Monica Pitts 0:00
Hello again. And welcome back to marketing with purpose. My name is Monica Pitts, and I'm your host today to talk about color again. Yeah, we talked about it in the last episode, and we are talking about it again today. So in the last episode, we went really big picture. And we talked about color theory and color psychology as some people call it. And today, we are going to put all that information into action to help you choose the right colors for your brand. It's a little tricky, because choosing colors for your brand is actually a cross between art, psychology and science. So unfortunately, there aren't a lot of hard and fast rules for you to follow. There's no rule about how many colors make a good logo. There's not even a list of best color combinations for logos or brands. But there are a lot of things to consider before putting the final stamp of approval on your logo colors. The first is just don't freak out. Because your colors are going to evolve over time. I don't think they should change dramatically year over year. But over time, brands colors do evolve. And that's okay, that's natural. If you look at the history of Pepsi or Coca Cola, their logos and colors have evolved over time. And that's perfectly natural. So the colors you pick today for your business or organization, they don't have to be your colors forever. And your colors. Also they don't stand alone. You can showcase your brand personality through icons, imagery fonts, the words, yes, words, videos, and so many other things, right. So they do play a huge role in your audience's perception of your brand, but they don't stand alone. So in this episode, we're going to dig into a few things. First, we're going to talk about popular color schemes. And if you hop on over to the MayeCreate site on our blog, which there's a link to it in the show notes, you're going to see color palettes and examples galore of what I'm talking about in this episode. So I'm a Super Audio learner, but sometimes I just got to see it. So hop on over, use that link, see all the pictures, it's definitely going to help you in this color journey. And then we're going to dig into the ways to choose your colors. Okay, so the right logo and brand color combination is going to take these three things into consideration. It will reflect your brand personality, it will provide reliable design options for you. And it will also allow you to set yourself apart from the competition. And we're going to talk through those three things and how you can put them into action to create an awesome functional logo, color and brand palette for your business or organization. Okay, let's get to business. You're on mission and you just need more people to know about it. And whether you're brand new to marketing or a seasoned pro. We are all looking for answers to make marketing decisions with purpose. I'm Monica Pitts, a techie crafty business owner, mom and aerial dancer who solves communication challenges through technology. This podcast is all about digging in and going digital. I'll share my marketing know how and business experience from almost 20 years of misadventures. I'll be your backup dancer. So you can stop doubting, and get moving towards marketing with purpose. This episode is sponsored by MayeCreate design. Yeah, that's right. We sponsor ourselves and brought to you with love by our Marketing on a Shoestring mini course. Now our free beginner's mini course is all about marketing on a budget. And contrary to popular opinion, you don't have to spend a million dollars or do something that you hate to market your business, get ready to challenge traditional marketing assumptions, because this 101 mini course is designed to give you a rock solid foundation, so you can make the right decisions for you with total confidence. You can check it out at u mayecreate.com. That's youmayecreat.com. And the link, of course will be in the shownotes. Okay, now back to business. So before we dig really deep into this, I just want to let you know that I have a degree in agriculture. I have ran a web design company for over 18 years and I have art directed more marketing materials than I can count. Okay, so what I'm telling you are my opinions, and I've backed them up with the research that I've found. I've spoken with my designers about how they choose color palettes for logos, but I'm not an art teacher, which is probably actually going to make this a lot more interesting because I have a degree in agriculture. And so I'm going to do my best to provide you real world examples that you can take away that aren't going to make your eyes glaze over and put you to sleep. All right. All right. So with that said, I feel like the best logo color combinations are balanced. So most palettes that I create include both a primary and a secondary color. With some contrast between the two colors. I like to combine light and dark, or bright and reserved colors. So that way I can have really good legibility in all my designs, because a lot of the times I'm going to pick that really dark color, and I'm going to put it on top of the light color, and then it's really easy to read. But having some contrast and some lights and some darks, I feel like it creates depth and dimension in your design. I'm