Colour is often the first thing people remember about a brand, before the name and long before the tagline. When you are choosing colours for a new logo design, it is tempting to start with the shades you personally like. A better starting point is the reaction you want from the people you are trying to reach.
What colours tend to say
Colour associations are not fixed laws, and they shift between cultures and sectors, but some are consistent enough to plan around:
- Red reads as energy, urgency and appetite. It is a staple of food, retail and anything that wants a quick decision.
- Blue suggests trust, calm and competence, which is why it is so common in finance, technology and professional services.
- Green signals health, growth and the natural world, and suits food, wellbeing and environmental brands.
- Yellow is warm, optimistic and highly visible, useful for playful brands and for anything that needs to be seen from a distance.
- Purple carries a sense of richness and quality, and is often used for premium products.
The catch is that if every competitor in your sector uses blue, a blue logo will help you blend in rather than stand out. Look at the colours your competitors own before you choose yours.
Colour as an asset
A colour used consistently for long enough becomes part of the brand itself. Cadbury spent years in the courts trying to register its particular shade of purple as a trade mark, which shows how much value a business can attach to a single colour. Most firms will never go that far, but the principle holds: pick a colour deliberately, specify it precisely, and use it the same way everywhere.
Breaking the rules on purpose
Some of the most memorable identities work against the expected associations. Pink paired with harsh yellow can feel aggressive rather than soft, and a logo with almost no colour at all can stand out on a crowded shelf simply because everything around it is shouting. Subverting a convention only works when you know which convention you are breaking, and why.
Practical checks before you commit
A logo colour has to work on screen, in print, on signage and on a van, so we always check it in a single colour and reversed out of a dark background, and we specify it properly for each use: RGB and hex for digital, CMYK and Pantone for print. Contrast matters too. A pale colour that looks elegant on a monitor can fail accessibility checks and disappear on a phone in daylight.
Colour works alongside typography, which we covered in what your font says about you. Get both right and your logo will be recognised before anyone has read a word.
Choosing colours for a new logo or a rebrand? Talk to us at designminds.ie/contact or email info@designminds.ie.
