The colors of brand logos are powerful instruments in conveying a company’s message, from Ferrari’s warm and victorious yellow signifying victory and idealism to Coca-Cola’s iconic red describing energy and excitement after downing a bottle or two.
Creating a logo that people will instantly recognize and associate with your brand might seem easy. Unfortunately, with millions of startups and small businesses entering the scene annually, choosing the wrong color could spell the difference between standing out and getting drowned by the noise.
So, read on if you’re unsure about choosing the right colors for your logo.
Why Logo and Color Selection is Important for Brand Identity
Standing out from the competition has become increasingly challenging, no thanks to nearly 5 million new businesses entering the market each year. Although logos are only a part of your branding strategy, they are one of the most memorable aspects of your company’s existence.
Think about it. Would you think about innovation and cutting-edge technology if you only saw the word “apple.” That could mean anything. Add a bitten apple in a simple yet luxurious and easy-on-the-eyes design, and you know you’re talking about the Steve Jobs-created tech company revered for its innovative, unmatched quality offerings.
Besides the icon in your logo, its color (or colors) matter because it represents your company, its vision, ideals, and everything else that makes your brand unique. More importantly, logo colors connect with your audience, empowering your brand to stand out.
With Logogenie’s AI online logo generator, determining the right color to represent your brand’s identity is like a walk in the park.
The Psychology of Colors: Your Brand and How Colors Influence Consumer Perception
Most people are excited and energetic when they see red, while others are confident and sociable in orange, creative and happy in yellow, and sweet and compassionate in pink. Let’s agree that colors influence emotions and mood. Hence, your logo’s color can impact how consumers and target audiences perceive your brand.
Red
Many logos in the food and beverage industry feature red in their color scheme because it symbolizes passion, energy, excitement, and urgency. Brands integrate this color to stimulate appetite and create a sense of urgency (to eat). KFC, Chick-fil-A, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Pizza Hut, TGI Friday’s, and Wendy’s are excellent examples.
Blue
This color is for you if you want to convey trust, reliability, professionalism, stability, and tranquility. It’s a favorite of tech and highly established companies like Intel, Skype, Facebook, Ford, Dell, Disney, and Microsoft.
Green
We have always associated green with Mother Nature, including tranquility and health (i.e., the green scrubs of surgeons). Unsurprisingly, it’s the go-to color of health and wellness brands, eco-friendly businesses, and other companies that appreciate green’s cool and natural vibe, like Animal Planet, Land Rover, Starbucks, and Spotify.
Yellow
Yellow is the color of happiness, energy, and optimism, perfect for brands that want to convey a sense of positivity (and sometimes, playfulness) to their audiences and customers. Lay’s, Sprint, and Post-it are popular examples.
Black
Black is always a timeless classic, from Chanel’s iconic back-facing two Cs to Puma’s puma silhouette and Gucci’s mirrored and intertwined G. This color conveys sophistication, luxury, elegance, power, and optimum versatility. Unsurprisingly, it’s a go-to color for many brands, even small businesses and startups.
Purple
This color is a favorite of royalty, although those in religious and spiritual circles also tend to pick it over other hues. Modern companies choose purple because it conveys creativity, exclusivity, and a sense of luxury. Don’t be surprised to see many beauty brands pick this color to represent fantasy and imagination.
Leveraging Color Psychology to Create an Impactful Brand Identity
Can you imagine your favorite brand sporting a different color? For example, would you still recognize Coca-Cola if it ditches its red color scheme for green? How about a pink Ferrari or a purple McDonald’s?
There’s a good chance these brands will lose a part of their identity because people have come to associate their colors with these companies’ products and what they stand for for many years. That’s how colors influence brand perception and how choosing the right color can create an impactful brand identity.
Startups and small businesses might want to study and appreciate the influence of colors on emotions, including the messages these hues convey. Doing so will empower you to choose a color that aligns with your company’s vision, values, and core principles. It paves the way for a more cohesive and powerful brand identity.
Knowing your target audience is equally crucial. For example, brands catering to Generation Alpha might want to consider more fun and vibrant colors. Meanwhile, companies with primarily older clientele and audiences might want to pick more conservative and subdued tones.