not saying that monochromatic design doesn't work, I have some designers who can just rock monochromatic design. And when I design logos, I actually design them completely in black and white. Because if it works in black and white, it's going to be amazing in color. Okay. Now, I however, really enjoy color and design because color allows me to add hierarchy to a design, and it allows me to put emphasis on certain things that I want people to do. It allows me to motivate people to take action. So that's why I like to have a color palette with more than just one or two colors in it. Now I feel like color combinations or branding color palettes actually fall into two categories. So you might have two different color palettes that we're talking about here. So the first one is your logo and your small and simple printed materials. Those types of materials don't often use your entire brand color palette, okay. They usually have a main color, and then an accent color, and a neutral color. So three to four colors. That's usually all you need to do simple printed materials, like a sign or a business card or a logo. You don't want to have a billion colors in them because the design can end up feeling busy, and it can feel disorganized and disjointed. We want it to feel cohesive. I'm not saying that you can't make absolutely beautiful logos with a bajillion colors in them. I've seen it done. They're gorgeous. I'm just saying. In general, it's easier to keep things organized when there are less things, right. Think about your sock drawer. Okay. Now, the second category are digital and more complex printed materials. So for complex designs with a lot of elements, your colors, like having some additional colors in your color palette actually keep your design feeling consistent, and coordinated having those extra colors, they create balance, and they create organization in those in those bigger pieces. So a balanced palette is especially important for these materials. Now designing with lots of information without making it feel overwhelming is far easier to achieve if you have a good mix of neutrals and brights and light and dark options. If you have only black and white, it means you're going to have to be a very good designer to get it to come together. Okay. Okay, so then how do you know which color combination is best for your logo for your brand? Alright, so
Monica Pitts 8:12
this is where we talk a little bit techie. Right now I'm not gonna say techie, because it's not really techie. This is the thing that I talked to my designers about to make sure that I really understood it, so I could represent it to you. Well, as I said earlier, I pull colors from emotion from my gut, they just they live inside my soul, right. But there are actually terms that people use to describe popular color combinations for brands. So one popular one is our complementary colors. Now, most people know complementary colors live on opposite side of the color wheel. So for example, like blue, and orange, those are complementary colors. And using complementary colors allows one color to sit back and relax while the other color pops out. Which that's pretty fun. Usually, a designer uses the relaxed color like so blue, in our example, for most of the colored elements, and then drops in orange when they want to draw attention to an element. So whenever a client comes to us and says I want to make this button pop, most of the time we roll with a complementary color, because it's going to jump right off the page. It's it's going to have the most emphasis, but you don't have to use a complementary color to add emphasis. Some colors just naturally jump off the page more than others. So like a warm color, red, yellow orange, tend to draw more attention to themselves and stand out more than cooler colors, like blue or green or like some shades of violet. So you can also just add space around something so that way it stands apart in the design. Okay, so complementary colors is a really normal color palette to see. Another color palette that we see often are analogous colors. So analogous colors are colors that are next to each other in the color wheel. So for example, Red, orange, and yellow. Those are analogous colors. Now, using analogous colors with neutrals in a color scheme can give you like a really nice varied color palette to pick from, while still creating a harmonious feel, especially if you're living in those cooler colors. So imagine a color scheme, that's turquoise, blue, and blue violet, that would feel really nice, right. So it's three colors to pick from, there's a lot of opportunities to create hierarchy in your designs. And if you pair it with like a navy or a black, then you have a really cool feel very harmonious, right. And then if you choose the red, orange and yellow, you could get real bright real fast, but that's okay, if that's what you want to go for. Okay, so next up are triadic colors. So a triadic color scheme would be like red, blue, and yellow, and that they're triadic, because it's a triangle. And if you look at the color wheel, there's a triangle and each point of the triangle points to a different color. So a triadic color scheme can create a very vibrant palette with a lot of contrast and variation. So if that's