Creating a business involves different steps, but branding remains the most important step. This is because it is what directs the way people will perceive your identity to have a proper understanding of what your business entails. Remember that first impressions often last a lifetime. Therefore, it is important to commit the best when creating a brand.
But how do you come up with a good brand? There are many steps to follow, but a good start begins with selecting a relatable and approachable color palette. Choosing appealing colors for your business photos can be tricky, but it is the first step to building a strong brand.
If you look at a few globally recognized brands like Twitter, Facebook, Chase, Bank of America, and more, you’ll notice that these brands all use blue. The main reason behind this is that these companies all understand color theory, and they know how to combine it with their business. Like building a house, building a brand also requires an understanding of the tools involved.
In this article, we’ll go through all you need to know and provide tips to help you choose a color palette for your brand. We’ll also cover important concepts like color theory and more. But before we begin, let’s take a brief look at the importance of branding colors.
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Table of Contents
Why are Branding Colors Important for Business Photos?
We all think of different things when we hear the word love. Whether it’s negative or positive, it undoubtedly involves different emotions. Emotions are the main factors involved in our decision-making. For brands, the main aim is to create a strong emotional connection with customers, and since this cannot be told using a storefront or a logo, branding colors is an effective alternative to use.
With branding colors, you can easily connect with your customers. As mentioned earlier, the word love stimulates different emotions in people. This is the same way colors work. For example, colors like blue and red create different emotional responses in people. Even colors with different shades tend to work this way. For example, people may find light sky blue more appealing than deep dark blue.
Color theory goes beyond knowing different colors and choosing the most attractive. Psychologists now link colors to different evolutional changes over time. An example of this is the association of blood red to nearby danger or brown to dirt. Even though this is not always true, it applies when considered on a broader scale.
Another factor that comes to play when considering colors for business photos is cultural associations. For example, in America, green is associated with money, while in other parts of the world, green may be associated with agriculture. However, the bottom line is that psychology has a key role to play in determining how color is perceived.
Applying Branding Colors in Business Photos
In the words of Antonio Damasio, a neuroscientist, customers feeling about a brand is more significant than their thoughts of the brand. Considering this with the fact that colors can evoke voila and emotions, you’ll understand how branding can impact sales and the overall business performance.
Another thing to note is that repetition can also strengthen a brand and create more awareness. This is the main reason why there’s a strong level of consistency among different brands. For example, you’ll never see a can of coke that isn’t red or a Twitter bird that’s not blue. With that in mind, it is important to ensure that a brand has enough exposure for it to encourage consistency and customer engagement.
Are you wondering which areas to associate your branding colors? You might want to consider advertisements, staff uniforms, in-store design, storefront, website, and logo. Using your branding color in all these aspects will help to strengthen the association of your brand with these colors and also augment your brand awareness.
Determining your Brand Identity
Red is a color that has helped people who want to make their brand youthful, loud, and energetic. However, this is a color that’s not ideal for relaxed and calm brands, especially a mattress brand that denotes having a good night’s rest.
As long as you’ve determined what your brand communicates, selecting a branding color will be super easy. The first step in building a brand is choosing a brand personality and doing this, and you need to view your company like it was a person. You need to know who they are and what’s important for them.
After establishing your brand personality, and goals, the next thing will be to determine a suitable color for your brand. The best way to determine the color that will work for your business photos is by understanding the emotional association of these colors.
Meaning of Different Branding Colors
As mentioned earlier, colors give different emotional associations. Here’s a brief summary of the different brand colors you can use and their meaning:
- Black: Sophisticated, luxurious, edgy, powerful, and modern feeling
- Gray: Gray represents neutrality
- White: Virtue, cleanliness, simplicity, and health
- Brown: Earthy, rugged, and old-fashioned
- Pink: Creativity, luxury, and royalty
- Dark Blue: Security, formality, and professionalism
- Light Blue: Openness, trust, and tranquility
- Green: Prosperity, connection to nature, growth, and stability
- Yellow: Optimism, youth, and happiness
- Orange: Vitality, friendliness, and playfulness
- Red: Excitement, anger, and passion.