Even if you use the right color (or colors) for your logo, it would mean nothing if you cannot observe consistency across applications. Whether creating profiles on social media, like Facebook, printing marketing materials, designing packaging, setting up a billboard, or building a website, your logo must have a consistent color scheme. Otherwise, your target audiences and customers will only be confused about your messaging. Consistency is crucial to ensuring instant brand recognition.
Choosing the Right Colors for a Logo: Challenges and Real-life Examples
While choosing the right logo colors and using them consistently across applications can strengthen brand identity, you might have to contend with a few challenges.
Color blindness can be challenging, especially for beginner business owners and entrepreneurs. One in 200 women and 1 in 12 men cannot distinguish colors, making your logo’s color scheme seem irrelevant.
The solution? Design your logo to make it meaningful or impactful for everyone, color-blind or not. Nike’s black or white swoosh logo is a classic. You don’t even need the word “Nike” because the brand’s swoosh icon is already cemented in the minds of nearly everyone.
Cultural differences can also influence your logo color choices. For example, Americans and Westerners equate red with passion and love, while the Chinese consider it a symbol of prosperity (i.e., the ang pao envelope often given during the Chinese New Year), luck, and happiness. In the Middle East, red means caution and danger.
Knowing your target audience takes center stage when designing the logo color scheme.
Well-established brands have mastered the art of choosing the right colors in their logos to convey the right message.
For example, McDonald’s yellow and red logo is not only inviting but also creates a sense of happiness every time you devour their delicious offerings. It’s the perfect color scheme for fast-food lovers. Meanwhile, Starbucks’ green logo conveys a message of environmental sustainability, community, oneness with nature, and a sense of calm.
Overview of Logogenie’s AI Online Logo Generator and its Color Selection Features
Creating a logo that speaks well about your brand identity without fretting about color choices and other design attributes is easy with Logogenie’s AI online logo generator. It’s a powerful AI-driven tool with intuitive features that can make logo-making easy and surprisingly fun.
Logogenie’s color selection capabilities are nothing short of impressive, allowing you to experiment with different color combinations using a color picker. It instantly displays results (real-time previews), empowering you to determine the perfect palette for your professional logo.
The best part? This AI-powered logo maker leverages machine learning to recommend color schemes suitable to your preferences and the industry where your brand belongs. Finding a color that resonates well with your target audiences and customers should be a walk in the park.
Tips for Small Businesses to Choose the Right Colors for Their Brands
Choosing the right logo colors can strengthen brand identity and recognizability. Here are some tips to ensure you get the correct pick.
Align colors with your brand identity
We cannot help overemphasize this enough. Your logo colors must convey your company’s vision and other theoretical foundations. Ideally, you will want people to associate your chosen colors with your brand and what you stand for.
Are you the elegant and sophisticated provider of high-quality products and services or a fun-loving and innovative brand?
Consider your target audience
You might have the noblest intentions, but if you don’t identify your target audience and consider their preferences, even the most advanced AI online logo generator cannot create a logo that resonates well with your audience. After all, AI will still rely on your input.
Remember, audiences respond differently to various colors. Some prefer vibrant hues, while others want neutrals for a more professional vibe.
Keep your logo design simple
Did you know Apple’s second logo featured rainbow colors to describe their colored computers? While you might be tempted to use multiple colors, please don’t. You might only confuse your audiences about your brand’s message.
Ideally, you will want a single color to define your logo, maybe two at most. This trick ensures your audiences will remember your brand while allowing you to use the logo in different applications in black-and-white and colored formats.
Conclusion
Choosing a color for your logo requires more than thinking about what is pleasant to the eyes. It demands reflection of your brand identity, its unique attributes, and the people you want to serve. These considerations are necessary to ensure you have the right logo that resonates well with target audiences and brings your business success.
Logogenie’s AI online logo generator can help you choose the logo colors that will define your brand, convey the right message, and build brand recognition without fuss and worry. Try Logogenie today and watch your brand identity grow strong.
