Ditching Beige: How to choose a bold and vibrant colour palette
In a world full of beige brands who are all playing it safe, there is an opportunity for your business to stand out and make a lasting impression by choosing a bold and colourful brand palette.
Working with clients on their brand design I often see that they struggle with the uncertainty of which colours go together, the temptation to use too many hues, or the fear of not having enough contrast. If you’re nodding your head reading this, know you are not alone.
The good news is, bold and vibrant branding is within your reach, and it holds the key to better recognition, memorability, and a display of confidence in the business you’ve built.
In this blog post, I’ll guide you through the process of finding the colours that are just right for your business. No more second-guessing or settling for blandness- you’ll learn how to embrace bold colour choices that reflect your brand’s true identity. From understanding colour psychology to achieving a perfectly balanced palette, I’ve got you covered.
Choosing a vibrant colour palette for your business goes beyond aesthetics. It’s a strategic move that enhances your brand’s recognisability and memorability. But above all a bold colour palette makes your audience feel the things you want them to feel before they even read a word you’ve written and it attracts your ideal client! It shows that you are confident and proud of the business you’ve built.
But let's address the elephant in the room. What's holding you back from infusing vibrant colours into your brand? Whether it’s the fear of not sticking to industry standards or the uncertainty of where to start, it’s time to break free from the beige mould.
Vibrant colours are a powerful tool to express your brand’s personality and set it apart from the monotony of the mainstream.
In a sea of beige brands who are following the status quo, it’s time for you to take a stand! Bold vibrant branding is not only reserved for the outsiders; it’s a choice that every business can make. This blog post is your invitation to embrace your true self through your brand’s colour palette. Let’s change the misconception that colourful equals unprofessional and show the authenticity that comes with confidently owning your brand’s visual identity.
Get ready to ditch beige and embark on a journey to discover the bold colours that will define your brand and leave a lasting impression on your ideal customer!
Know your brand identity
Before selecting colours, you have to define your brand identity. Consider the personality, values, and mission of your business. Are you aiming for a modern and sophisticated look, or is your brand more playful and creative? Understanding your brand at its core will guide your colour choices.
It’s all fine and well to pick colours that YOU like, but are they aligned with your business? Colours will evoke emotions in your audience- it is important to find out if these emotions align with your brand identity. But before you do that, you will need to know WHAT it is you want your customers to feel.
There are some great questions to ask to figure out your brand story.
Make sure that you know what your brand mission, personality and values are.
As part of your brand identity you should also know WHO you’re trying to attract. I’m sure that you’ve heard the term “niching down” a gazillion times and although you might feel that this will narrow your audience, it will make it so much easier to create a colour palette (and brand look) that attract the right clients to you.
I’m not talking about creating an avatar or honing in on a specific industry. But you should know who it is that you want to attract and what their common traits are.
What do they like to see and what do they relate to?
What makes their heart sing?
What do are their values?
Knowing this will help you figure out which colours to use and which ones to avoid.
As I mentioned earlier we need to know what you want your customers to feel when they see your branding, but also what they feel after working with you. Do you want them to feel confident, clear and a sense of ease or are you conveying a feeling of fun, energy and creativity?
Here’s a little exercise for you: brainstorm all the feelings you want your audience to
have from working with you- and then to narrow it down to 3. We want to stay focused and adding too many feelings will not create the colour palette that attracts your dream clients but will be too generic and fade away in the crowd.
Colour psychology
I LOVE colour psychology, something I write about in my monthly Creative Ramblings. It is so important when it comes to choosing the right colours for your branding.
Knowing the 3 emotions we want our ideal customer to feel, go and explore which colours are related to these emotions. Each colour will support a different value or emotion- so first find out which 2 or 3 colours will communicate your core message.
There are so many resources out there that tell you more about colour psychology, that I won't dive any further into that in this blog post.
Look for colour inspiration
Once you've chosen your main colour(s), the next thing to do is to look for colour inspiration. Focus your search for your bold brand palette on images that you like with these colours in them.
I love to use Pinterest for this- there are so many inspiring images, fonts, and illustrations there- I could pin all day long! When looking for inspiration I don’t necessarily look at other branding images but also look at paintings, illustrations or lifestyle imagery.
Choose images that you are instinctively drawn to.
Pin them all to your board and take a break.
When you come back to it, go over each image and look at it critically, what does it say about your brand? Relate back to the 3 emotions you want your brand to provoke and
ask yourself if the image conveys that message. If it does, then you keep it. If the only reason you can think of is that you just like it, it has to go.
Why? Because if we keep the images that you ‘only’ like and that are not related to your brand identity there is a big chance that before you even chose your final colours you will have changed your mind because you found another image that you like the look of better.
