Hey, my friends, I feel like a while has gone! I figured it would make sense to create a series of posts on how to create your brand color palette and pick your website font pairings now that I’ve launched my latest templates.
After talking with a few people, I realized that one of their greatest challenges is simply not being able to narrow down their color palette when diving into a template (or new brand).
So, today we are chatting all about it!
NOW, LET’S START WITH A FEW QUESTIONS:
The following questions are just a small preview of what kind of questions. I ask my branding customers, so this should help you get started on how to choose colors for your company.
What is your perfect color palette (4-6 colors) off the top of your head?
When we go on, I want to see how what you have in your mind is going to start aligning when we continue through the article. This is only for you to help.
What explains your brand in 3 adjectives?
Ex: sophisticated, ethereal, sleek, minimal, warm, comfortable, whimsical, cool, earthy, graceful, etc. (also feel free to google more).
What are the three qualities that characterize your brand?
Examples include stability, knowledge, reliability, warmth, love, ambition, balance, grace, etc.
If a season was your brand, what would it be?
See below and it can certainly be a combination of a few seasons!
If your brand could go shopping everywhere, where does it shop (unlimited budget)?
This will be for suits, office furniture, shoes, equipment for the office, etc. Dream of the consumer model here (not just where you like to shop). Ex: Crate & Barrel, Magnolia, Madewell, Kendra Scott, etc.
What descriptive words come to mind from the selection above as you look at certain brands?
Example: Magnolia sounds normal, textured, and organic. Madewell has a plain, minimal, neutral feel. Kendra Scott is audacious, imaginative, and playful. ETc ETc..
What seems like your dream client/customer?
Describe who these people are (career, location, clothing, hobbies, books they read, Instagrams they follow, style of their home, etc.).
When they see your brand and website, what do you expect your client/visitor/customer to feel?
This is your ‘business spirit’ and what kind of experience you want to introduce to people with your brand.
COLOR THEORY
Now that you’ve answered a few questions, let’s dig into the color principle. Color, as we know, will play a major role in emotions and shopping. You will note a number of red and yellow fast food franchises, brown and green are used for a lot of natural goods, and so on.
So when you read through the colors below with their good qualities), I propose that you start looking back on the 8 questions I asked earlier to see if the colors you originally selected with your color palette begin to match with the sense behind the color.
P.s. They don’t always have to fit perfectly, but with your adjectives, essence, and principles, they can begin to converge.
DO THE ORIGINAL 4-6 COLORS YOU WROTE MAKE SENSE?
From above, do the characteristics in each color begin to blend with the questions you previously wrote? Overall, we want to ensure that your adjectives, values, your season, and your brand essence begin to reflect the palette you choose (on how people feel when seeing your brand).
For instance, if my paint scheme were dark blue, subdued pale blue, light grey, charcoal, and white, but my season is summer and my adjectives are ‘Cheerful, Bold, Imaginative’ and Kate Spade, Jonathan Adler, and Kendra Scott were the shops I choose. With the color palette, it wouldn’t make any sense.
CREATE YOUR BRAND COLOR PALETTE
Now, knowing your FORMULA color palette is an incredibly critical aspect of finalizing and narrowing down your paint palette. This is effectively the formula I follow for designing a brand for consumers and how to use it correctly in their brand pieces, blogs, and so on.
P.s. They don’t always have to fit perfectly, but with your adjectives, essence, and principles, they can begin to converge.
1-2 MAIN COLORS | 1-3 NEUTRAL COLORS | 1-2 ACCENT COLORS
THE MAIN COLORS: These are simply the main colors the brand represents. When choosing a color for your site information, printing materials, etc., it should be your go-to. I’ve got a dusty grey/lavender for me, and then a charcoal grey. This is used on my web for backgrounds, for stationery bits, in my pictures, the color of my nails or shirt, etc.
THE NEUTRAL COLORS: These are the colors that tend to bring things together, these may be the text color, maybe it’s a soft cream that brings warmth to the brand, a pale gray, etc. Usually used for subtle element patterns/textures, it might be the kind of paper used for printing, maybe it is the type of filter used on photographs, etc.
THE ACCENT COLORS: These are the colors that the primary colors can match. I’ve got a dirty saffron color for me and a lighter pale lavender tone that I used rather sparingly, but it can be used for buttons (to accent), maybe it’s a color pop in my brand pictures, maybe it’s a heading text, etc. They should not be confused with nor complimented by the other colors.
THE BRAND STYLE WORKBOOK!
Yes, yes…if you are STILL struggling trying to figure out what your color palette and style are, you are in luck! I created a brand new workbook that will walk you through the exact steps I take for my clients when creating their color palettes and mood boards.
TO RECAP
Were you able to align your adjectives, essence, ideal client profile, values, etc. with your ‘brand season’, your color palette, and color theory?
Were you able to narrow down how each color will play a part in your brand (main/neutral/accent)? This should be a good start on how to create your brand color palette and hope I’ve helped.
What’s next…
Are you launching a new business or a rebrand? I cannot recommend Showit highly enough! So much so, that I use it myself AND I’ve even created some stylish templates for you too! Completely customize and make edits with your own brand colors and images. (yup, no developer needed!) And since I love a cohesive brand across all platforms, I’ve created matching social media templates and stationery too!
