The Ultimate Guide To Choosing Colors For Your Brand Logo

What shade ought your new logo to be? It isn’t easy to choose the perfect Colours For Your Brand Logo. Selecting a logo may seem risky. It will set the tone for how someone will see your company. Your chosen logo can significantly influence people’s perceptions of your brand.
People establish opinions about your brand based only on your logo in roughly 50 milliseconds (0.05 seconds). To make that logo stand out, you need to work your magic.

A logo’s colour affects how people view your brand

The study of colours and how they affect people’s behaviour is known as colour psychology.
Selecting the colours for your logo is one of the fundamental tenets of branding and marketing.
Creating a logo requires creativity; there isn’t a prefabricated answer that will work for every
type of company. While one brand may benefit from a particular colour, another company in the
same field may discover that a different hue better serves its objectives. Learn how to design a logo.

The Most Popular Colors for Logos

Let’s examine the colour preferences of the top brands around the globe.
 33 percent blue, 29 percent red
 Black, Grey, and Silver: 28%.
 Yellow and gold make up 13%.

Despite being the most famous logo colour, blue isn’t always the best. But it’s a beginning. Using
this knowledge, you can question yourself: What emotions are associated with the colour blue?
Why do companies frequently attempt to convey that through their logos? Why would
someone choose red instead? What message does the colour red convey?

No worries if you read it and thought, “But I have no idea what the colour blue represents.” That
will be discussed further below. You’re now gaining a sense of the area, which is a crucial step
to becoming an authority in logo colours.
What Colors Are Used Most Often in Brand Logos?
Most logos use only two colours. In actuality, just 5% of firms utilize three or more colours in their
logos and about 95% only use two.

Examples of popular brand colour schemes:

 Facebook, in white and blue
 Blue and yellow Ikea
 Red and white Colgate
 Purple and orange FedEx
 Starbucks: white and green
 McDonald’s: red and yellow
 Red and white Coca-Cola
Many other companies employ more than three colours. One of the most known corporations in
the world, Google, uses the colours blue, red, yellow, and green in its logo to create the
impression of a rainbow. But for most firms, simplicity is preferable. To prevent it from feeling
cluttered, stick to a maximum of two or three logo colours.

Each Colour Has Cons

Every colour has both a great as well as a poor connotation. Keep in mind that art is
personalised, and logo design is art. Because it conjures up ocean images, some people may
find the colour blue wonderfully calming. At the same time, someone with severe thalassophobia
may perceive the colour blue as horrifying.
The truth is that you will never be able to select a hue that everyone loves. It’s all subjective, as
we continually repeat. Your audience must connect with your logo. It can be tempting to
complete the logo creation process as quickly as possible, given how time-consuming, labour-
intensive, and costly it is.

Your Guide to the Meanings of Logo Colours

Knowing what it implies can help you choose the ideal colour scheme for your brand’s logo. Let’s
go through each hue individually so you can comprehend the psychology of each colour. To
locate the perfect logo colour combinations to experiment with during your design process. You
may utilize this list of the most frequently used brand logos to help narrow down which colours
provoke feelings and associations.

Logos in white

White is frequently linked to hygiene, tranquillity, cleanliness, simplicity, and honesty.
Depending on cultural beliefs, the meaning of this colour might drastically alter. For instance,
because of a tradition started by Queen Victoria, white is now associated with weddings in
some parts of the globe, while in others, it is linked to funerals and times of grief.
If you use white for your logo, you should know your target market and how their cultural
beliefs may affect how they interpret the hue. White is another hue frequently utilized as a
contrast, either to add negative space to a logo or to harmonize with the colours around it.

FedEx does a fantastic job using white in their logo, creating a deceptive “arrow” out of the
space between two letters. 

Gold and yellow logos

Yellow typically inspires emotions of upbeatness, assurance, self-worth, joy, and inspiration. It
implies warmth and brightness and may even arouse thoughts of luxury and money.
McDonald’s can also conjure images of a specific golden hue, showing how potent a logo can
be.

Gold screams “expensive” more than anything else, representing money, success,
understanding, royalty, prosperity, splendour, luxury, and status. Everything in its immediate
vicinity is heated by gold. But be careful not to mix yellow and gold (pure yellow has the colour
code #FFFF00, while gold has #FFD700). The presence of red or brown in the golden colours gives
them the strength that pure yellow lacks.
For precisely this reason, yellow frequently appears in luxury brands. It connotes richness and
prosperity, which is why it is so effective for luxury brands, and businesses in the financial, food,
beauty, and fashion industries. The most well-known gold logos are those of Warner Bros.,
Chevrolet, and Cadbury.

Yellow has a dual meaning that includes the idea of a deal, anything that is on sale, or even
inexpensive goods. If you want to be high-end, this could not transfer well to firms like
BestBuy, whose low costs are their selling point. It is also connected to caution, like traffic
signals and warning signs.

Silver Logos

Silver is associated with riches, elegance, grace, and sexiness. Silver serves as a great descriptor
of everything elevated, industrial, and technology-related when employed as a hue in a logo.
Silver used to be a common element in the logos of several jewellery companies. Still, the
colour’s associations with industrial metals and not fine metals changed over time. It started to
look a little old.
Using silver in your logo’s features could be a fantastic technique for highlighting your brand’s
elegance and upscale appeal. It makes sense why so many automakers utilize it (Mercedes-
Benz, Toyota, Honda, and Citroen, to name a few). Additionally, it’s frequently used by video
game companies to imply weapons and battle.

