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How To Choose Brand Colors For Your Small Business

18 January 2021

A color palette is one of the first and most fundamental components of branding. Colors can help you connect with your ideal clients on a deep, emotional and subconscious level. They can also help you position your brand and attract a focused clientele with minimum effort. But how to choose brand colors for your small business?

Creating a color palette is something I always recommend you do with the help of a professional designer. Because colors can really play a fundamental role in the way your brand is perceived... You don’t want to risk it! However I’m a deep believer you should be actively involved in the creation of your brand’s color palette. And the best way to fully understand the power of your brand colors is surely by educating yourself about the process of creating a brand color scheme.

Here are three simple steps to build a solid, focused and powerful color palette for your brand:

1. Describe your brand with three core adjectives

One of the exercises I always ask my branding clients to do is jotting down a pretty long list of adjectives they’d use to describe their brand and how they want it to be perceived. Now I ask them to refine it and choose only three adjectives, by selecting the ones they feel truly representative. It’s a fun exercise I highly recommend especially if you’re just starting out. But even if your business already exists but you feel like you need to find your focus back.

Homework:

  • Write down a long list of adjectives to describe your brand.
  • Then refine your list by choosing only three core adjectives that best represent your brand’s values.
  • Lastly assign one or two colors to each adjective based on the colors’ most known universal meanings. Possibly assign an intermediate color if one of the values would be well represented by more than one color (e.g. burgundy if it’s between red and purple, or teal if it’s between blue and green).
How to choose brand colors for your small business and create a purposeful color palette - Miel Café Design
2. Focus on your target

Ask yourself: who’s your target? What main feature feels recurrent in your ideal clients? What colors could your ideal client be attracted to?

If, for example, you have a feminine target interested into a family photoshoot service, you could include a nude or blush pink between your brand colors to infuse a touch of femininity and intimacy to your palette. Or, if you offer services for insecure freelancers looking for a confident coach, you might choose red as symbol of courage and determination.

3. Find your tone of voice

Your brand’s personality should be fully present in your palette, and go hand in hand with your tone of voice. If you focus on spiritual and emotional topics, rather than eccentric and frivolous matters, you’d choose completely different brand colors for your palette. If you want to communicate a sense of calm and serenity maybe you’d pick a tone of blue. Or if you have a humorous and creative tone of voice, you want to go with purple, orange or turquoise. In general, make sure your way of communicating is fully represented by your color palette.


Now What?

Once you’ve found your main brand colors, remember your job isn’t over! Creating a color palette involves much more work. Your brand’s primary colors should always be accompanied by versatile and coordinated secondary colors that compliments them well. Also each color palette should be composed in order to work well both on the web and in print. It should be various and versatile enough for all uses.

But by this time you’ll surely be much more confident to talk about colors with your designer and understand the immense power of a focused color palette. Don’t be shy and tell him the results of your color study, but always be open to his suggestions (he’s the professional here and it’s important you let him guide you through the process).

Hopefully you’ll quickly understand creating a color palette for your brand is not just a matter of putting your favorite colors together. Each color in your scheme should be thoughtfully picked and should hold meaning for your brand and your target audience.

But once you’ll have your finished color palette ready to be used, you can trust it to be your most loyal and powerful tool to communicate your values, attract your ideal client and position your brand with minimum effort!

Giada Correale brand e web designer donna per business al femminile
Bonjour, hello!

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In this article:
Giada Correale brand e web designer donna per business al femminile
Bonjour, hello!

I'm Giada Correale, brand and web designer of Miel Cafè Design graphic studio. I design intentional and editorial brand identities and web designs for heartfelt women-owned businesses. 

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A creative atelier curating brand and web designs for women-owned businesses.
I design and curate intentional brand designs and websites to cultivate your idea and bring your value out there.

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