to be difficult. But you have to recognise what a powerful tool your color palette really is. Once you’ve done this, you can fit it into that jigsaw and give your brand a significant boost in your quest to leave a lasting impression.