Yellow Logos

The colour orange signifies upbeat, amiable, and joyful. When it comes to logo design, orange
frequently causes some disagreement. It’s often employed for great exposure; thus, it can

quickly cross the border between attractive and offensive. For this reason, peachier tones
appear more popular than intense dark orange or red-orange.
If orange isn’t contrasted with a lovely neutral colour, it can be a touch harsh on the eyes. Brands
that want to position themselves as innovative, engaging, and welcoming businesses frequently
employ it. Consider Soundcloud, Dunkin Donuts, Fanta, and more upbeat companies like Firefox
and Timberland. It’s the ideal hue for brands that want to advertise entertainment, food, and
beverages. Orange is a colour associated with religion, notably Buddhism and Hinduism, in many
Asian nations.

Rosy logos

Pink logos are symbolic of inspiration and hope. This complementary hue is linked to comfort,
assurance, and peace. It frequently conjures up images of childhood or a fantastical side to
reality. Pink is a traditional springtime colour in Japanese culture (it goes well with the sakura in
bloom), and it frequently appears in branding for “sweet” or female-oriented companies.
The usage of pink in company branding and logos has significantly increased in recent years,
especially in the so-called “millennial pink” hue. When you utilize the colour “millennial pink” in
your company branding or marketing, it immediately conveys that your product is aimed at
millennials (often women) and that you provide some Instagram-friendly answers to their
problems. The colour can be millennial pink.

Always use a pan, a Quip toothbrush, or any of Glossier’s numerous cosmetics. But even
businesses that frequently use pink iconography don’t incorporate it into their logos. Only one
of the three instances provided includes pink in its logo, Glossier. Pink doesn’t appear in
symbols very often, but when it does, you can see that it’s frequently used for toys, sweets, and
infant companies.

Unfortunately, pink’s dual nature can sometimes imply immaturity or playfulness, which
wouldn’t work well for some sectors. For instance, a tax accountant might not succeed if their
logo is hot pink rather than another colour.

Logos in red

Red can evoke a wide range of emotions since it is universally seen as symbolic of romance. It
can stand for power, seduction, love, passion, energy, and more. On the other hand, red can
also imply chaos, strife, rage, and tension. This is another colour that has a whole symbolic
meaning in several civilisations.
It is typically the colour of weddings in Asia, and it stands for good fortune, joy, and procreation.
Conversely, red is a colour associated with death and grief in various African nations.

logo in bright red is a tried-and-true marketing gimmick. Creating a sense of urgency frequently
attracts impulsive buyers, especially around Valentine’s Day.
For dynamic and robust brands, red is frequently coupled with white, black, or other neutral
colours. Red is a widely used hue in restaurants and food businesses, including Coca-most Cola’s
recognizable colour scheme. It is also frequently used in sports (FC Liverpool, Chicago Bulls),
food, transportation, and shopping.

Picking a Color for Your Logo

It’s time to choose the colour that will represent your brand. Don’t worry; as your brand
matures, you’ll be able to control this. But for now, let’s start with the fundamentals.

Colours for Industry Logos

The interpretation of a logo colour frequently differs depending on the industry, as covered in
the above sections. The go-to free graphic design tool, Canva, offers a fantastic infographic that
lists the most common colours across several industries. Use this only as a beginning point to
direct you. It is advised to experiment with one colour at a time after creating a simple black and
white logo to evaluate what works. You can add colour if it’s not working. Some companies even
utilise various symbols depending on the situation.

Wheel of Colour

To make your logo pop, experiment with a complementary hue if you prefer one colour for it.
This could be as plain as a filler colour like black, white, soft grey, or something more colourful.
Online websites have some excellent infographics to aid in colour choices. The colour wheel is a
great area, to begin with, because you may have seen it in class.

Contrasting Colours

Colours that enhance (or compliment) one another are said to be complementary. Find the colour
on the wheel opposite the one you selected. These colour schemes will make the colour stand
out.
Orange enhances blue, green boosts red, and even purple and green complement one another
to bring out the best in the other. Look at the previous Firefox logo to see how complementary
colours are used. The brilliant contrast between the orange and the blue creates a joyful
symphony in the logo.

Analog Hues

Three nearby colours are combined to create an analogous colour scheme. To do this, pick your
“hero” colour and add the two colours next to it to the colour wheel. Compared to complementary
colour schemes, analogue colour schemes are less intrusive, although they do run the danger of
appearing a little dull.

Monochromic hues

“Monochromatic” refers to using various shades of the same colour. This is fantastic if you want
to highlight the elegance of your brand; with its navy blue and sky blue combination, Oreo and
Paypal sports a monochrome design. Despite not being in the same sector, PayPal and Oreo
both make excellent use of the same colour palette. This further proves that logo creation is
more of an artistic endeavour than anything else. Check what functions best for you.

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Team EMB

Our team of expert writers is committed to bringing insights on topics ranging in the fields of technology, marketing, and business. With a wide-reaching range of services on our platform, we help businesses achieve digital transformation end-to-end.