How many colours should my brand's logo use?

45% of brands get recognised by their colour

That sits just beneath the logo (75%) and visual style (60%) and quite a bit above tone of voice (25%). Choosing the right colour palette is so important, especially if you want to get recognised quickly.

We've seen articles that suggest picking up to 10 colours. But, we'd question whether that adds anything to your brands message or confuses it?

Across the whole brand identity, you may approach 10, but these would be very considered choices, that fit your brands strategic plan.

Case in point, at Starbucks, we counted 32 colours in their brand palette. If you look through the Starbucks brand guidelines and navigate to colours, they have a core set of colours, all the greens, with some additional neutrals. But then depending on the season, they have a range of seasonal colours and how they use them. This is critical, they have 32 colours for a reason - to illuminate the brand at specific times of year. But they, still use the distinctive green and white. That's the colours on signage, across their website. That's the brands core colours.

There's no one size fits all colour palette

Every brand, comes with it's own set of unique characteristics branding people look to amplify, or even mute with colour choice. It can be hard to choose colours, and understand the psychology of them. You can also use colour to amplify your message - what your mission is and the values you want to bake into your business.

A few examples

• Brand's with purpose at heart have to be very careful to not be seen to be purpose-washing or green-washing - check out Zero Co and Meatable for great examples.
• New brands that enter the market will often gravitate to conventional colours that are synonymous with their industry. If they are in healthcare, they go for the medical aqua blue. If they're a daycare, they hit the bold and vibrant colours like red yellow and blue.

But, just because a colour is synonymous with an industry, doesn't mean you have to pick it, if it's in your brands nature to be rebellious, pick what your drawn to and what will make you feel something.

What colours should I pick and how many do I need?

You're better to read our blog post, how to choose your brand colours first as we constantly learn new things and actively update all our posts to reflect the latest information we have.

Let's move on to how many colours do you need.

Start out with two colours for your core brand, these can reflect the message you sell.

Then add 1-2 secondary colours, think of these as accent colours that are used across promotional material and website.

Finally, don't just select black and white as your neutral colours. You could do – black, navy, dark grey, deep green, dark purple, brown. Or pick lighter colours like – white, cream, light grey, and any other pastels colours you can dream of.

Just make sure that the combination of colours is chosen with accessibility in mind.

So now you know how many colours you need, you need to take into consideration the psychology behind using them, warm and cool colours, monochromatic, complimentary. A colour like a bright yellow is considered a comforting colour, while orange is striking and eager for attention. Orange and reds are used heavily in the food manufacturing and fast food industries. Blue triggers calm feelings, so a lot of medical businesses use it. Facebook uses blue to keep people calm and make sure they are comfortable lingering on the platform. Greens organic and environmental, but also used in banking and insurance. Black, white, grey and deep purple have that regal, high-end feel to them.

You need to match the colours to the vibe that you're creating.

Selecting your colour palette

1. ‍The first step is to identify your direction. What's your purpose, mission and values?
2. What's your brand message, and who are you talking too?
3. These answers will give you a swinging chance of picking a colour palette that will resonate effectively with the audience.
4. Think of the colours like an 80/20 split. 80% of the time, you use the core colours. 20% you use your seasonal/special use colours — this keeps the palette distinctive, but stops you from getting bored and adds variety.
5. Always try and break down colour palette's into the following colour standards — RGB, CMYK, HEX codes and if you have access to a Pantone guide - PMS colours.

Avoid these colour palette mistakes

Don't pick colours from thin air, scrolling Instagram, or looking for trendy colour palettes. Trending colour palettes, such as Pantone's Colour of the Year, highlights a particular colour they think is topical – some of the previous colours have focused on things like sustainability, nurturing kindness, compassion or connection. And while these terms are so important for some of our clients, it's not going to fit every business.

If you're picking colours from things you're seeing, there's a good chance it's coming from personal preference, which is ok, but it might not be a colour your customers resonate with the most or what makes you stand out from competitors.

Hypothetically, imagine you have a clothes label. You know your ideal target market, understand your customer personas, and have a clear personality so you can easily communicate your message.

You design environmentally friendly, long-lasting clothing and put in all the hard-work before diving into your visual identity.

You target women who hate fast-fashion, who want to save the planet by owning quality clothes that last longer. The brand is backed by research and finding new ways to contribute to cleaning the oceans. You want people to know that the brand is credible and that you test products and maintain high levels of quality control.

Your goal is for people to consider their purchases and know where their clothes come from. There's no place for hesitancy when it comes to protecting the planet. If we are looking at brand archetypes, it would be a mix of the sage and caregiver.

Words used to describe it are bold, radical, unforgiving, fearless. What brand colours do you think would be a good match?

What brand colours should be picked for a eco-fashion brand?

If it were us picking a colour palette for this brand, we'd first look at what its competitors do. This makes sure we don't pick something identical. And helps make a final decision easier – remember, we want them to stand out, not blend in!

Competitors use white, black, greys and sage greens. Soft, clean-cut colours. One stood out using a blue and a red.

We'd look at the brand personality and words like fearless and radical to set it apart and mix that with the target market.

Making us lean towards picking a solid core colour like a bright yellow – indicating a brighter future and complementing it with 1 or two colours like a hot pink as an accent. And perhaps a slightly toned back version of pink, with a hint of yellow. Finally, we'd choose two neutrals, a dark ocean greeny/blue colour and a crisp white.

And, remember, even if you pick a similar colour palette to a competitor, how it's applied will change the feeling you're creating. If they pick a complimentary sage green and use it 10% of the time. You could reverse this and make it your core (primary) colour – using it, say 80%.

Stuck picking brand colours

We know it's hard so to reiterate what you need to do.

1. Outline colours the audience resonates with, if you're unsure, ask them. Think about how and where they are applied and in what proportion.
2. Make sure you love your colours too – If you're not loving your marketing content, you might end up flipping them and breaking the consistency you're aiming for. You'll start losing out on all that squishy brand recognition and undoing all the hard work you put in. ‍
3. A consistent colour palette increases brand recognition by up to 80%.‍
4. Be careful too. Certain brands have colours nailed down – Cadburys trademarked the exact purple they use. Fast food chains use reds to signal hunger cues. But, even smaller brands can start owning colours if they consistently use the same one.
5. If a brand in your industry is known by a particular colour, it's a good idea to look at different options or flip that round.
6. The audiences state of mind plays a big role. For instance, if you're a yoga studio trying to instil calmness of mind or balance, you probably wouldn't want to introduce bright, bold colours or patterns.
7. Culture can also impact the meaning and interpretation of colour, so make sure you are being sensitive to others feelings. This is important if you intend to make your products and services available globally. In Japan, purple represents power and wealth, but in Thailand, it's the colour worn by widows.‍
8. If you're struggling to pick your colours, work on eliminating colours first, as I know this helps me when I am struggling.

If you follow the tips above, and maybe take a look at a site like Pinterest, this will give you some colour combination inspiration, and get you well on your way to choosing brand colours.

And remember, brand colours are much simpler to choose if you are clear on your brand strategy.