How to Choose Colors for your Brand!

Did you know that different colors can portray different emotions, feelings and make people connect to your brand differently? Colors are a unique way to differentiate your brand from someone else's and to really make a lasting visual impact with your readers. Did you know that I chose blue and purple for my branding for a reason? If not, then you will learn all about why colors matter so much in branding and what each color can mean to a potential visitor. Today, I'm going to go through the different color meanings as well as give you some tips, tricks, and techniques to choosing the right colors to fit your brand.

Before we get into the main chunk of this post that will contain tips and tricks on choosing the perfect colors for your brand it's important to first know what each color means and why it mean's that.

GREEN - When individuals see the color green most think about money, health, and freshness. The color can be great for a blooming business who's sole idea is to make money or generate some sort of income.

BLUE - When individuals see blue's it encourages them to think about dependability, loyalty, and calmness. Just like the ocean is calm (at times) blue also symbolizes an overall calmness. Dependability is also something great to have in a blog or business as it reflects positively on you and provides to your readers/clients.

PURPLE - When individuals see variations of purple they might see creativity, royalty, and spirituality. Creativity is a huge part of being a blogger or running a business - purple stands out and allows readers to dive into their own creativity.

YELLOW - Yellow colors and tones signify bright and energic emotions in individuals. This color would be perfect for a fitness blog as one coming to these blogs might lack motivation and might require more energy.

ORANGE - Those viewing orange might have some of the same feelings and emotions as yellow. Orange symbolizes energy, vibrancy, fun and playful. These also can be perfect for a fitness blog or a food blog.

RED - When many individuals see red they see it as a commanding, dynamic, powerful and stimulating color. Red can be used for a variety of branding reasons but always remember that red will overpower other colors when it comes to emotional connections because of this dynamic and powerful nature.

PINK - Pink is the perfect choose for a beauty related blog or something more girly. Pink, represents feminine, soft and delicate. This could also be perfect for a mommy blog or nail-related blog thats girly and cute.

GREY - Grey is one of those colors that you just can't go wrong with. It sends a sleek and neutral appearance to many individuals. It is also a color that ties well with all the other colors to tone them done.

BLACK - Power, elegance and authority is what black commands from individuals. Although we never think of this color in that way. Many people using black as a main color for their blogs or websites strive for this power, elegance and authority.

Now that we know the meanings of the color it's time to get down to business and decide how we choose the right colors for our brand. Some of you might already be thinking of which colors you want to use and others might still be struggling. When I created Embrace & Ignite, color's were one of the main things I focused on and I actually wanted to include several colors in my branding because of their color meanings. But it was important for me to narrow my choices down to a few key colors that would represent me and my online presence well.

CHOOSING TIMELESS COLORS!
When choosing colors for your brand it's important to remember that these colors could be used for months, years or your blog's entire lifetime. Picking colors that are timeless and that will never go out of style is really important. Sure your favorite color is bright neon pink, but is that really a timeless color? Taking your favorite color might be a wonderful option, but creating a tint, tone or hue (adding white, grey or black) of that color might be the best option to make the color something that could last a lifetime.

DON'T CHOOSE COLORS EVERYONE HAS!
One of the most important things in my eyes is making sure that you aren't picking colors of another brand or blogger. Of course, you might love red and white but can we all think of an already established brand with those colors....Coca Cola anyone? Choose colors that are going to be unique to your brand and to you. Color combinations are endless so you should never struggle with choosing a palette for your brand. There are so many resources out there online that allow you to look through an endless amount of color palettes, all you have to do is search on Google.

THINK OF WHERE THESE COLORS WILL BE PLACED!
Are you creating a Logo for your brand out of these colors? If you are you might not want to use a navy for your background and red for your text. It's important to think of where your branding is going to be being used. If your background of your website is white, will a lavendar show up on that color easily for your readers. Or how about a brighter purple to create some visual contrast so everything can be easily found and see. Of course, this doesn't mean you can't use pastel colors but it's about using them in the right way.

WHY ARE YOU CHOOSING THESE COLORS!
Look at the color meanings that we just discussed. You've just decided you want to use pink as your main color. But why? Are you using it because of the meaning we discussed or just because you like the color. Of course, you can use the color for both reasons but you can also use this color and create your own meaning closely related so that you are creating your own unique branding. You can also use this true pink shade and make it brighter, now you've created a whole new color which could force you to create a new meaning for the color but stay along the same lines of the meanings we discussed. It's all about relating your color and the color meaning back to the brand you are trying to represent.

MIXING COLORS & CREATING MOODBOARDS!
One of the best ways to help you choose the perfect set of colors for your brand is to create a Moodboard. All you have to do is use a photo editing software to create a blank canvas and just throw your colors on there. Another great way you can do this is by creating a Pinterest Board and adding your color swatches to it. You can then add, remove and manipulate your colors until you have something that you love and that has a great meaning for your brand.

Choosing colors for your brand can be one of the most creative processes for anyone. I never realized how important colors would be until I went through my rebrand back in November. I've always just chosen colors that I like or that looked good I never really thought about the deeper meaning behind them. After really looking into choosing my colors I was easily able to choose both purple and blue to represent my brand. Of course, I didn't use your traditional purple and blue, I do alter the colors to be something more unique because chances are another brand uses the same colors I do. Putting my own spin on my colors made my brand unique and now I'm really able to love, promote and enjoy what I have created!

After reading this post, do you better understand my brand?
Do you feel like colors make a huge impact to readers?


** Color meanings found from Google and Pinterest