Going through your inspiration like this will make that your colour palette (and brand look) will come out authentically you!
Seasonal colour theory
Different from the colour psychology I spoke about earlier, seasonal colour theory doesn’t look at the feeling of a specific colour but rather at the personality of your brand. All of your colours, any shapes, fonts, textures, and other attributes that will form your brand look.
When looking at it purely from a colour perspective, every colour can be in each season. But each season has different tones and shades of these colours. By choosing the right tones and shades your brand can feel happy, inspired and uplifted or moody and dramatic, using the exact same colours.
Illustrations for a female fitness brand, using a bright, light and clear colour palette.
The same as in nature, the seasons in the brand personality theory are spring, summer, autumn and winter. Each has its own characteristics and personality.
If you are after a bold and vibrant colour palette, your business is most likely a spring personality. But below you will find a short description of each season:
Spring Personality
Spring personalities are youthful, creative and inspirational. They are infectiously enthusiastic, very people focused and big on fun!
The spring colour palette is warm, bright, light and fresh. Which means the colours are higher in saturation than in the other personality types and have a yellow undertone giving them their warmth.
As you can see these are all bold and bright- adding a playfulness and friendliness to your brand.
Summer Personality
Summer personalities are graceful, elegant with a timeless feel. They are also efficient, productive and quality plays a big part too.
The summer colour palette is cool, delicate and muted. The colours are more muted with a touch of grey in them. It’s giving the personality a romantic and dreamy feel- this is why businesses in the wedding industry often have a summer colour palette.
Autumn Personality
Autumn personalities are cosy, warm and earthy. This probably doesn’t surprise you as this is exactly what you would think of when you think of autumn.
The autumn colour palette is warm, intense yet muted. The colour is saturated but instead of a light and bright hue, there is a darker, warmer undertone. Giving it that cosy feeling.
Winter Personality
Winter personalities are all about drama, luxury and being ambitious. Industries that are often winter types are technology companies, financial services and luxury goods (like jewellery), often with an understated and unfussy brand look.
The winter colour palette is cool, strong and intense. The colours have a blue undertone giving it that cool vibe. Winter is the only season which uses pure black and white.
As you can see - all colours exist in each season. So as you have earlier identified which colours work for your brand- by looking at the colour psychology- you then choose the tone of those colours that fit within your season.
Creating a harmonious colour palette has less to do with the hue of the colour (red, blue or green) but more with matching up the saturation and the lightness. You are more likely to create a distorted palette by using a muted orange with a strong, intense green.
Creating your colour palette with confidence
Now comes the fun part- pulling together your bold colour palette. Seeing as you are reading this blog post I’m fairly certain you are hoping for a bold and vibrant colour palette- most likely linked to the spring season, so that is what I’ll be focussing on here.
If you’ve got physical colour swatches this would be great, definitely something I prefer to start off with (I use swatchos cards). But you can also use some online tools. My favourites are Coolors.co or Adobe Color cc.
Start with the colours that work for your brand- and look for a light, bright, clear version of them. They should also have a softness to them, so don’t go for the neon, overly saturated colours. The colour should have an element of white in them and feel light and inspirational.
Once you have a couple of colours start putting them next to each other- creating different colour palettes of 4-6 colours. When you have 3 or 4 that you love, look at them all critically and look for the colours that don’t fit in. Maybe you chose one that is too muted or has a cool undertone- remember for the spring palette we are looking for warm, bright and clear colours.
Step away and come back to this as that will make you spot the odd one out more easily.
Now that you have refined your palettes, you probably have a favourite. But if you don’t go back to your 3 emotions and look at which palette works best for your brand and conveys the message and feelings you want to be known for.
A good palette also needs to include a darker colour to be used for text - unless your business has a winter personality I avoid using pure black. Some good alternatives for black are brown, deep blue, purple, green or a dark grey.
Using your new colour palette
Now that you’ve got your new colour palette, make sure to put it to use everywhere. Remember that consistency means that you are more easily recognisable, which is what we want from our branding.
Don’t stop at adding the colours to your logo, headings and social media posts. Look at how you can use it in your body text, on your website, in your newsletter, and social media icons.
It’s this level of detail that will lift your brand from average to amazing, making you look more professional and getting noticed by your dream clients.
Conclusion
As you can see, a lot of thought goes into choosing a bold colour palette for your small business branding. But putting that effort and thought into it will create a palette that feels aligned, tells your story and attracts the right clients.
Look at colour psychology to know which hue works best for you, look at the seasons to know which attributes that hue should have, and make sure that all the colours fit within that season.
You’ve created a palette that is considered, harmonious and powerful. Now start using it everywhere!
Want to get a head start and use one of the colour palettes I've designed, including the colour psychology- download it now for free!
