Colour is one of the first things people notice about a business, often before they’ve read your name. The right colours can make you look trustworthy, energetic, calm or premium. The wrong ones can send mixed messages or make you blend in with every competitor. Here’s how to approach choosing colours for your brand.
Think about how you want customers to feel
Colours carry associations. These aren’t strict rules, but they’re a useful starting point:
- Blue often suggests trust, reliability and calm, which is why it’s so common in finance, health and professional services.
- Green is linked with nature, growth and wellbeing.
- Red is bold and energetic, and grabs attention.
- Orange and yellow feel warm, friendly and optimistic.
- Black, charcoal and deep tones can feel sophisticated and premium.
Start by listing three or four words that describe your business and its personality, then look for colours that match them.
Look at your competitors
If every plumber in your area uses blue, a different colour could help you stand out. Just make sure it still feels appropriate for your industry. Standing out is good; looking out of place isn’t.
Keep the palette small
Most strong brands use one or two main colours, plus a couple of supporting colours and neutrals like white, grey or black. Too many colours make it harder to look consistent and harder for customers to remember you.
Check that it’s readable
Your colours need to work with text. Light grey text on a white background, or red text on green, is hard to read and shuts out people with low vision or colour blindness. Good contrast between text and background is essential, particularly on your website.
Make sure it works in print and on screen
Colours look different on a screen than they do on paper. Bright on-screen colours can print dull, and some colours are expensive to reproduce. A designer will choose colours that hold up across your website, printed material, signage and even embroidered uniforms, and will give you the exact colour codes for each.
Live with it for a while
Before you commit, see your colours in context: on a mock-up of your website, a business card and a sign. Colours that look great as a little swatch can feel very different across a whole page.
Need help choosing?
Colour is a key part of the corporate ID and branding work we do for small businesses. Take a look at our graphic design work, or get in touch to chat about your brand.
