We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.
Starting your own brand can be super exciting, but at times equally as scary. There are so many things to figure out, so today I’m here to help ease the pain of one step in your branding… the color palette!
Choosing the perfect color palette is essential to the success of your brand and it has to be something you’re sure you’ll love years from now so you aren’t constantly changing it. Keeping a consistent color palette will ensure brand recognition and allow for a more well-rounded brand identity.
Although it may seem like just choosing some colors that look cute together, there really is an art behind choosing a color palette. As an advertising specialist with years of experience, I’m going to share some of my best tips and tricks I’ve learned from working with branding teams.
Once we are done you will have chosen a total of seven colors to use in your color palette and understand exactly what each is used for. I will also dive into my brand’s color scheme as an example, and at the end I will share my favorite (and FREE) color palette generators, as well as share some of my favorite color palettes to help you start your journey.
Step 1: Chose 1 bold color
Step 2: Choose 2 dark colors
Step 3: Choose 2 light colors
Step 4: Choose 1 neutral color
Step 5: Choose 1 contrast color
These 5 steps will ensure you have every color you’ll ever need to use when designing your website, graphics for social media, and just about anything else.
Step 1: Choose 1 Bold Color
This color will be the core of your scheme, and should honestly be your favorite color in the palette. This will be used very often and will most likely be the color you’ll use the most in your logo, webpage, and any graphics. It should be bright, bold, and eye catching so anyone that sees it will automatically think of your brand.
I chose Viridian Green, which has always been one of my favorite colors and the color I knew I’d want to use if I ever started my own business. It is eye catching enough to stand out when scrolling through a social media feed, but still simple enough to match just about anything. This color also ended up pairing beautifully with the entire aesthetic I wanted for my brand.
Step 2: Choose 2 Dark Colors
These colors will be used for text and accents. These should be dark enough to reach the text on a lighter background, and they shouldn’t clash with each other or the lighter colors you’ll be choosing next.
For my brand, I choose to use Prussian Blue (a navy blue shade) and Davys Grey ( a dark grey shade) for my dark colors. This way, I am able to match just about anything I’ll want to design with a text that is appropriate, but I still can use them together. For example, choosing colors like black and navy blue wouldn’t necessarily work because they are too similar and often times clash. Navy blue and dark grey are complimentary but still different enough that they won’t be mistaken for each other on a screen. Plus, they both look GREAT with the Viridian Blue I used for my bold color, which is essential.
Step 3: Choose 2 Light Colors
These colors will be used for background and accents. These should be light enough that you can read the text in your previously chosen dark colors on top of them, but not too light that it will be hard to notice the difference between those colors and, let’s say, the white background of a webpage.
I chose Light Cyan and Cornsilk as my two light colors. These colors work really well together, but are also very different so I can use them for different things. They both look great paired with either of the two dark colors and the bold color I have chosen and therefore I am able to use them interchangeably.
Step 4: Choose 1 Neutral Color
This color with be used in backgrounds and accents as a tool to ground your color palette. It is important to have use neutral tones as to not overwhelm the viewer with too much color. Plus, there are times when even the light colors you chose won’t fit appropriately, and that’s when you use this color.
For my brand, I chose Champagne Pink since I thought it was a great little pop of color but still neutral. I had chosen a lot of blues for my palette, so I wanted to break it up with a little bit of pink, but nothing too intense since I’m not really a “pink girl”. I also took into consideration that Cornsilk, one of my light colors, functions well as a neutral tone as well so these two can be used interchangeably.
Step 5: Choose 1 Contrast Color
This color will be used to make something stand out, like if you have an announcement, and will break up your palette. This isn’t going to be used a ton but it is often times interchangeable with your bold color if you feel you’re using that too frequently.
I chose Orange Red Crayola just because I happened to be wearing a shirt in this color and I though it would actually work really well. Red has always been one of my favorite colors, so I knew I wanted to incorporate it somehow but I didn’t want bright red since that would completely clash with my palette that I already loved and didn’t want to change. This color works well with each of my previously chosen colors, and also stands out on a webpage or graphic.
CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve just created your own color palette!
Once I have all (or even just some) of my colors selected, or you can even do this right off the bat if you’d like, I go to coolors.co, which a free color palette generator, and check my palette to be sure I love it. All you have to do is add as many columns as you have colors, I recommend 7, by clicking the + between the columns and put in the HEX for your colors. If you aren’t sure of what colors you want, you can click your spacebar and the website will generate colors that work best with your previously selected colors. Once you have colors that you like, be sure to lock that column so you don’t lose it! You can also export the palette with the color space you prefer so you always have it at the ready.
Here are a few palettes, with the color HEX, that I created on coolors.co to help you get started! If you look above the HEX you’ll see how I label each of these colors for this specific palette breakdown.
