What are the best practices for choosing a color palette for your brand identity?

1 Understand color theory

Before you start picking colors, you need to understand some basic principles of color theory. Color theory is the study of how colors interact, contrast, and harmonize with each other. It can help you create a balanced, cohesive, and appealing color scheme for your brand. The color wheel is a circular diagram that shows the relationship between primary, secondary, and tertiary colors and can be used to find complementary, analogous, triadic, or tetradic color combinations that work well together. The color temperature refers to how warm or cool a color is - warm colors like red, orange, and yellow tend to create a sense of energy; while cool colors like blue, green, and purple tend to create a sense of calmness. Additionally, the color value refers to how light or dark a color is; by adding white (tint), black (shade), or gray (tone) you can adjust the value of a color which can affect its mood, contrast, and readability.

2 Define your brand attributes

Once you have a basic understanding of color theory, it's important to define your brand attributes. These are the characteristics, qualities, and values that make your brand unique and memorable. They can help you communicate your brand identity to your target audience and stand out from competitors. To define your attributes, ask yourself questions such as: what is your brand mission, vision, and purpose? What are your brand values and personality traits? What are your goals and objectives? Who is your target audience and what are their needs, preferences, and pain points? How do you want them to feel and think about your brand?

4 Add supporting colors

After you have chosen your main color, you can add supporting colors to create a harmonious color palette. To do this, you can use the color wheel to find colors that are compatible with your main color, such as complementary, analogous, triadic, or tetradic schemes. Additionally, you can use the color temperature to find colors that are consistent with your main color. Furthermore, you can use the color value to find colors that are suitable for your main color, such as light or dark colors to create a contrast or a gradient effect. All of this will help you add variety, depth, and interest to your brand identity design.

5 Test your color palette

After you have added supporting colors, you can test your color palette to ensure it is effective, attractive, and accessible for your brand identity design. To do so, you can use mockups and prototypes to see how your colors look on different media and platforms. Additionally, color psychology can help you understand how your colors affect the emotions and perceptions of your audience. Lastly, accessibility guidelines can help you meet the standards and requirements for web design and user experience. Online tools or software can be used to create realistic mockups, research the meanings of different colors, and check the contrast ratio, color blindness, and readability of your colors.

6 Refine your color palette

After you have tested your color palette, you can refine it to optimize for your brand identity design. To do so, use the color wheel to tweak the hue, saturation, and brightness of your colors. You can also use the color temperature to adjust the warmth or coolness of your colors, or the color value to change the lightness or darkness of your colors. All of these adjustments and improvements can be made using online tools or software to fine-tune the appearance, harmony, mood, tone, contrast, and readability of your colors.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?