With that said, you need to know that the effect these branding colors will give your brand depends on the design and styles that you use and how you combine the colors. Another thing to note is that too much of one color can alter the meaning.
5 Tips to Help you Choose Color Palette for your Business Photos
Here are the steps to follow when choosing a color for your brand:
1. Understand the different emotions that each color evokes
As we have highlighted earlier, colors send different emotions, and they all have different meanings, but this completely depends on how they are applied. You might already have a color in mind for your business, but before you use this color, it is important to ensure that you understand the meaning of these colors.
You need to ask yourself different questions to help you properly understand the message of each color. Does the color you have in mind attract your target market? Even though this might seem unimportant, it is important to ensure that you select colors that will attract your target audience. You also need to understand the psychology of colors as well as the emotions behind each of these colors.
2. Experiment with different online color palette tools
Now that you understand the psychology and emotions of color, as well as the meaning of each of these colors, you can now move further to start applying these colors in different ways. If you’re wondering how you can start applying these colors, you might want to consider trying color palette tools, and fortunately, there are so many color palette tools that you can choose from. Some of the options to consider include:
- Coolors: This is a great place for beginners because there are so many tools that can help you make necessary adjustments depending on your preference. The amazing thing about this site is that you can easily export what you create and use it on different platforms.
- Canva color palette generator: Another platform that you might want to consider trying, and with this tool, you can easily create infographics using different color combinations.
- Adobe color CC: This is a free color generating tool that will let you create amazing color combinations. With this tool, you can easily decide your color preference and use different color combinations.
- Colourcode: Also a free tool that allows people to choose from a vast array of color combinations. You can also easily generate your preferred color with this tool.
- PhotoAC: A tool with many stock photos for you to use, but also offers an amazing editing tool with which you can easily generate different colors and use them on your design. The tool is also free, and you can download your designs easily.
3. Choose a primary palette color
After experimenting with these different color palette tools, you can take things to the next level by selecting your primary palette colors. These are the main colors that will determine whether your audience will easily recognize your brand or not. They are the colors that you will use on your business cards, logos, website, and more. Therefore, it is important to ensure that you get it right.
It is generally advisable to choose only two primary colors and leave the other colors as accent colors. Also, even though you are choosing two primary colors, you need to note that you’ll use one of these colors more than the other. In addition, you need to ensure that the colors you choose complement each other. With that, the only thing you’ll need to do is play with shades, tones, and tints so that you can easily find a perfect match.
Choosing your primary palette color is a step that you shouldn’t rush, and it requires much devotion. Once you’ve gotten the required results, you’ll be happy that you didn’t rush the process.
4. Choose your accent colors
Accent colors are also important when selecting colors for your brand, especially if you’re using them on a website. These colors will draw viewers attention to features that they can highlight easily. Therefore, making the wrong decision will only make you miss the basic things.
Another thing to note about accent colors is that they are bolder than the primary colors. Therefore, you need to ensure that the contrast between the two colors is high. If you’re using accent colors on your website, it’s best to apply them to elements like call to action, navigation bars, and other essential elements.
5. Use the 60-30-10 rule when applying your palette
With your color palette ready, you might be thinking you’re done because of all the efforts you’ve put in. However, there are still a few finishing touches to add. You need to know how to apply your color schemes, and that is where the popular 60-30-10 rule comes into play. This will help you guide your way and ensure that you apply your palette appropriately.
This is a very simple rule to implement. It comprises 60% of the primary color you choose, 30% of the secondary, and 10% of the accent color you choose. If you’re applying these colors to your website, then you might want to keep it as 60% for negative space, 30% for content, and 10% for elements like call to action.
The 60-30-10 rule is a great way to create a balance between your content and the colors that you choose.
Conclusion
We have provided all the tips you need to choose a color palette for your brand, and we have also provided you with tips to apply. However, one thing you should always note is that there is no golden rule when it comes to choosing a brand color.
With that said, this article should be a useful tool and guide to help you choose an ideal color palette for your business. In addition to that, photoAC is also a good tool, as we have highlighted earlier, and one amazing thing about photoAC is that it is a completely free platform to use. Now you can apply all the tips we have provided in this article and create a brand that will attract your target audience and improve your business sales.