How to pick the right Colour and Font for your brand

Think of your favourite brands and see what comes to your mind when you think of those brands – Coca Cola red colour and its unique font, Facebook blue colour, Instagram font, Google colours and its font, Cadbury purple colour and the cursive font. The point I am trying to make is that colours and fonts play a big role in creating an imagery for the brand. This is because visuals are processed 60,000 times faster by the human brain than text alone and 90% of information transmitted to our brain is visual.

The visual appeal of any form of communication by your brand is very important, be it your logo, packaging or an advertisement. While I won’t disagree to the fact that content is still the king but Fonts and Colours when chosen correctly can convey multiple complicated messages, ideas and values in the simplest form possible. Right selection of fonts and colours also help the brand to create a distinct identity for itself.

The font you choose tells a lot about your brand than you imagine. It can impart different feelings or ideas and can even influence how people feel about your message. Depending on the font that consumers see, they start to form a perception about the brand because of the visual appeal that it creates. The fact that large corporations simply use typography alone in their logos highlights the impact fonts can have. The typography that you choose should convey the desired imagery and values of the brand.

·Serif fonts- Serif fonts are the original font style and hence we generally perceive them as classic, traditional, and trustworthy. Examples - Vogue, Time Magazine.

·Sans Serif fonts- Sans-serif fonts are much simpler in form than serif fonts, so they tend to evoke a sense of minimalism, modernity and cleanliness. Examples– Facebook, Google, Spotify

·Slab Serif Fonts – Slab serif fonts feature larger, blockier serifs. And so, they look a bit more rugged, bold, and quirky than traditional serif fonts. Examples- Volvo, Sony, Honda

· Script Fonts - Script fonts are designed to imitate cursive handwriting, have character strokes that connect one letter to the next. Just as everyone’s handwriting looks very unique, each script font feels very distinctive. Examples - Coca Cola, Cadbury, Ford, Instagram

·Decorative fonts – Decorative fonts are stylized, distinctive, and dramatic. They include any font that uses unique shapes, forms, or proportions for a highly stylized look. Examples - Lego, Disney, and IBM 

Apart from typography, which font traits you choose is also equally important as different traits create different impressions. It is yet another form of non-verbal messaging you are sending out about your brand. Let’s look at some of the font traits that can help to convey what your brand stands for:

·Light fonts vs. Bold fonts – Light fonts convey beauty and Feminity while Bold fonts convey power and masculinity

·Lower case fonts vs. upper case fonts - Lowercase Conveys Compassion and Innovation while Uppercase Conveys Power and Strength

·Condensed fonts vs. Extended fonts - Condensed Fonts Convey Tightness and Precision while Extended Fonts Convey Spaciousness and Relaxation

·Short Fonts vs. Tall fonts - Short Fonts Convey Heaviness and Stability while Tall Fonts Convey Lightness and Aspiration

·Slanted fonts vs. straight fonts - Slanted Fonts Convey Movement while Straight Fonts Convey Stability

·Separated fonts vs. connected fonts - Separated Letters Convey Fragmentation and Individuality while Connected Letters Convey Unity and Collectivism

·Simple Fonts vs. Complex Fonts - Simple Fonts Convey Directness while Complex Fonts Convey Uniqueness

Spacing is another tool to express specific messages. Minimal spacing can be used to show linkage, tight schedule, punctuality, strictness, etc. while more spacing can be used to express coolness, luxuriousness, richness, etc. 

Just like fonts help add to the imagery of your text content, colour has a big impact on the psychology of your text as well. Color is one of the most important decisions to make in differentiating your brand while, at the same time, making the right first impression and reinforce a brand’s identity. It not only helps call attention to your text, also evoke emotions. Here are the different feelings that colours can make your audience feel.

• Blue: Trust and Security, Calmness, Peace & Honesty.
• Green: Money, growth, fertility, freshness, healing.
• Yellow: Bright, Energy, Happy, Optimistic, Youthful, Fun, Humour
• Orange: Courage, Cheerful, Confidence, friendliness
• Red: Love, Energy, Power, Strength, Youthful, Bold, Passion
• Pink: Feminine, Romantic, Healthy, Happy, compassion, Sweet, Playful
• Purple: Royalty, Nobility, Spirituality, Luxury, Soothing
• Brown: Friendly, Earth, Outdoors, Longevity, conservative
• White: Goodness, Purity, Fresh, Innocence, Clean
• Black: Protection, Classy, Formality
• Grey: Security, Reliability, Intelligence, Solid
• Silver: Glamourous, High Tech, Graceful, Sleek
• Gold: Wealth, Prosperity, Valuable, Traditional

Now you know why Blue is the most used colour by banks, why Green is mostly used for health and wellbeing, why Coca Cola is Red while Cadbury is purple and why Pink is used for feminine brands.

Another important concept in colours is colour temperature which categorizes colours into Warm colours and Cool colours. Warm colors such as red, yellow, and orange; evoke warmth because they remind us of things like the sun or fire. Cool colors — such as blue, green, and purple on the other hand evoke a cool feeling because they remind us of things like water or grass. We are able to perceive more variation in warm colors than the cool ranges. The reason for this is that two-thirds of the eye’s cones interpret the longer wavelengths of lights such as reds, yellows and oranges. What does it mean for brands? You should choose whether they are going to use warm colours or cool colours for variants in a particular range depending on what values you want to convey for the brand and not have a mix of warm and cool colours in the same range except in cases where variants have specific functional benefits like warming or cooling.

Font type, font size, contrast and spacing are all part of a delicate balancing act that, when done right (in conjunction with color), will create a distinct identity for your brand and will tell the consumers “What do you stand for?”