what you like, is something vibrant, a triadic color scheme really gives you some different colors to pick from. You can also have a neutral color scheme or like a monochromatic color scheme. Now, monochromatic and neutral are a little bit different. So a monochromatic color scheme to me would be one color, so one hue of color. So let's say blue, and then you pair it with neutrals. And so you might have a lighter tint of blue, add white to your blue as part of your color scheme, you might have a darker shade of blue. So you would add black to that pure blue hue to create a slightly darker blue to using your color scheme. And then you could have a tone of blue so like a grayish blue, because tones are when you put white and black with the pure hue to create the color. And then I would pair that with a neutral color like black. And that would be to me a monochromatic color scheme. Even though I just described four colors to you, it feels monochromatic, because it all feels blue. Right. A true neutral color scheme would be just using like black, white, and gray. So but yes, you want to mix those neutral colors in with your color palette as well. Because you can use them for subtle background colors. And you can use them for the text on your marketing materials to make sure that everything is super legible and easy. So I like a palette with a dark, medium and light neutral to add variety and options for organizing complex content in print and web design. And I honestly feel like you can use a tint or a shade or a tone of your main color to create neutral colors in your design. I really feel like it doesn't have to be black or gray. It can be grayish blue, or greenish gray or whatever color you like, it can be like a really light lavender. But when you use them appropriately in your design, they're going to feel like neutral colors, they don't feel like a primary or an accent color that you're using to draw attention to things and create hierarchy and the design. Okay, so with that art lesson out of the way, let's dig into using and choosing the right logo and brand color combination for you. So the right brand color combination will reflect your brand personality provide reliable design options, and allow you to set yourself apart from the competition. So to reflect your brand personality, first, we have to ask ourselves, how do you want people to feel and to know how you want people to feel, you kind of have to know who you are right. So I find that it really helps to go back to your core values. If you haven't defined them yet, there's a really simple activity, you can even look it up online, just look for a bunch of core values words, there's very specific words that people associate with most core values, and pick out all the words that could possibly resonate with you, and then narrow it down to 10. And then narrow it down to five. And if you can narrow it down to three, the goal is to choose a set of words that embodies your organization. So at MayeCreate we love creativity. We love flexibility. We love honesty, these are words that we love, right? So what colors could we associate with those words? And would that convey the feeling that we want people to have about our brand when they see it, right? So there are all kinds of color palettes that you can go look at over on the blog post that I made to accompany this podcast, but I just want to go over a couple types of color palettes that As you know, not the technical art words, but like the Monaco words like the gut words that I have right and how I feel like they make people feel. So the first one is mono chromatic. And we talked a little bit about that already, I feel like mono chromatic color palettes feel pretty conservative, and professionally, which is why we see them a lot for law firms and banks, doctors, accountants, like more traditional businesses. Now, a lot of them use cool colors and cool colors also give off that cool conservative vibe. And as I said earlier, just because your color palette is monochromatic, that doesn't mean that it doesn't have a color in it. In my opinion, a monochromatic color palette would be a hue of a color that you really like blue, green, right. And then you would have different values of that color, as well as probably white and black. Some of my nonprofit clients, some ad agencies, and gyms often use like a bright and varied color palette. And that's because they want to feel more fun. And I think that there are so many colors that feel fun, right? Orange, yellow, purple, they all feel fun. So the more color variation, it can show diversity. And it can also just make the design come together and feel really fun. Now, if you don't use the right colors, though, it can feel very elementary, which isn't bad. Elementary isn't necessarily bad if that's what you're going for. So like if you're a tutor or a daycare, you might have more primary, right and varied colors. But you can also adjust them and have bright and varied colors and still look really cool, but maybe not quite so Elementary. In this type of a color palette, though, where you have lots of colors in it, you have to be careful, so you're not overwhelming people. So in your design, you don't want to just use excessive amounts of every single color, you're really