Colour - A vital part of any branding process

Colour is a vital part of the branding process. Before even starting a website design or logo you must choose the right colour that is effective in enforcing your brand, the message you want to broadcast and the overall tone of your website or advertising feature.

Colours are broken up into three primary colours of Red, Yellow and Blue followed by a set of secondary colours of Green, Orange and Purple. Another tertiary set of colours are the combination of these sets. On a colour wheel complimentary colours are opposite each other and are often used to evoke feelings of excitement, while analogous colours are those that are adjacent to each other and these give a feeling of warm and cosy or cold and depressing.

The Colour Wheel

When designing our own logo and website I wanted to portray two things.  Colours that are synonymous with our products and colours that evoke an emotive feeling when interacting with our website. I decided to use the four main colours used in the manufacture of printer ink and toner cartridges, Black, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. These four colours tell the user that we supply a product that produces colours that are associated with printing consumables, and also, provoke certain emotions when someone interacts with our company, such as:

Black: Implies self-control and discipline, with an impression of self control and confidence. Combined with other colours Black can produce a very strong statement, It is also a colour that can fit into every design to add contrast, type and make other colours more prominent.

Cyan:  Said to open lines of communication between the brain and spoken word, it represents a friendly and happy feeling.

Magenta:  A colour associated with business acumen. Magenta is associated with organisation and evokes contentment and appreciation for what you have acquired and achieved.

Yellow:  Being the lightest hue of the spectrum, yellow inspires original thought and creativity.

The Sprint-Ink.co.uk logo contains colours that are synonymous with our products and colours that evoke an emotive feeling when interacting with our website.

It is nearly impossible to design a brand identity without using effective colours. The colours used should communicate the brand or product and the company’s mission and vision.

Here are the basic meanings of other essential colours:

Red:  is a colour of blood, it means it is a colour of life. It is one of the most popular and warmest among all other colours. Red shows energy, strength, passion, excitement,   enthusiasm, danger, joyfulness, courage and prominence

Businesses can use red for portraying passion, excitement, and attention. Red brings enthusiasm to your brand.

Blue: When you see blue, you feel relaxed and cool. Blue is one of the coolest colours. Blue portrays creativity, wisdom, trust, loyalty, intelligence, devotion and confidence.

A business can use blue to represent loyalty, confidence and trustworthiness. Most businesses use blue to build customer loyalty and brand reliability.

Green: symbolises nature. Natural things which give your mind comfort like grass. Balanced personalities prefer green. Green also shows good health and fortune.

Green typifies success, growth, endurance, freshness, nature, environment and dependability.

Businesses often use green for food and health products. Green can represent healthiness, wellbeing and dedication.

Purple: is cool, like blue, and powerful like red. This colour gives the essence of spiritual fulfilment, and symbolizes magic and mystery.

Purple depicts knowledge, dignity, influence, sophistication and imagination.

Purple is generally used for premium service businesses representing them as wise

Orange: reflects physical and mental comfort. It is a colour of power and healing. Thoughtful and sincere people usually admire orange. This colour is a mixture of red and yellow, so it has features of both the colours.

Businesses can use orange to display youthfulness and liveliness to customers.

White: enhances the presence of all other colours. White means peace and prosperity. Brides wear white because it represents purity and virtue.

White can be seen in medical and health services. Purity, cleanliness and youthfulness can be pictured through white.

Before starting a website design or logo you must choose the right mix of colours

What are the colours of your business logo? And why did you choose them?

Or, what colour is your personality and what does it mean?