Colour, its importance and influence on your brand identity

Whether you realise it or not, colour has a big part to play in our day-to-day lives and this is an important factor to consider when taking on any branding project. For instance, when you travel in a car, colour gives us all references for the information we need to get where we need to be and also to navigate the roads in a safe manor. A red light will signal you to stop and green to go, a blue sign on the motorway or will give you information on where you are and what is ahead, signs with red trim will signal a precaution, such as a gradient, or regulatory details on the road, such as the speed limit in that area. Details of engineering work are signalled in yellow, public attractions are signalled by white text reversed out of light brown signs, a green sign indicates a primary route (such as 'A' roads) and all signs in our towns and cities that are not part of a motorway or primary routes are in the traditional black on white.

Colour theory

You may muse that over time, we have conditioned ourselves to what these colours mean, but to the contrary, the colours, symbols and even the fonts were meticulously considered to convey the information that was adorned upon them. Indeed the major factor in the production of road signage was the use of colour to indicate directional, regulatory or warning signals.

The basis for these considerations into how to colour code our signage system dates as far back as 1810, when a German Poet and Government Minister, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, documented the purely psychological effects of colour in his book, The Theory of Colours. This was followed some 20 years later by The Law of Simultaneous Colour Contrast, written by French Industrial Chemist, Michel Eugène Chevreul. Both books would form the basis of what is considered to be modern colour theory.

As the theory of colour further developed, the meanings and associations of which we relate to today were defined and articulated. For the most part, colour symbolism and psychology does vary with time, place and culture. For instance, in Western Culture, red can symbolise danger or a warning, yet we also associate it with love and Valentines day is awash with red, entirely opposite ends of the scale to each other, whereas in the East, red ranges from the colour of luck, purity, integrity, to mourning and indeed communism, again, at completely different ends of the scale entirely. It is, however, these observations of colour and its effect on our psyche, which we must consider carefully when choosing colours to represent ourselves as businesses and organisations.

Getting it right

More often than not, getting it right should be a matter of common sense for the most part. For instance, if you look at the way restaurants use colour, you will notice that the colours used will generally speak to the audience that frequent such establishments. If you look a restaurant aimed at the children's or family market, these are usually use bright and non-confrontational colours to express their brand, as they want to a) associate themselves with their market/audience and b) create an environment in which appeals to children. Similarly, if you go to the other end of this sector and look at À la carte restaurants, they tend to use a much more subdued palette, the bright reds of the children's restaurants become regal looking burgundies, and vibrant yellows become an understated ecru, and so on.

So as well as choosing the right colour, tone is also an important factor, as this can ultimately determine character and can stand to reinforce the language or the messages of your business. For instance, if you were to brand a business that deals mainly in an environmental capacity, such as renewable energy or recycling, you would naturally (pun intended) want to use what we call ‘earth' tones, which are colours and tones that are synonymous with the outdoors and occur naturally in abundance, whereas a manufacturing firm would choose a palette that relates to their product, such as bright and colourful colours to represent plastics.

Understanding your audience

Essentially, getting it right has a lot to do with the public perception of the industry you operate in, and it is important to grasp this. There are of course exceptions to this as there are a number of industries that you could consider neutral in terms of colour, such as insurance or law, which have very little to go on in terms of defined colours that represent the industries as a whole, but none the less, both of these sectors must consider colour carefully. In the case of insurance, it is important that trust and friendliness is conveyed throughout the brand, and similarly for law firms, trust is a key factor, but also both power and stature need to be expressed to reinforce this trust in a legal sense. So where colour isn't a key or predetermined factor, tone usually is.

Getting it wrong

As well as an understanding of your audience, you must also try to not let personal preference or any feelings of your own towards certain colours, positive or negative, sway your decision on the process of determining a colour scheme to represent your brand. You may feel this is quite a common sense approach, but I think you would be amazed at just how many brands I have dealt with during my career that were completely misrepresenting themselves colour-wise, simply because it was the MD's favourite colour, or the boss' daughter thought it was fetching. I wish I was joking. Probably the best example of this that I have encountered, was when my career was in its infancy, I was given a job to do advertisements for a firm that, without giving too much away, manufactured heavy duty building material to the housing industry. Given that their target audience was a very male-dominated environment, and the nature of their product, I probably could have been forgiven for the look on my face when I was handed their corporate brochure, 90% of which was covered in what was the brightest magenta I've even seen, in complete seriousness, it would not have looked out of place in a Barbie display. I later discovered that the wife of the MD at the company in question had insisted on it, and I was not surprised by that at all.

Points of reference

So, just how do you determine which colour and tone is right for your brand?

A good place to start is taking a look at your competitors or other businesses within your industry, gather enough material together and you should see a common theme in the colours and tones of these brands. This information should give you a good point of reference to start from, but from there, you may want to dig a little deeper and research colour theory, as there are few other factors to take into consideration, like the use of complementary and contrasting colours, both of which can add an extra dimension to any brand. An excellent reference point for colour theory in relation to design principles is Josef Albers 1963 publication, Interaction of Colour, a book that is still widely used in teaching design and a reference to artists & designers alike to this very day. The book contains many theories on how colours are governed by an internal & deceptive logic, despite how complicated that sounds, it is very well articulated on in the book and it is easy enough to grasp the concepts therein.

Conclusion

I hope the above gives you some wider understanding of colour in relation to branding and the importance of the effects that colours have on the human psyche, but to conclude, do remember the steps you need to take to determine what colour is right for your brand. Take a look around you, observe your industry as a whole and use this as a point of reference to start from. Then, dig a little deeper, find sound reasoning and form a conclusion from that. But, most importantly of all, try not to let personal preferences creep into the equation and approach the subject of colour impartially.

This blog entry was written by Tim.

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