going to lean into those neutrals. And then use your other bright colors to have fun pops of color throughout the design. Now I see a lot of female entrepreneurs, and like spas and salons, they tend to use a more muted and soft color palette. So this they're softer, less saturated colors, and they feel more feminine. And these types of palettes actually produce like a really nice, homey, comfortable feeling. Now I've seen them done really, really well. And then other times, they just feel like weird skin tones. Okay, so I'm not a huge fan of like tan skin tone. In part of a color palette, it can look really weird and a design. But if you just make it a little bit more pink or a little bit more peach, it can come together and look absolutely beautiful and just create like a very harmonious feeling. And then a lot of businesses also use like an earth tone color palette, like earth tone, or jewel tones. And those can feel really fresh and balanced. And we're really used to them because we see them in nature all the time. So if you mix those earth tones with a warm or a jewel tone, you can add in trends, interest and and variance in your designs. Now as you are choosing this color palette, I do want you to consider your audience, because you want your brand colors to make people feel a certain way. And so we need to take into account the potential preferences of your audience because color preference can depend on factors like culture, age, gender, or even just like life experience, right? Like, in the previous episode, I talked about how I'll never paint a room yellow because as I was pregnant, I read all about it. And somebody said that yellow makes babies cry. And so I'm like, Oh no, ah, so that is like a color that I have this association with that may or may not be true, right? So different cultures perceive colors differently. For example, in Japan, the color purple signifies wealth and position while in Thailand and Brazil. Purple is the color of mourning, okay. And then also color preferences can adjust with age. Recent studies of adults actually suggest that the preference for blue which is the universal favorite color among both men, 57% of men and 35% of women say that blue is their favorite color. And it actually increases with age. So the older people get, the more they like blue and the amount that they like red decreases slightly. So there's something to think about. And men and women have reported to prefer different colors. So men tend to choose more powerful colors. Maybe that's why so many construction company logos are red and black. But they say that their top three favorites are blue, green and black. Their least favorites are brown, orange and purple. While women on the other hand, like blue, purple and green is their favorite And there are at least favorites are gray, brown and orange. So there you go that, for me, I really like the color purple, I think. I really think it's all up to opinion, right friends, I'm just giving you information to make some decisions.
Monica Pitts 20:16
So first and foremost, figure out who you are. And then the goal is to pick colors that make your audience see who you are through the colors to die. Yeah. Alright, so that's number one. Now the second one, and I've been alluding to this a lot already is that your color palette should be providing reliable design options for you. A good logo color combination, or a good brand palette isn't a design liability. Okay, so you have to figure out what you're going to do with the darn thing before you start picking all your colors, because your logo and brand colors are going to be used all over the place. So for example, if you're going to have signage, do you want a sign that stands out from the road, because there's a lot of people who have a red or a yellow logo, if they want that sign to really stand out from the road, because those colors stand out really well and pop in an urban and a rural setting, because they're surrounded either by, you know, green and blue, you know, yellow and red stand out when they're out against green or blue, right. And they will also stand out against a bunch of brick or, you know, buildings. So there you go. Also, think about the legibility of the signage, you want to have some bold lines, if you want people to be able to read it, do you want to have a sign that holds its color for decades, because red and purple actually fade faster than other colors, they have a shorter shelf life when they're exposed to the sunlight. So if you're making a huge investment in your sign, then just know that darker and more mild earth tones tend to hold their pigments longer. That doesn't mean you can't have a red logo, maybe you have a red logo and you have a darker sign, I don't know, it's just a decision that you get to make. So think about your apparel, if you plan on monogramming hats and polos and your core color is neon pink, just consider how everybody's gonna look in neon pink. Okay. Also, I mean digital. So when you're in digital light shines through the colors in a digital medium. So choosing super bright colors for your main colors can make a design feel really, really loud on a website, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't use them, you can totally use them, you just