How do I choose colors for corporate logo design? Before choosing a color palette for your logo, you must understand your overall brand message. What should your logo represent? What message should your brand convey? A strong brand identity can help you answer these questions and reach your target audience more effectively.
Logo Color Combinations
In general, we recommend using up to three colors in your logo. Paying attention to different logo color schemes. And how certain colors work together can help you create a visually appealing and meaningful logo. Even if you prefer which colors look better together. Understanding the nuances of how certain colors work together (or don’t) is an important aspect of logo design.
This system of guidelines is known as color theory. Helps you choose colors for corporate logo design that work well together and evoke the right emotions associated with your brand. Many color palette tools help you understand color theory and experiment with and visualize different color combinations. Additionally, the logo maker gives you access to predefined color schemes. These pre-made color combinations take color theory into account, making it easy to see how it will look right in your logo design.
Color Psychology
Have you ever told a white lie? Or did you once do something in a blue moon? Maybe you were caught in the act, tickled, or envious. These common color idioms are part of our everyday vocabulary, but we also sometimes draw specific pictures to convey color-related messages and ideas. Color psychology helps guide this concept, stating that each color represents a specific behavior or emotion. Thanks to nonverbal communication, colors become expressive and meaningful.
For example, yellow is associated with happiness as it is glowing and bright, while blue is associated with reliability, tranquility, and stability. Therefore, when choosing colors for your logo, you must consider your brand’s message and the emotions you want to evoke in potential customers. Additionally, certain colors combined with logo shapes and typography can significantly impact the design’s overall logo psychology.
Color Emotion Map
Choose colors for corporate logo design In Western culture, red is often associated with passion, love, and power. A bold color full of energy and strength. In Eastern and Asian cultures, red is often associated with good luck, happiness, longevity, and prosperity. As languages and symbols vary from culture to culture, so do colors. Cultural sensitivity and awareness are extremely important, especially for brands operating in global markets. Color evokes not only an emotional response but also brand associations. By clearly defining your target audience, you can gain a deeper and more insightful understanding of how color influences users’ decisions.
Brand Recognition
Tiffany Blue, moreover known as Robin Egg Blue, is Tiffany Blue’s iconic and distinctive color. According to the luxury brand, “Tiffany Blue® was trademarked by Tiffany & Co. in 1998, and the Pantone® matching system guarantees that the color will match anywhere in the world and no matter what medium it is reproduced in, whether it’s a shopping bag or an advertisement. Instantly recognizable and always guaranteed to be the same.” Logo colors may not be unique Pantone hues, but they provide consistency and a strategic palette based on your brand identity.
It can shape brand perception in the minds of consumers. According to a study by Color.com, a consumer “makes a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or product within 90 seconds of first seeing a product, and 62% of that judgment 90% of it is based on color alone.” Therefore, choosing strategic and meaningful colors will help potential consumers build a direct association.
Competition Room
What color comes to mind when you’re trying to design a logo for your eco-friendly skincare line? Green is often associated with nature, the earth, and the environment, so it’s a good idea for brands that value sustainability. This is a commonly used color. But with so numerous natural products on the market, how can you be sure your logo doesn’t look like someone else’s? An authentic logo that truly conveys your brand To create a logo, the colors must completely epitomize the values and message of your item or benefit. Even if you decide that green is the right color for your logo, certain hues and saturations can come into play. For the same reason, you can choose additional colors to emphasize the green or convey a certain emotion you want your product to convey.
Additionally, the type of logo you design will determine the use of colors and how they are incorporated into the logo’s identity. For example, when designing a wordmark logo, the specific typography is important, and the colors you choose will also influence the message you want the logo to convey. Considering your competitors when designing a logo is important, but it shouldn’t influence your decisions. Just because every other hairdresser’s logo uses scissors in their design doesn’t mean you need to, too. By thinking outside the box, you can stand out from your competitors and fully represent your brand.
RGB And CMYK
RGB alludes to red, green, and blue, the essential colors of light most commonly used in digital media, such as computer monitors, televisions, mobile devices, and digital cameras. Alternatively, CMYK stands for cyan, yellow, magenta, and black and instead refers to the primary colors of pigments most commonly used in printing. Depending on the specific wants of your branding efforts, you can use both RGB and CMYK for logo colors. However, when designing a logo, starting in CMYK color mode is always a good idea. Due to the narrow color gamut, it is easier to go from CMYK to RGB than vice versa.
For example, if you use your logo on business cards, brochures, or packaging design and need to adapt it to the screen later, converting from CMYK to RGB is much easier, and no color shifts will be detected. With this in mind, it’s worth choosing your logo colors from the Pantone Matching System to avoid printing artifacts. This ensures that the colors of your logo look consistent in any environment. While you don’t have to use Pantone colors, unifying your visual language across all your brand assets is also helpful.
Color Format
Here’s a pro tip: Whether you’re working with a designer or creating your logo, always ensure you have multiple color versions. This is important for several reasons. First, your logo will be used in various media, so you need to ensure it always looks good. Let’s say you’re designing a blue and yellow logo. Imagine one of her loyal customers is using a black-and-white printer to print something from her website. Suddenly, your logo appears grayscale, and the impressive logo you designed becomes dull and almost unrecognizable on the page. To avoid this, check your logo design in multiple representations, such as grayscale, black and white, or a negative version of the logo on a dark background.
Logo Color Variations
Second, logos appear in different sizes, so scalability is an important consideration, especially regarding color. By preparing different color formats for your logo, you can predict how your logo will look in all scenarios. Consistency is the key to branding. Having each of these color formats ensures that your logo looks not only consistent but also great anywhere.
