Brand identity is a critical part of marketing campaigns. Businesses invest so much time and money to enhance their branding to set them apart from other competitors. They do this in advertisements and print materials, such as billboards, roll-up banners, wall signs, and custom car magnets for business.
But to create a compelling visual identity, companies need to be aware of the right design principles. It all starts by choosing the right brand colors for the company logo. The logo visually represents the business and plays a role in conveying its story and values and helping potential clients be familiar with its presence in the ever-competitive consumer market.
Thus, it’s not surprising why marketers and business owners strive to create the best logo design for their business. Although perfection is never easy to accomplish, knowing the right design principles can help you make any well-designed logo memorable and attractive in the eyes of its audience. In this article, we’ll be talking about the common mistakes to avoid when brainstorming brand colors. Learn from these mistakes and avoid committing them to your brand.
Picking a color because it’s your favorite
Choosing your favorite color is the worst way to start the logo design process. It’s easy to gravitate towards your favorite color, but this is a prevalent mistake. In fact, 65% of business owners admitted that personal preference or taste is their number-one factor when picking brand colors.
There are plenty of website builders and logo design tools available to pick the best color for your brand. We understand that you have control over your business, including the color to use, but keep in mind your “personal taste” doesn’t matter when it comes to branding.
What’s important is what your potential clients and target audience like. In other words, choosing the right brand color should depend on what resonates with your audience instead of your personal preference.
Not knowing the color psychology and brand references
Every color incites certain emotions and thoughts, both consciously and subconsciously, within a person’s mind. The elicited reactions depend on the person’s references to society and nature, including branding or marketing campaigns of prominent companies or highly visible brands.
Each color in the color wheel possesses its own unique meaning. For example, purple can remind someone of royalty and fairies, while red can get anyone thinking about love, lust, or blood. Black can be elegant, mournful, or rebellious, while yellow creates a bright, cheery feeling.
Besides color psychology, the audience might associate brand colors with other popular brands that use the same color. Some examples are Starbucks, McDonald’s, Walmart, or Whole Foods.
Not thinking about how and where to use the color
Every business has their own way of using their brand colors based on the product or service they offer. If you want to make sales, your product should look different when it reaches the grocery shelves. For those who plan to produce printed materials, choose colors that are easy to read on paper so the readers can clearly understand the message you want to convey. Using too bright or too dark colors will only annoy the customer and won’t bother reading the entire print.
Also, if you think your audience is checking your content on their laptop or PCs, then you’re wrong. A large percentage of consumers use their smartphones to consume online content and access social media and other personal accounts. This means you have to consider where your audience stays the most to ensure broader brand exposure.
There are tools available to test online content and other marketing materials on different screens. Use this as a part of your logo design. If you plan to outsource the design, request different logo sizes to include them in the placeholder of your website. This will help you determine if your chosen colors will blend into the platform.
Not considering the color spectrum
Did you know there are about 10 million shades of colors existing? It would be a waste not to use them all! Keep in mind that you have the freedom to test all colors for a logo design. Most people limit themselves to one color that they end up choosing a generic one.
Designers use a wide range of shades to test how they will work with other colors. Use the color wheel to your advantage to determine which colors look good together.
Every successful brand has a strong brand identity that every business should learn from. Choosing the right color for your brand isn’t just as easy as picking your favorite color. Every decision requires careful planning to ensure a compelling visual identity for your brand.