shouldn't use them all the time. So if you want to have a screen that's filled with color, then maybe choose some cooler colors, because when you put a screen filled with blue, it feels a lot different than when you fill the screen with yellow or red. Also for prints. All right. So just you know with print if you if you're going to choose a neon color, or something that's a metallic, some people like to have metallic colors, just know that those colors don't actually exist in five color process printing, okay, so if you want to use them as part of your logo or your brand colors, just know that you're going to buy a special ink every time you print something so you can bring them to life and create an alternate color to substitute them with right. And it might be totally worth it for you and I 100% support you doing that. Okay, just letting you know. And some colors, while super lovely can print unpredictably. For example, a dark bluish purple can end up looking Navy, or reddish purple can feel like maroon or even brown sometimes. So if you are using a dark, bluish purple or a reddish purple or maroon, just talk to your printer before you print things and potentially do a test run to make sure that you get that color that you're really really looking to. And similar to digital choosing a balanced color palette for your brand is really going to allow you to create materials that are easy to read and feel professional and organized, organized while still remaining true to your brand. I think I've said balance a couple of times now. I think I want balanced color palettes. That's what I'm saying. Okay. Also, I want you to think about ADA compliance. And I know it's kind of some people aren't really excited about it. I'm super excited about it. Okay, because I want everybody to be able to see the things that I make 8% of men and point zero 5% of women are colorblind in some way. So if your audience is predominantly male, you just need to make sure that you have plenty of contrast in your color palette, and check to make sure that your logo is legible for those who are colorblind. Yeah, that's it. Now we use a color contrast checker. That's actually a Chrome app. It's WC a G color contrast checker. and it's free. You can install it on your browser to check the color contrast between foreground and background colors of designs. It simulates colorblindness for you. So you can evaluate the contrast in those simulations. And you can see how your design will look for colorblind users. Ultimately, we want people to be able to see the things that you're showing them and in your marketing. And if you have a color palette that doesn't allow for colorblind people to see what you're doing, it could, it could be blank. In the last episode, I shared the story of talking to a gentleman who walked into a bank. And he noticed a big blank sign hanging up. So he asked the teller, what do you guys going to put on this sign? It's covering a lot of space, what's going to be there? And the teller was like, it's on there. And he's like, No, it's blank. Well, the colors that they chose for the sign didn't register for him, he didn't see that. And there wasn't enough contrast between the colors for him to be able to read the things on the sign. So we don't want your logo and all of your marketing materials to do the same thing. So just make sure you've got contrast in there, they're not going to see the red and the green the way that you want them to. But it's not about that. It's about them being able to read what you have to share with them. Okay, so the last thing that this color palette needs to do is it needs to allow you to set yourself apart from the competition. Okay, remember earlier where I said that using a consistent color palette will make your brand 80% more recognizable to people. And I noticed that some industries are almost color locked. So like construction, and many trade contractors, I said this before, a lot of them are red and black. Right? Well, banks tend to be green. So you don't have to do that you can break from the pack. So look at your industry and consider a color combination that will set you apart without, of course making you look like a joke. I'm not saying that, you should be choosing a color that makes you look silly. But you do want to be memorable, right? And people are going to be visiting all these different websites of your competitors while they're doing their research. When they walk through a trade show. They're gonna see all these other booths. And you want to stand apart from all those other booths. You want people to be like, oh, yeah, that's right, you're you're the green company, or you're the blue company, or whatever it is. There's a plumber out in California, who's pink, all of his trunks or trucks are pink. I still remember him because of his pink trucks. If he didn't have pink trucks, I would never remember that company. So you want to be memorable, right? So just, you don't have to be like everyone else. Now if those colors are the ones that resonate you, by all means they pick them. But a memorable logo color combination is a really good way to leave an impression and increased likelihood of people remembering you. Okay, so with all that in mind, how are you going to pick these colors.
