Colour palette breakdown

Branding

Mar 27

A colour palette in short is an embodiment of your brand. It should be symbolic of your values, reflective of your pillars, and in full alignment with your ideal audience.
Every palette will vary based of this ideology, so there is no need to look at someone else to copy what they are doing. Let’s be honest, if Country Road was using the same colours as Google, it would be a very different brand.
The palette itself will typically consist of five to six colours, meaning you have an array of pairings to be used whilst still maintaining consistency and building brand recognition.
Below is our deep dive into each element and how they build your brand.

1. MAIN BACKGROUND

For many brands, regardless of how loud and outspoken it might be, this tone is often a neutral based hue, and typically on the lighter end of the spectrum. It allows for reader legibility, softly guides the eye and carries consistently underneath feature images, marks, and type.

A good rule of thumb when selecting your key background colour, is to opt for a tone that is seen and not heard. Your key messages are what will be ‘heard’, will ultimately sit above this. Your logo mark, your copy, your imagery and so on..

2. PRIMARY ACCENT

This is the number one attention seeking colour that you will utilise frequently, and your audience will (in time) recognise as you. It’s your call to action, your big ticket pull; so put some extra thought behind this one. Often featuring in your primary or secondary logomark, this colour will be of key use on your business platforms. It’s a memorable colour that you believe truly aligns with your brand.

3. SECONDARY ACCENT

Here you are looking for a tone that both compliments and contrasts. It might be a different shade of your primary, or something totally different depending on your brand personality. It will be strong and hold its own but will not draw away from your primary. This colour will blend in seamlessly to your palette and can often be used for a typographic accent or small visual feature, depending on your requirements.

4. NEUTRAL ACCENT

This is where we get slightly more technical… but there is no need to panic. Your final accent colour should contrast your existing accents either by being warm or cool. Having a contrasting accent will help to build diversity and bring balance to the palette. It avoids over saturation and helps broaden your scope of capabilities. It should be slightly softer and will help to ground your palette and avoid your palette being too overbearing

5. TWO COMPLIMENTARY TONES

Finally, you will round out your palette with two tones that are neutral, calm, and muted. They might seem like boring little additions, but these tones will be the complimentary gap filler for almost every scenario. They can both be cool tones, or warm, or one of each if you should preference that. If you’re not feeling confident to pick another two colours, a safe bet is often to create muted versions of your accents. Aim to have one accent with a light base that will add depth to the palette and can offer a background for supporting elements. Along with one darker neutral tone, this can be used for paragraph text and the like.

Creating a timeless and refined colour palette will allow you design diversity, longevity and align your brand with your audience directly. If you feel like your brand colours might need a refresh, book a consult call today.