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The meaning behind black may surprise you.
Designing a logo for your brand means picking colors for that logo. The colors for your logo mean more than being nice to look at. It can give an insight into what you and your business stand for. Understanding the different meanings behind each color can help aid in picking a color combination for your logo. We are going to cover each color as shown in the infographic above (plus black). We are also going to touch on how you can figure out what colors are best for your logo.
Yellow, Orange, Red
The first colors pictured are yellow, orange, and red. All the colors listed can have broader meanings than what we are discussing today. But for the sake of brevity, we are going to stick to the information provided on the graphic. Yellow stands for optimism, clarity, and warmth. When using yellow for a brand it can be a symbol of happiness and welcoming for those who look at it. Next is orange, which stands for friendly, cheerful, and confident. Companies like Nickelodeon, Fanta, and Amazon use orange in their logos. This represents that they are fun and enthusiastic. Red is one of the most common colors for logo branding with large names. Target, CNN, Coca-Cola, Netflix, and more use this color. It symbolizes excitement, youthfulness, and being bold. Since red is a loud color, it’s used by businesses that want their logo to stand out.
Purple, Blue, Green, Pink
Continuing down the diagram, the colors move into purple, blue, and green. Purple/pink logos represent creativity, imagination, and being wise. Purple is also known to represent power and royalty. These colors connect to businesses that are rooted in creative outlooks while also being dependable. Blue can mean trust, strength, and dependability. This is a common color for tech companies such as AT&T, Dell, and HP. These companies want their brand associated with being a dependable source for your technology needs. Green is associated with peace, growth, and health. With this in mind, it makes sense that brands like Whole Foods and Animal Planet have used these colors in the past. (Animal Planet has since changed their logo to blue).
Black, White, Silver, Rainbow
Finally, we get to white/silver, black, and rainbow. White/silver represents balance, neutrality, and calmness. Apple is the most popular brand to be under this color. But car companies such as Mercedes and Honda also enjoy using silver. Black represents formality, luxury, sophistication, and security. This is why companies like Nike and the NYT have all-black logos. Rainbow logos used by brands such as Google, NBC, Microsoft, and eBay represent diversity. A rainbow logo can also mean equality and welcoming.
With all this in mind, finding out what works best for your logo may seem overwhelming. Here are some simple steps to figuring out the best color palette for you.
CTG-Design's simple steps to figuring out the best color palette for you:
Begin with the mission statement of your business. What do you/your business stand for?
Pick some key phrases, and see how those line up with certain colors. You can also go with colors that you tend to lean towards, I’m drawn to yellow and sage green.
Once you have a general idea of the colors you like and that represent your business, you can go into which colors go well together.
Sites like coolors.co are free resources for mixing different colors to see which combinations work.
Now you have a better understanding of the meanings behind colors for your logo. Hopefully, this will guide you on your journey to designing the best logo for you and your brand.
We hope you enjoyed our blog post this week and found some of this advice helpful! We can be found on Instagram, Facebook, and our website.
Written by: Jordan Basham
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