Choosing colors for your business sounds simple until you actually have to do it. Suddenly you’re staring at hundreds of shades and wondering which ones are your colors.
A good color palette helps your business look consistent and recognizable across your website, social media, marketing materials and more.
Here’s a simple way to choose a color palette for your business.
Start With How You Want Your Business to Feel
Before choosing colors, think about the personality of your business.
Pick three to five words that describe how you want customers to see your brand. Maybe it’s professional, friendly and modern. Or creative, energetic and fun.
Then use those words to guide your color choices instead of simply choosing your favorite colors.
What Do Different Colors Mean?
Colors can create different feelings and associations. While there are no hard rules, these are some common ones:
- Blue: Trust, calm, dependability
- Red: Energy, passion, excitement
- Orange: Friendly, warm, energetic
- Yellow: Optimism, happiness, playfulness
- Green: Growth, health, nature
- Purple: Creativity, luxury, imagination
- Pink: Warmth, compassion, playfulness
- Black: Sophistication, authority, elegance
- White: Simplicity, cleanliness, openness
The shade matters too. A pale blue creates a very different feeling from a deep navy, even though they’re both blue.
Need Help Finding Colors? Try a Palette Generator
You don’t have to choose a color palette for your business from scratch. Free online tools can help you find combinations that work well together.
Canva Color Palette Generator
Upload a photo you love and Canva will pull a color palette directly from the image.
Adobe Color
Start with a color you already like, create coordinated color combinations, or extract colors from an image.
Coolors
Generate color palettes, experiment with different combinations, or upload an image to create a palette.
Tip: If you find a photo that captures the look and feel you want for your business, try uploading it to one of these tools. It can be much easier than starting with a blank screen.
Keep Your Palette Simple
Most small businesses don’t need a huge collection of brand colors.
Start with:
Primary color: The main color associated with your brand.
Secondary color: A color that complements your primary color.
Accent color: A color used sparingly to draw attention.
Neutral: White, cream, gray, black or another neutral that balances everything out.
Once you choose your colors, save their HEX codes. A HEX code identifies the exact digital color, such as #FC5130, so you can use the same shade everywhere.
Using Your Colors on Your Website
A beautiful color palette still needs to work on a website.
Keep these basics in mind:
- Use neutral backgrounds to keep pages clean and easy to read.
- Use your primary and secondary colors consistently throughout the site.
- Save your accent color for things you want visitors to notice, such as buttons and important calls to action.
- Make sure there is enough contrast between your text and background.
- Don’t feel like you have to use every brand color in every section.
Your website should feel like your brand without making visitors work hard to read or navigate it.
Don’t Overthink It
Your color palette is important, but it shouldn’t keep you from moving forward.
Choose a few colors that fit the personality of your business, work well together and are easy to use. Save your color codes and start using them consistently.
You can always refine your brand as your business grows.