Monica Pitts 27:55
As I said before, your first step is, is defining what you want to represent, right. So if you're not really sure, you're going to start by defining your core values. And if you really want to see it step by step, I have a video on how you can do it using Canva. That's over on the blog post, check out the link in the show notes, what I would do is I would start with a main color or a photo. And if you're open to any color, then I would start with a photo. And you can use a program like Canva or a photo library like ice stock to search for photos using your core value terms. Okay, so if one of your core values is flexibility, you would say flexibility. And if it doesn't come back quite right, then take another version of the word write. And when you finally found a photo that makes you feel the way you want to feel, then you can start pulling colors from the photo. Now, if you have a main color that you really like, then you can do the same thing that I just mentioned, which is search for the core value. Plus use the color you want. So your search phrase would be something like flexible blue. Or if you want it to be more monochromatic, you might search for flexibility, blue, monochromatic. So once you find a few photos that resonate with you, you will start pulling the colors from the photos. So you're looking for a main dark color for your text. Or if you're going to use like a dark mode design style, where the background is dark and the text is light, then you would pick a light color for your text out of the photo. You also want to have colors that can create some visual hierarchy from your headings, colors that are different enough from each other that you notice that they're different. And it doesn't necessarily mean it has to be blue and yellow. It can be blue and light blue, but your eye should tell that they're different colors, because that can create hierarchy in your design for you. You will also pick out an accent color to call attention to key information. And this is where you can lean into that, that complimentary color, or just pick a color that's different from the other colors. And like I said, it doesn't have to be green and orange, it could be blue and light blue those those feel different from one another and or it could be a bright blue and a dark blue, right. So they feel different needs to feel different and jump out of the color palette at you. And then you'll also want to pick a color that's more neutral. So it's either going to be a light neutral or a dark neutral that you would use for your background. And then after that, you'll just adjust those colors until they feel right and work for you. So you want to have that variance in contrast, and just because you pulled colors out of the photo that doesn't necessarily make them right, they don't need to be exactly the same color, they need to feel right to you. Okay. And then once you get those colors picked, then you're going to start testing colors on top of one another for legibility to determine if your palette is going to give you like functional design choices, because that's one of our goals, right? We want to be able to have design options. You don't want a color palette, that's a design liability. So you're going to test out that light color on top of the dark color, test out the dark color on top and the medium color, and right on top of them in the text that you would usually use for your brand. Or even test out different like fonts if you want to, and just see how it feels on top of one another and see if it works, right because if it doesn't work, then we want to adjust those colors so that we can work. Make sure and test your color palette for ADA compliance. So once you get those words typed on top of other colors in different colors, how many times am I going to use the word color in this episode, you can use the free chrome app that we use the WCAG color contrast checker if you're using an online software like Canva. But ultimately, you just want to make sure that it passes that that color test for ADA compliance and you have enough contrast so that way people who are colorblind can read it. And then last but not least, once you have them all sorted out and you've chosen the colors that you like, you want to document the color codes for them. Now if you're in Canva, you can just pull the hex code for the colors because that's all you're gonna get. And technically, that is just what you use for web design and digital work. But you can use those hex codes to set up colors for print as well and then just convert them to CMYK before you send off your document to the printer. And then you're ready, you have a color palette and you're ready to go design and make the brand all around this cool color palette that you just created for your business. So hopefully now you're ready to navigate Selecting a good logo, color or colors, like some good combinations for your brand. And you know about all the stuff in the mix, like how different cultures see colors, what your audience likes, the nuts and bolts of choosing great colors, so you don't have a design liability on your hands. And you can use that color psychology in theory that we talked about in the previous episode to your advantage. So you can create a visual that really clicks with you. And with your audience. Remember, it's about making them feel what you feel about your business. You want them to see you as the cool, awesome, reliable company that you are. And choosing the right colors will help you do that. Because those colors are more than just about making things look pretty. They're about shaping how people see your brand and helping you connect with your audience and making your brand stand out in all the right ways. And before I let you go, I want to give one more shout out to our MayeCreate resource sponsor, Marketing on a Shoestring. It is the free beginner's mini course to marketing on a budget, it lays the foundation of creating the right messaging to connect with your potential customer and primed them to buy. It unlocks the four part framework for making competent budget conscious marketing decisions. So you can stop second guessing and get a clear path forward. And it outlines the highest converting tactics that I know of for new marketers, so you don't have to waste time on strategies that will never reach your goals. Hop on over to you mayecreate.com For Instant Access. That's why oh you, ma
[email protected]. So thank you so much for joining me today. Make sure to subscribe wherever you're listening so you don't miss out on our next episode. And don't be afraid to use that link in the show notes to go over and enjoy the fully formatted blog posts with all the pictures broken down covering every single thing that we talked about today because your next step is to put this information to action. And until next time, go forth and mark it with purpose.
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