Colour is everywhere you look, whether it's a majestic sunrise, African sunset or a full moon at night. Colour is something that is instantly noticeable.

Anyone can notice the difference in our visual experience of watching a movie now versus twenty to thirty years ago - we can now watch in colour versus just black and white.

What does colour have to do with my brand?

Colour is not just limited to movies; for example, I mentioned earlier that colour is everywhere. We are a web design agency, and as such one of our big focus areas is BRANDING. Colour plays a significant part in this as well. What colour you choose to use or not use says a lot about the type of brand you are and what kind of message you are conveying.

The right colour shows off your brand's personality.

According to Help Scout, Purchasing intent is greatly affected by colours due to their effect on how a brand is perceived; colours influence how customers view the "personality" of the brand in question.

According to the next web, colour (for web design) has three distinct aspects to it:

• Contrast - Every shade of colour has an opposite that contrast better than other colours
• Complementation - Certain colours complement each other
• Vibrancy - Certain colours evoke a certain mood

We are going to look at the vibrancy factor and how selecting the right colour can mean all the right things for your brand's look and feel

Colour Vibrancy

It would be impossible to go into all the colours and pick what they mean so we are going to go into some of the most popularly used colours and what they convey:

1. RED - Promotes power and importance. Red is very bold and in your face, and you can find it used quite extensively in Marketing campaigns.
2. ORANGE - Promotes friendliness, energy and uniqueness. Its the chosen colour for one of the most well-known brands today - FANTA. Orange implies warmth and is an attractive colour.
3. YELLOW - Promotes happiness and enthusiasm. Yellow is a very bright colour and is often used to catch someones attention. One of our freelancers, Annelie Fouche, used yellow throughout her website.
4. GREEN - Promotes growth and eco-friendly. Green is often associated with a tree which denotes growth. It's also the chosen colour for eco-friendly sites and is very popular today.
5. BLUE - Promotes peace, safety and calm. Blue, like the ocean, tends to make you want to relax. One of the most popular brands to use blue as their primary colour is Facebook.
6. PURPLE - Promotes luxury and romance. Purple is often associated with love, and one of the most romantic objects in our society is chocolate. Can you guess what brand uses purple as their primary colour? You guessed it - Cadbury.
7. BLACK - Promotes mystery and power. There is a massive trend in websites at the moment for black and white colour schemes. One of our clients, Multiply Training, use this CI in their website and often jewellers will use this colour scheme.
8. GREY - Promotes formality and neutrality. Most corporate websites will have a lot of grey as their primary colour. Its also used as an excellent complement to white on many clean sites.

It's important to note that we are mentioning solid colours here and each of these colours will have varying shades to them. The list above is not exhaustive but an introduction to the power of colour and how it can affect your brand.

In conclusion

Colour has to be a vital component of any marketing campaign. What colour you choose will have a lasting impact on the type of customers you attract and the type of message you are conveying to the public.

Pathfind chose blue as it is calm and inviting, and that's how we always want to be portrayed. We aim to have a warm cup of coffee ready at our offices to welcome all new visitors and its essential that our brand conveys that for us.

If you are unsure if you have the right colours for your brand or need help selecting colours for your brand a making a Brand Style guide (CI) for your business, contact us and we would love to have you over for a coffee and assist you in any way we can.