How to Choose a Brand Color: What Logo Colors Communicate and a Step-by-Step Process

Color works as a “marker” before it works as a “meaning”

If you play a brand logo quiz, you'll notice you can guess a surprising number of logos even when they are reduced to a one-color silhouette. With line weights and lettering gone and only shape and color left, they are still recognizable. That is color's main job.

• It can be spotted from far away, at small sizes, in an instant (the eye stops on it among shelves, tabs, and notifications)
• It separates you from competitors with similar shapes (similar motifs look like different things in different colors)
• It lets products, ads, and stores be recognized as the same thing across media

Associations such as “blue means trust” and “red means passion” are useful as a starting point, but deciding on them alone tends to give you the same color as your competitors. Prioritizing whether you can be told apart, rather than matching a meaning, gets you remembered in the end.

Impressions by color and the industries that tend to use them

How a color is perceived depends on culture and context, but the following tendencies are common (this table is based on how colors are generally perceived in Japan). Treat it only as a starting point, and decide by checking whether a color is the majority or the minority in your own industry.

Steps to narrow your brand color down to one

1. 1

   List where it will be used

   App icon, website buttons, business cards, presentation headings, envelopes. The number of colors and the brightness you need change with where they are used. If screens are your main battlefield, choose a color that displays vividly; if print is central, choose one that doesn't go dull in print.

2. 2

   Line up competitors and look for an unused color

   Line up logos from your industry and group them by hue. Decide whether to avoid the majority color, or to deliberately use the same hue with very different lightness and saturation.

3. 3

   Choose your one lead color

   Decide on just one color first. If you start from a combination of several colors, you end up with a brand where nobody knows which color is the lead.

4. 4

   Add the minimum supporting colors

   A text color (dark gray or black), a background color (white or a very pale color), and an emphasis color (one color) are enough. Choosing the emphasis color from the opposite side of the color wheel from the lead makes it stand out.

5. 5

   Test it in black and white

   Remove the color and look at lightness only. If the shape can't be recognized here, the design relies too much on color. It will cause problems in faxes, monochrome printing, or dark mode.

Testing in black and white is easier if you try building the shape with only black and light gray, as in pixel art. The order matters: confirm that it works as a shape before you add color.

Check readability before personal taste

If you put text on your chosen color, checking contrast is a must. Web accessibility guidelines set a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 between body-size text and its background, and at least 3:1 for large text (about 24px or more, or about 19px or more if bold).

• White text on a yellow or bright green background almost always falls below the standard. Use dark text instead.
• If your lead color is used for button backgrounds, decide first whether white or black text is readable on it.
• Don't distinguish links or errors by color alone. Add underlines, icons, or words. Since color perception varies between people, also read about color schemes that don't rely on color alone.
• In dark mode, the same color can stand out too much. Preparing a slightly lighter version for dark backgrounds is the safe choice.

Managing the color so it doesn't drift after you decide

Colors drift the moment more people start using them. It's not unusual for slightly different blues to multiply with every new document. Writing down the following three points prevents most of this.

If your outward-facing images, such as profile cards and icons, use the same color, people recognize you as the same brand across media. If each social network uses a different color, people may never realize the posts come from the same source.

FAQ

How many brand colors should I use?

Keeping it to four in total, one lead color, one text color, one background color, and one emphasis color, is a manageable range. The more colors you add, the harder it is to explain why each is used, and they start varying across documents and screens. Note that many famous brands are effectively recognized by a single color.

I want to use blue, but my competitors use blue too. Should I avoid it?

Not necessarily. Even the same blue is perceived as something different if you change its lightness and saturation significantly; navy and bright light blue give completely different impressions. But if you choose a blue close to a competitor's, you need to differentiate through shape or typeface. The test is whether you can tell them apart side by side.

If a color doesn't carry a meaning, won't I lack a reason for choosing it?

A meaning can be added afterward. In fact, many brands choose colors with distinctiveness as the priority and later explain them in terms of their philosophy. When you need justification, a comparison table against competitors showing results such as “no one in the industry uses this color,” “text is readable,” and “it doesn't go dull in print” is more persuasive.

Can I change my logo color later?

You can, but it takes time to be recognized again. If you change it, keeping continuity, such as updating only the color while keeping the shape, or adjusting within a similar hue, reduces the impact. List every place it is used, such as icons, business cards, and document templates, before switching.