Choosing brand colours that work everywhere

Almost everything written about colour psychology overstates a weak, culturally specific effect. Blue does not make people trust you; banks using blue is a convention, not a mechanism. Here is a method that works on more defensible grounds.

Start with the category, not the mood board

Put your ten closest competitors' logos on one page. You will usually find the category has converged on two or three colours. That convergence is your opportunity: within a sea of blue, a considered dark green is instantly identifiable, and the recognition benefit is worth far more than any claimed emotional association.

The exception is where category convention carries functional information — safety yellow, medical white and blue, organic green. Breaking those costs you comprehension, not just familiarity.

A palette needs roles, not just colours

• Primary: the one colour people associate with you. One, not three.
• Neutral dark: for body text and most UI. Almost never pure black — a very dark desaturated version of your primary reads richer.
• Neutral light: backgrounds and surfaces. Rarely pure white in print contexts.
• Accent: used sparingly for calls to action. If everything is highlighted, nothing is.
• Semantic: success, warning and error states for anything with an interface. These are functional and should not be forced to match the brand.

Contrast is a requirement, not a preference

WCAG requires a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 between body text and its background, and 3:1 for large text and interface components. This is a legal requirement in many jurisdictions and a usability one everywhere. The colours that fail most often are mid-tone brand colours used as button backgrounds with white text — a medium orange or a light green with white on top almost always fails.

Check every text-on-colour combination before the palette is signed off, not after the site is built. Retrofitting contrast means changing the palette, which means changing everything.

Print will not match your screen

Screens emit light and can display colours ink cannot reproduce. Bright greens, vivid oranges and electric blues all dull noticeably in CMYK. If a colour matters, specify a Pantone reference and get a physical proof before signing off a large print run. Ask your printer for a printed sample of the specific colour on the specific stock — it can look markedly different on uncoated paper than on coated.

Practical checks before you commit

1. 1Does the primary colour appear in three or more competitor logos? If so, reconsider.
2. 2Does white text pass 4.5:1 on your primary? If not, you need a darker variant for buttons.
3. 3Print the palette on a cheap office printer. If it becomes mud, it will do the same on low-cost promotional items.
4. 4View it in greyscale. Colours that are distinguishable in colour but identical in greyscale will merge in single-colour reproduction.
5. 5Check it against the common forms of colour blindness. Red and green as the only distinguishing pair fails for roughly one man in twelve.